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

When Revolution Reinvents Public Space in Beirut

Ines Lakrouf & translated by Oliver Waine — 2020-09-18T05:00:00Z

In the fall of 2019, peaceful protesters in Lebanon were demanding an end to corruption and calling for a movement of national unity. A young urban planner gives her account of these events, and of the ways in which the inhabitants of Beirut are reclaiming public spaces.
In Lebanon, anger has been expressed loud and clear since October 17, 2019. Beyond the anecdotal side of a mobilization triggered by the imposition of a WhatsApp tax, as reported in the media, it is against an attack on the

- Debates / Lebanon, Beirut, public space, mobilization, demonstrations, revolution

Beirut: the city beneath the surface

Céline Barrère & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-10-23T04:55:00Z

The geographer Éric Verdeil distances himself from the dominant analyses that constantly depict Beirut as a “city at war”. Instead, he considers the way the Lebanese capital has been planned and developed, seeing urban planning as a process that mirrors territories and produces narratives and challenges arising from struggles between social groups.
Éric Verdeil, shunning the usual discourse on Beirut and Lebanon focusing on the civil war, has taken the novel approach of considering the war as

- Reviews / urban planning, Lebanon, Beirut, profession, state

Beirut: the new front lines of urban research

Éric Verdeil & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-05-06T05:05:00Z

In Beirut, the extremely rapid transformations of both urban spaces and urban policy raise a number of questions and give researchers much food for thought. Two recent collective works reflect the vitality of urban research in Beirut today and the revival of critical urban theory.
Since the Civil War years, urban issues have become much debated in Beirut. Researchers explored the social and sectarian roots of the fragmentation of urban areas in Lebanon (Seurat 1989; Nasr 1985) and became

- Reviews / public space, reconstruction, Lebanon, Beirut, civil war

The reconstruction of Beirut: sowing the seeds for future conflicts?

Bruno Marot & Serge Yazigi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-11-14T10:59:43Z

Periods of post-war reconstruction are often the backdrop for new socio-economic and political dynamics. In Beirut, the rise of market-led urbanism, a lack of proper urban planning and the far-reaching sectarian polarisation are all factors that could raise questions about the model of urban regeneration implemented and arouse new socio-political tensions.
“Beirut in times of peace has been more disfigured and destroyed than in times of war.” While the city centre, devastated by the combats

- From the Field / gentrification, developers, governance, urban renewal, residential mobility, reconstruction, Lebanon, Beirut, conflict, urban regeneration, demolition

Post-2006 reconstruction in Lebanon: a laboratory for new urban planning practices

Éric Verdeil & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-10-05T05:00:00Z

Modes of urban planning often develop at an accelerated pace during periods of reconstruction. Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 war is a case in point. This book is a collection of urban planners' and academics' assessments of their own efforts on the ground in Lebanon, where the government's abdication has allowed Hezbollah to become heavily entrenched locally.
The past few years have provided a great many examples of urban reconstruction after natural disasters and man-made conflicts.

- Reviews / democracy, reconstruction, Lebanon, Beirut