RGP Cycle Three Grantees and Projects

Ismael Sheikh Hassan: Reflection on Urban Activism in Protracted Crisis : The Case of (Greater) Saida

Over the past 5 decades, the Lebanese have witnessed the disintegration of their state institutions, the reinforcement of patron-clientele relations and the protractions of various forms of civil crisis within their country. Parallel to this state of affairs a variety of problematic processes has emerged such as: the privatization of public resources, fragmentation of communities, blurring of meaning of citizenship, erasure of public spaces and destruction of natural landscapes. Such processes have naturally emerged as a result of wars and conflicts, but also as a direct outcome of a variety of planning and development projects.
Countering such realities, many initiatives have emerged at a local scale in order to contest problematic developments and urban projects in the country. This research aims to understand how urban/social/environmental activists and initiatives can and have affected various forms of ‘problematic’ planning projects in Lebanon, in order to transcend private interests and tackle issues of social equity– despite and within conditions of national crisis and sectarian conflict.

In this project, Greater Saida is taken as a ‘pars pro toto’ for Arab cities that are currently facing massive transformation fuelled by neoliberal policies and global capital in addition to the historic/emergent paradigm of civil conflict. It attempts to understand the various spatial, social, economic and political developments of Saida within the dynamics of war, civil conflict, and neoliberalism and development projects. It aims to discover the real impacts of various planning and development projects on issues of social mobility, redistribution of wealth and decreasing inequality within Greater Saida.

Ismael Sheikh Hassan is an urbanist and activist who has been involved in the context of Palestinian refugee camps and reconstruction projects in Lebanon. He completed his Phd in Urbanism and Planning at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) and is the editor of an upcoming publication (2016) titled On Urbanism and Activism in Palestinian camps : The reconstruction of Nahr el bared. Currently he is involved in various projects typically linking private practice, academic research and activism.