Metropolitics

Securing Shelter While Facing Eviction: The Case of Syrian Migrants in Lebanon

Dima El Khouri — 2022-12-16T06:00:00Z

Dima El Khouri documents the politics of securing housing for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. She shows the complex web of negotiations that take place between refugees, local Lebanese city dwellers, local authorities, and international NGOs.
Between the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2011 and 2014, the Lebanese government failed to react to the arrival of Syrians fleeing conflict in their country. By 2015, approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees resided in Lebanon, in addition to almost

- From the Field / Syria, Lebanon, refugees, migrants, migration, shelter, housing, evictions

Electricity in War-Torn Aleppo: A New Form of Urban Management

Youssef Diab & Abboud Hajjar & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-23T06:00:00Z

In Syria, electricity is one of the sectors most adversely affected by the war. New means of electricity production, provided by private individuals, are being developed to make up for the public sector's shortcomings. In examining the case of Aleppo, Abboud Hajjar and Youssef Diab have analyzed the creation of a marketplace for subscriptions to neighborhood electricity generators and the involvement of city dwellers in the day-to-day management of this sector.
Management of the electricity

- Essays / energy, networks, utilities, urban public service, war, Syria, urban technical networks, electricity, electricity generators, urban services, Aleppo

The Crisis of Geographical Imagination in Turkey

Luka Lucić — 2016-06-21T05:00:00Z

Ethnic, nationalistic and social tensions are at an all-time high in Turkey, exacerbated by the re‑emergence of the “Kurdish problem” and the influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the war. Minorities are persecuted and academics denouncing exactions are targeted by the government. Luka Lucić compares this situation to the collapse of Yugoslavia and warns of possible dire times to come.
There was an old joke often told in Sarajevo during the early days of the siege (1992‑1995). All across former

- Essays / refugees, segregation, Turkey, crisis, minorities, ethnonationalism, Syria, former Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, persecution, ideology