Unity through separation: spatial divisions and intra-movement relations in Lebanon’s October Uprising

ABSTRACT

Within the field of social movement studies, scholars have devoted increasing attention to how protesters reclaim and organize public spaces. Case studies reveal that protesters often split up larger reclaimed spaces by drawing internal, sometimes invisible, boundaries. So far, however, the subdivision of protest spaces remains an under-theorized phenomenon. Through a case study of Lebanon’s 2019 October Uprising, this article contributes to disentangling how spatial subdivisions emerge and shape relations between protesters. The study relies on fieldwork observations and interviews with 51 protesters from Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli, where the protest space was divided into three main zones, reflecting social, ideological, and tactical fault lines in the city’s uprising. By employing Löw’s concepts of spacing and synthesis, it analyzes how Tripoli’s protesters came to associate these three zones with diverging identities, ideologies, and tactical orientations, while also connecting them together as functional parts of the larger movement. Although the separation of Tripoli’s protest space did not alleviate disagreements and conflicts, the article finds that subdivisions facilitated a thin form of order and helped protesters make sense of their internal differences.

KEYWORDS:

• Social movements
• space
• spatial organization
• Lebanon

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The continuation of Tripoli’s protests has been attributed to several factors, including the absence of violent attacks by alleged supporters of Hezbollah and Amal Movement, which deterred protest participation in Beirut and other parts of the country. Moreover, while the COVID-19 lockdown led protests to die out elsewhere in Lebanon, some Tripolitan citizens defied the curfews and took to the street, due to the economic situation in the city, which has deteriorated severely during the past years’ financial collapse in Lebanon.

2. Three interviews were conducted online prior to the fieldwork.

3. Three individuals preferred not to be recorded.

4. Interview with NGO worker and consultant, July 30, 2021, Tripoli.

5. Only a small group of protesters actively sought to put a stop to concerts in Nour Square.

6. Author’s interview with journalist and activist, Tripoli, July 2021.

7. ‘Educated people’ was here used as a synonym for the middle classes.

8. Author’s interview with organizer from Ḥurās al-Medina, July 2021.

9. The burning of dumpsters and vandalization of buildings occurred to a smaller extent in the same period as the DJ concerts but became more prevalent as the large musical demonstrations vaned.

10. Author’s interview with NGO worker, August 2021, Tripoli.

11. Author’s interviews with 14 anonymous male protesters at Nour Square, October 2021, Tripoli.

12. Author’s interview with student, August 1, 2021, Tripoli.

13. Sāḥa w Masāḥa. (2019, December 28). 73 yawm [English: Day 73]. [image upload]. Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/ساحة-ومساحة-106598494153452/photos/123244572488844

14. Author’s interview with NGO worker, August 7, 2021, Tripoli.

15. Author’s interview with owner of a small shop, August 3, 2021, Tripoli.

16. Author’s interview with academic, August 7, 2021, Tripoli.

17. Author’s Interview with NGO worker and consultant, July 30, 2021, Tripoli.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Anne Kirstine Rønn

Anne Kirstine Rønn is Carlsberg Foundation visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and holds a PhD in political science from Aarhus University. Her research interests include contentious politics, sectarianism, international relations, and opposition movements in divided societies.