Craig Larkin

Remaking Beirut: Contesting Memory, Space, and the Urban Imaginary of Lebanese Youth

Throughout the centuries Beirut has had an endless capacity for reinvention and transformation, a consequence of migration, conquest, trade, and internal conflict. the last three decades have witnessed the city centers violent self–destruction, its commercial resurrection, and most recently its national contestation, as oppositional political forces have sought to mobilize mass demonstrations and occupy strategic space. While research has been directed to the transformative processes and the principal actors involved, little attention has been given to how the next generation of Lebanese are negotiating Beiruts rehabilitation. This article seeks to address this lacuna, by exploring how postwar youth remember, imagine, and spatially encounter their city. How does Beiruts rebuilt urban landscape, with its remnants of war, sites of displacement, and transformed environs, affect and inform identity, social interaction, and perceptions of the past? Drawing on Henri Lefebvres analysis of the social construction of space (perceived, conceived, and lived) and probing the inherent tensions within postwar youths’ encounters with history, memory, and heritage, the article presents a dynamic and complex urban imaginary of Beirut. An examination of key urban sites (Solidères Down Town) and significant temporal moments (Independence Intifada) reveals three recurring tensions evident in Lebanese youths engagement with their city: dislocation and liberation, spectacle and participant, pluralism and fracture. This article seeks to encourage wider discussion on the nature of postwar recovery and the construction of rehabilitated public space, amidst the backdrop of global consumerism and heritage campaigns.

BEYOND THE WAR? THE LEBANESE POSTMEMORY EXPERIENCE

This article seeks to address how Lebanese youth are dealing with the legacy of civil war (1975–90), given the national backdrop of official silence, persisting injustice, and competing memory discourses. Drawing on Marianne Hirschs concept of postmemory, it explores the memory of a generation of Lebanese who have grown up dominated not by traumatic events but by narrative accounts of events that preceded their birth. This residual form of memory carries and connects with the pain of others, suffusing temporal frames and liminal positions. The article examines how postmemory is mediated and transformed through the mnemonic lenses of visual landscapes and oral narratives. Consideration is given to the dynamic production of “memoryscapes”—memories of violence localized in particular sites—and to narrative constructions of the past implicated in the ongoing search for meaning, historical truth, and identity. This article seeks to challenge pervasive notions of Lebanese postwar amnesia and of a generational detachment from the residual effects and future implications of war recollections.

The politics of heritage and the limitations of international agency in contested cities: a study of the role of UNESCO in Jerusalem's Old City

This article problematises international heritage interventions in divided cities through exploring UNESCOs role in Jerusalems Old City. It examines the tension between universal heritage values and protocols and nationalist agendas which often involve politicised archaeological responses. Drawing on comparative case studies of UNESCO-affiliated projects in Fez and Aleppo, and in the violently divided cities and regions of Mostar and Kosovo, it assesses future challenges and possibilities facing UNESCO in Jerusalem. While the article confirms an increased need for an international arbitrator and protector for the citys sacred sites and divided cultural heritage, it also underscores the limitations of UNESCOs legal remit and the political sensitivities which hinder its praxis.

The Politics of Heritage and the Limitations of International Agency in Divided Cities: The role of UNESCO in Jerusalem's Old City’,

This article problematises international heritage interventions in divided cities through exploring UNESCOs role in Jerusalems Old City. It examines the tension between universal heritage values and protocols and nationalist agendas which often involve politicised archaeological responses. Drawing on comparative case studies of UNESCO-affiliated projects in Fez and Aleppo, and in the violently divided cities and regions of Mostar and Kosovo, it assesses future challenges and possibilities facing UNESCO in Jerusalem. While the article confirms an increased need for an international arbitrator and protector for the citys sacred sites and divided cultural heritage, it also underscores the limitations of UNESCOs legal remit and the political sensitivities which hinder its praxis.

Speaking in the Silence: Youthful Negotiations of Beirut’s Post-War Spaces and Memories

The familiar Lebanese riposte am bihki bil Sokout (I’m speaking in the silence) carries multiple, and at times contradictory, meanings. In some instances it may be used to avoid politically sensitive conversations or convey an unspoken judgement, in other contexts it suggests a sense of dislocation or powerlessness. Among Beirut’s youth this phrase encapsulates the ambiguity and tension of life in a post-war city — the uneasy negotiation of public silence, collective trauma and personal anguish, and the daily navigation of a scarred urban landscape, where in Scott Bollens’ words, ‘long memories fit into tight spaces.’2 Beirut’s tumultuous history is both condensed and contested within its iconic city centre. This timeless, financial and political hub — known as the bourj (tower), al-Balad (the country) and now the Downtown — was founded 5000 years ago and has subsequently been home to thirteen successive civilisations. Today it covers 150 hectares (650,000 m2) extending from Beirut’s traditional northern port, and remains, according to Tanya Gallo, ‘the repository not only for history, but for the projections of people’s memories and experiences’.3