Scott Bollens

About

Scott Bollens is a scholar specializing in urban conflict, divided cities, and peacemaking, with a focus on the psychological and social dimensions of living in polarized urban environments. His research spans over 25 years and includes extensive fieldwork, interviews, and ethnographic analysis of cities such as Jerusalem, Belfast, Sarajevo, Nicosia, and others affected by conflict and nationalism. Bollens has authored several influential books, including 'Bordered Cities and Divided Societies,' 'Trajectories of Conflict and Peace,' 'City and Soul,' and 'ReStart,' which explore the complexities of urban conflict, reconciliation, and the human experience within divided societies. His work combines academic rigor with personal narrative, aiming to provide a humanistic understanding of conflict, trauma, healing, and urban resilience, making significant contributions to planning theory, conflict studies, and peacemaking scholarship.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Geography
• Biology
• Ecology
• Economic geography
• Gender studies
• Architectural engineering
• Engineering
• Law

Selected publications

• Political resistance and contested citizenship

  Routledge eBooks · 2021 · 30 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter examines resistance by urban-based opposition groups to the implementation of national political agendas. It investigates two cities where national policies operate amid contested citizenship, based on seven months of in-country research and 122 interviews conducted in 2015 and 2016. The political goals of Israeli sole sovereignty in Jerusalem and Northern Ireland’s shared future in Belfast are obstructed during local implementation. Difficulty in implementing national policy direct…

  PublisherDOI

• Urban Peace-Building in Divided Societies

  2021 · 7 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Urban Peacebuilding in Divided Societies explores the effects of urban policy and planning in the management of ethnic conflict in strife-torn societies, focusing on the cases of Belfast and Johannesburg. It combines perspectives from urban geography, political science, social psychology, and urban planning to study the relationship between ethnic ideologies and the urban strategies that affect ethnic territoriality in the form of urban land use, housing, economic development, services, and citi…

  PublisherDOI

• Bordered Cities and Divided Societies

  Routledge eBooks · 2021 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Bordered Cities and Divided Societies is a provocative, moving, and poetic encounter with the hearts and minds of individuals living in nine cities of conflict, violence, and healing—Jerusalem, Belfast, Johannesburg, Nicosia, Sarajevo, Mostar, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Beirut. Based on research spanning 25 years, including 360 interviews and over two and a half years of in-country field research, this innovative work employs a series of concise reflective narrative essays, grouped into four themati…

  PublisherDOI

• National Policy Agendas Encounter the City: Complexities of Political-Spatial Implementation

  Urban Affairs Review · 2018-11-17 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article examines implementation of national political agendas in two urban settings—Israel’s program aimed at sole sovereign control of Jerusalem and Northern Ireland’s effort to build peace in Belfast. It is based on seven months of in-country research and 122 interviews conducted in 2015 and 2016. Political goals of united Jerusalem in Israel and shared future in Northern Ireland are problematized as they confront micro-scale urban dynamics and resistant patterns of community power. A nat…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An island in sectarian seas?

  2019-09-18 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter examines the rebuilding of the war-torn and divided city centre of Beirut, nearly obliterated by the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). Based on field research and 24 interviews with private- and public-sector actors in Beirut, it analyses how the reconstruction of the central district, carried out by a private company, confronted issues of heritage preservation in the forms of both pre-war historic memory and contemporary sectarian identity. The chapter pays close attention to the diffi…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Raymond J. Burby

  3 shared

• Edward J. Kaiser

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  3 shared

• Charles L. Choguill

  Zhejiang University

  2 shared

• Barry Goodchild

  Sheffield Hallam University

  2 shared

• Jacqueline Leavitt

  2 shared

• Ryszard Domański

  2 shared

• Christopher M. Law

  Mitchell Institute

  2 shared

• A. Stewart Fotheringham

  2 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Awards & honors

• ACSP Distinguished Educator, 2002

Similar researchers at University of California, Irvine

• Travis Huxmanh-78
• Armin Schweglerh-26
• Alka Patelh-17