Modelscapes of Nationalism

Modelscapes are clusters of miniature architectural models that represent entire environments. They're frequently found in museums as representations of heritage, architecture, and collective identity. This book offers a critical analysis of modelscapes, using case studies from Israel, to show how miniature representations of contested physical space participate in the construction of a sense of national identity and appropriation of the land and its history. What, Yael Padan asks, is the meaning of such models, and what role do they play within the context of an ongoing violent conflict over territory and history?

"Modelscapes of Nationalism successfully explores how models produce a spatial Rashomon of placemaking in Israel-Palestine that significantly betters our understanding of how material artefacts shape the political geography of national identities. Bringing these three models together Padan draws an intriguing portrait of the politcal and cultural relations between real spaces and the places that imagine them." - Moriel Ram (2018), University College London: The politics of architectural models, City "This is a very inspiring book and I immensely enjoyed reading it. It is theoretically sophisticated, advances an innovative argument and is based on rigorous empirical research that combines intimate knowledge in the field of Israel studies with historical analysis and theoretical depth." Professor Stephan Stetter, Universität der Bundeswehr, Germany

Dr. Yael Padan is an architect and architectural historian. She has graduated the Master Program at the Bartlett, University College London. She has completed her PhD degree at the department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.