Territorial stigma formation in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, 1950-1983: planning, people and practice

► Territorial stigmas are constituted historically through place-based and people-based negative attributes. ► Stigma may be attached to whole towns, not just specific urban neighborhoods. ► In Bat Yam, territorial stigma highlighted issues of planning, ethnic composition, and criminality. ► Exogenously-manufactured stigma was instrumental in portraying the city as a regional 'other'. ► Urban (re)-branding seeks to destabilize territorial stigmas by attending to its fundamental bases.