Post-War Beirut: Resources, Negotiations, and Contestations in the Elyssar Project

Abstract

Among the major urban projects arising out of post-war reconstruction in Lebanon is the Elyssar project, planned to reorganize the southwestern suburb of Beirut—an area largely inhabited by lower-income Shiite Muslims and known for its illegal housing and informal commercial activities. The dynamics of the Elyssar project bring together three sets of actors: the state and the two main Shiite political actors, Amal and Hezbollah. This paper uses the concept of governance, with a focus on issues of transparency and negotiation, to examine the dynamics of relations within the board of the Elyssar project and between those actors and the residents of the targeted neighbourhoods. At first reading, the project seems to epitomize good urban governance, since state agencies and political actors representing the interests of the residents are involved in project decisionmaking and implementation. However, this paper shows that, in reality, these governance processes are characterized by controlled access to inform...