ABSTRACT
What does it mean to live in a city today? Do daily practices in cities have their similarities in spite of the different histories, economies, politics and cultures that cities represent? This is the first question that I pose in this book, perhaps because of my own personal experiences of living everyday life in various cities in the world and being able to feel ‘at home’ in some of them. These experiences made me interested in what makes a city feel like a home and whether this is common to many people in many cities. So I pose another question: are the assumed differences between London, the global city and Jerusalem, the holy city reflected in people’s experiences of living in the two cities? I have chosen to focus on the daily practices of people in two specific cities in order to explore the similarities and differences of life in these cities. The book suggests that some of these everyday practices are not so different as might be assumed. It proposes that people of different national, cultural or gender identities might experience their city-as-home for similar reasons.
