Sound silence: Non-issues and marginalization of differences in an integrative neighborhood in Israel

This paper explores a socially mixed neighborhood in Tel Aviv considered highly prestigious. It focuses on the marginalization of sociodemographic differences. The ethnography reveals that all segments of the local population (residents of public housing as well as those of luxurious apartments) were equally satisfied and active in the intensive local life they developed. These exceptional dynamics are explained by the articulation of a local discursive code which excluded those social traits in which residents differed significantly: family of origin, education and occupation, economic capital, and political views. The all-encompassing adherence to the code is explained by the interest that each resident category had in the presentation of a monolithic local facade: residents of lesser means wished to be included in a general image of prosperity and prestige and therefore readily conformed to the dictates of their wealthier neighbors. The affluent population capitulated on the presence of the former while trying to legitimize particularistic consumer demands. The paper is based on a three-year field work and a local survey.