The remaking of Ras Beirut

Abstract

This paper explores Ras Beirut’s current socio-spatial transformations from the perspective of its ‘original’ population, particularly small landowners vulnerable to urban renewal pressures. With reference to their accounts, it illustrates how certain aspects of neighbourhood change intersect with Lebanon’s complexities of power, wealth, insecurity and division. While cognizant of the class aspect of urban change, the paper contends that Beirut’s urban restructuring is entrenched in deeper social justices and inequalities than might fit under the rubric of ‘gentrification’. Considering that gentrification, war displacement, and forced migration are one and the same phenomenon for many Lebanese—all captured by the term tahjir (the Arabic term for ‘displacement’)—the paper concludes by questioning the country's neoliberal model of development. In hindsight, it conceptualizes displacement as a by-product of the ‘manufacture of vulnerability’ in Lebanon.

Key words:

• Ras Beirut
• gentrification
• displacement
• vulnerability
• insecurity
• inequality
• social justice

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Maria Abunnasr, Cynthia Myntti and Fran Tonkiss for their support and insightful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Ras Beirut (literary Beirut’s headland) comprises the two city districts of Ras Beirut and Ain el-Mreisseh. This paper refers to the area in its broader geographic sense.

2 Information was collected through social interaction and in-depth interviews with people living and/or working in the area, mostly ‘original’ residents, some from the same nuclear or extended family. Some families and individuals also disclosed information about their neighbours. All social interaction and interview material quoted in text is translated from Arabic. Giulia Guadagnoli assisted in the interviews.

3 In addition to published texts, the interviews by Maria Abunnasr for the AUB Oral History Project provided valuable information.

4 The old rent law allowed landlords to reclaim their properties for family needs or to demolish and reconstruct, provided they compensate their tenants.

5 The ‘double bills’ refers to the fact that many households are compelled to pay one bill for public services that fall short of delivery, and another bill for private providers of these services who step in to fill the gap.

6 The geographic boundary of Jal el-Bahr is blurred and the name Jal el-Bahr is not commonly used today in reference to it, except by the initial local families and long-time residents of the area.

7 Interview with Ghassan el-Kadi and Bushra Oud el-Kadi (1 April 2014) conducted by Maria Abunnasr as part of the AUB Oral History Project.

8 The classwork of AUB students (2014) on Jal el-Bahr (Sector 35 Urban Design Studio) provides an overview of area history and transformations: https://scholarworks.aub.edu.lb/handle/10938/10277.

9 A working research paper carried out under the ‘Gentrification and Urban Change in Ras Beirut Project’ by A. Saksouk (2015) provides illustrative examples in this regard.

10 Translated from Arabic.

11 Translated from Arabic. See al-Akhbar newspaper (27/5/2009). http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/83260.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded through a collaborative research grant made by the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) to the LSE Cities Programme and the Neighborhood Initiative at the American University of Beirut.

Notes on contributors

Mona Khechen

Mona Khechen is an independent scholar and urban development consultant. In 2014–2015 she was a research associate at the American University of Beirut Neighborhood Initiative where she led the Gentrification and Urban Change in Ras Beirut project.