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Publicatie

Transport Infrastructure Is Not Only the Routes: The Case of Beirut's Everyday Mobility and Sectarian Narratives

Boekbijdrage - Hoofdstuk

This article investigates whether and how the Lebanese post-war state agencies have re-narrated socio-political sectarian narratives and discourses to frame people’s mobility within a process of sectarian identity- and boundary-formation. It demonstrates how the interplay between the institutional planning tools and their societal context created political discourses that produced and reproduced sectarian infrastructure, and what the influencing factors are. Methodologically, in addition to the literature overview, qualitative methods were deployed, including participant observation and a socio-spatial ethnographic approach, between 2018 and 2022, to provide a socio-political overview of the transport governance system. In-person semi-structured interviews were conducted with transport actors, including state representatives, transport union representatives and experts, and informal interviews with car, taxi, bus drivers, and riders, in this five-year period. The article concludes by arguing that the investment in public transport infrastructure remained unaddressed, serving political agendas of the current post-war state, reproducing decennia old power-confirming and coping practices.
Boek: Architecture of the Territory: Constructing National Narratives in the Arab World
Pagina's: 165 - 175
ISBN:978-614-8035-54-8
Jaar van publicatie:2022
Toegankelijkheid:Closed