Ongoing crises in Beirut

Resistance and resilience as everyday life

Bibliographic Data

ID9744840
AuthorsMaria Gabriella Trovato (0000-0003-0999-6871, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, corresponding author), Balsam El Ariss (Architect and independent researcher)
Year2025
Volume30
Issue1-2
Pages1-29
Publication date2025-04-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-4813 • E-ISSN: 1470-3629
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13604813.2025.2477328
OpenAlexW4409197616
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited61

With its high percentage of refugees, economic depression, demographic and religious diversity, ongoing instability, and complex politics, Lebanon is a country in timeless crises. Apart from these embedded circumstances, a new crisis tends to loom daily in the capital, Beirut. So, how do the inhabitants cope with such volatile conditions? What mechanisms do the inhabitants develop to respond to a crisis at ‘every moment’? How do their reactions translate ‘on the ground’? Means, needs, and urgency dictate individual adopted strategies, which range from slight adaptation and adjustments, to radical changes regarding basic everyday needs. Does reappropriating a familiar geography and adjusting one’s previous life to a new routine indicate that practices enacted by local dwellers demonstrate resilience or resistance or both? Through observation of local phenomena and actions, and informal conversations with Beirutis, the paper uncovers the transformation underway in the city’s urbanscape. We interpret it as a ‘radical resilience’ response by inhabitants to increase the resistance of socio-spatial systems. Starting from the scale of the private sphere, via neighbourhood to urban context, the article portrays the city's ‘every moment’ rhythm and interrogates the necessity for a theory of insurgent planning practices in order to ground citizenship practices in actual landscapes and material realities

Development economics · Economics · Environmental ethics · Everyday life · Political science · Sociology · China's Global Influence and Migration · History · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Philosophy · Urban Planning and Governance

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