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Abstract:
Drawing on the case of Lebanon, this article seeks to conceptualize how processes of urbanization are entangled with extractive violence. It begins by situating the establishment of both the cement industry and the legal framework for construction in the historical context of French Mandate Lebanon, and discusses their evolution through the post-independence period, the early 1990s, and until today. Furthermore, the article proposes a framework for identifying the different scales at which extractive violence is deployed in both spatial and temporal terms. It traces the entanglement between processes taking place at hyperlocal, territorial, national, regional and global scales; and examines how extractive violence is enacted across different temporalities. Finally, the text highlights how extractive industries do more than render their violence unknowable and imperceptible: they employ strategic modes of appearance to control the narratives that surround them, and they use technical and scientific authority to create competing regimes of truth.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Christian Henderson for his support and feedback during the writing of this article, as well as the anonymous reviewer’s comments and suggestions. I also thank Matteo Capasso for his generous comments and patience.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Anja Nygren, Markus Kröger & Barry Gills (Citation2022) Global Extractivisms and Transformative Alternatives. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49 (4), pp. 734–759; John–Andrew McNeish & Judith Shapiro (Citation2021) Introduction, in: John–Andrew McNeish & Judith Shapiro (eds) Our Extractive Age – Expressions of Violence and Resistance (New York: Routledge), pp. 1–15; Alexander Dunlap & Jostein Jakobsen (Citation2020) The Violent Technologies of Extraction: Political Ecology, Critical Agrarian Studies and the Capitalist Worldeater (Cham: Palgrave).
2 José–Antonio de los Reyes (Citation2022) Re-making Pascua Lama: Corporate Financialization and the Production of Extractive Space. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 49 (4), pp. 817–838; Photis Lysandrou (Citation2016) The Colonization of the Future: An Alternative View of Financialization and Its Portents, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 39 (4), pp. 444–472.
3 Desiree Fields & Sabine Uffer (Citation2016) The Financialisation of Rental Housing: A Comparative Analysis of New York City and Berlin, Urban Studies, 53 (7), pp. 1486–1502; Susan Fainstein (Citation2016) Financialisation and Justice in the City: A Commentary, Urban Studies, 53 (7), pp. 1503–1508.
4 Mona Fawaz & Dounia Salame (Citation2019) “The Need for Policies to Restore the Role of Land in the Making of Livable City”, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. Available at: https://www.aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/op_ed/20190208_sjc_op_ed.pdf, accessed May 12, 2021; Marieke Krijnen & Mona Fawaz (Citation2010) Exception as the Rule: High-End Developments in Neoliberal Beirut, Built Environment (1978-), 36 (2), pp. 245–259.
5 Rob Nixon (Citation2013) Slow Violence and The Environmentalism of The Poor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), p. 2.
6 Ibid.
7 Achille Mbembé (Citation2003) Necropolitics. Public Culture 15(1), p. 17.
8 Ibid., p. 40.
9 Krijnen & Fawaz, Exception as the Rule: High-End Developments in Neoliberal Beirut, pp. 245–259.
10 Ibid., p. 249.
11 Carolyn Gates (Citation1989) The Historical Role of Political Economy in the Development of Modern Lebanon (Oxford: Oxford Centre for Lebanese Studies).
12 Eric Verdeil (Citation2010) Chapitre 3 – La Présidence De Fouad Chéhab: Une Nouvelle Donne [Chapter 3 – The Presidency of Fouad Chehab: A New Deal], in: Beyrouth Et Ses Urbanistes: Une Ville En Plans (1946-1975) [Beirut and Its Urbanists: A City in Plans (1946-1975)] (Beirut: Presses de l’Ifpo), pp. 81–106. Available at: http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/2101, accessed September 3, 2020.
13 Rami Zurayk (2021) The writing on the walls: Adonis, Ishtar and the terraces of Mount Lebanon, in: Nick Axel, Cookin Sections, Nikolaus Hirsch, eds., Exhausted, April 2021, e-flux. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/exhausted/379297/the-writing-on-the-walls-adonis-ishtar-and-the-terraces-of-mount-lebanon/, accessed May 12, 2021.
14 Salim Nasr (Citation1978) Backdrop to Civil War: The Crisis of Lebanese Capitalism, MERIP Reports 73, December 1978, pp. 3–13.
15 Public Works Studio (Citation2019) Koura’s Land: From Fertile Resource to Raw Material for Cement Factories, Jadaliyya, March 21, 2019. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/38475/Koura%E2%80%99s-Land-From-Fertile-Resource-to-Raw-Material-for-Cement-Factories, accessed March 21, 2019.
16 From focus group discussions held with local farmers in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
17 From focus group discussions held with local farmers in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
18 Zurayk, The Writing on the Walls: Adonis, Ishtar and the Terraces of Mount Lebanon.
19 Contrary to the provisions of the 1938 decree.
20 Contrary to the 1925 law that defines Public Property.
21 Sale of cement to Syria represented about 40 percent of total cement exports in the early 1980s.
22 For instance, revisions of the rent law, respectively in 1992 and 2004, facilitated and then expedited the eviction and displacement of tenants living under old rent contracts established pre-1992. In 1994, the Investment and Development Authority in Lebanon (IDAL) was established by the Hariri government with the aim of promoting foreign investments in the country.
23 Marwan Harb (Citation2007) Le Chéhabisme ou les limites d’une expérience de modernisation politique au Liban [Chehabism or the limits of an experience of political modernization in Lebanon] (Beirut: Université Saint-Joseph), p. 64.
24 Research by the Beirut Urban Lab reveals that between 1999 and 2011, at least a dozen laws were issued to incentivize the flow of capital into the built environment. See: Mona Fawaz & Soha Mneimneh (2020) Beirut’s Blasted Neighborhoods: Between Recovery Efforts and Real Estate Interests, The Public Source, November 6, 2020. Available at: https://thepublicsource.org/beiruts-blasted-neighborhoods-between-recovery-efforts-and-real-estate-interests, accessed May 12, 2021.
25 Talal M. Darwish, Richard Stehouwer, Doug Miller, James Sloan, Ihab Jomaa, Amin Shaban, Carla Khater & Mouïn Hamzé (Citation2008) Assessment of Abandoned Quarries For Revegetation And Water Harvesting In Lebanon, East Mediterranean, 25th Annual Meetings of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation and 10th Meeting of IALR.
26 In 1998, the Agreement to Facilitate and Develop Trade Among Arab States, which Lebanon joined in 1985, was implemented. The agreement frees trade between Arab countries from various fees and restrictions, which allowed the import of olive oil from Tunisia and Syria to the local market.
27 The Sibline Cement Company was established in the early 1980s near Sidon, but its operations did not begin until 1986 because of the Israeli invasion.
28 According to reports published in 2020 and 2021 by Triangle, a Lebanese consulting and research firm, Sibline is largely owned by the Hariri family behind screens of investment holding companies and banks. Two other shareholders have strong commercial ties with Socialist Party leader, Walid Joumblatt, who is also Sibline’s chairman, and Former Minister of the Economy, Nicolas Nahas, who sits on Sibline’s board along with Taymur Joumblatt. Many of the Cimenterie Nationale’s shareholders are obscured through the use of shell companies. The Doumit and Asseily families jointly own most of the company. Triangle’s examination of Holcim Liban SAL’s shareholders also revealed exposure to both political and religious elites, even though the company is largely foreign-owned. See Jakob Boswall & Yasmine Minkara (Citation2021) Mountains to Mortar: Lebanon’s Concrete Conflicts of Interests, Triangle, March 12, 2021. Available at: https://www.thinktriangle.net/mountain-to-mortar-lebanons-concrete-conflicts-of-interests/, accessed April 1, 2021; David Wood, Jakob Boswall & Yasmine Minkara (Citation2020) Unfair Game: Lebanon’s Rigged Markets Are Killing Competition, Triangle, November 6, 2020. Available at: https://www.thinktriangle.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Unfair-Game-Lebanons-Rigged-Markets-Are-Killing-Competition.pdf, accessed December 1, 2020.
29 Mirna Chami & Marwan Mikhael (2014) Lebanon’s Cement Sector: A Progress to Continue, BlomInvest Bank. Available at: https://blog.blominvestbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2014-05-Lebanon%E2%80%99s-Cement-Sector-a-Progress-to-Continue.pdf, accessed July 1, 2020.
30 Based on fieldwork interviews conducted with residents of Chekka and surrounding towns in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
31 Nixon, Slow Violence and The Environmentalism of The Poor, p. 19.
32 Chami & Mikhael, Lebanon’s Cement Sector: a Progress to Continue.
33 Krijnen & Fawaz. “Exception as the Rule: High-End Developments in Neoliberal Beirut”, pp. 245–259.
34 Hayat Gebara, Mona Khechen & Bruno Marot (2016) Mapping New constructions in Beirut (2000-2013), Jadaliyya, November 16, 2016. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/33751, accessed September 3, 2020.
35 Chami & Mikhael (2014) Lebanon’s Cement Sector: A Progress to Continue.
36 Thomas Collelo (ed.) (1987) Lebanon: A Country Study. Washington, DC: GPO for the Library of Congress, Federal Research Division.
37 McKinsey & Company (Citation2018) Lebanon Economic Vision 2025, July 4, 2018. Available at: https://www.economy.gov.lb/media/11893/20181022-1228full-report-en.pdf, accessed March 21, 2019
38 When read against the National Physical Master Plan of the Lebanese Territory (NPMPLT, Decree 2366/2009), the Koura quarries fall within areas zoned as “mixed rural”. They also overlap significantly with a perimeter identified by the NPMPLT as presenting high risks of landslides, and with a site zoned as extremely vulnerable in water resources. See: Council for Development and Reconstruction (2005), National Physical Master Plan of Lebanon. Available at: https://www.cdr.gov.lb/CDR/media/CDR/StudiesandReports/SDATL/Eng/NPMPLT-TOC.PDF, accessed February 1, 2019. As for local master-plans, the Kfarhazir quarry in particular falls within an area zoned as residential in 1970. See, Public Works Studio, Koura’s Land: From Fertile Resource to Raw Material for Cement Factories.
39 Public Works Studio, Koura’s Land: From Fertile Resource to Raw Material for Cement Factories.
40 Maha Al Azar (Citation2002) Koura municipalities target environment official, The Daily Star, March 29, 2002. Available at: https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2002/Mar-29/11111-koura-municipalities-target-environment-official.ashx, accessed February 1, 2019.
41 Based on fieldwork interviews conducted with residents of Chekka and surrounding towns in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
42 By the National Physical Master Plan for Lebanese Territories issued by Decree in 2009 (Decree 2366/2009).
43 Based on fieldwork interviews conducted with residents of Chekka and surrounding towns in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
44 The Cimenterie Nationale continues its activities today using limestone quarries instead of clay. See: Public Works Studio, Koura’s Land: From Fertile Resource to Raw Material for Cement Factories.
45 From focus group discussions held with local farmers in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
46 See claims by Koura residents featured in the film “Which side on the Earth do I work for?” by Mohamed Berro (2019, 34 minutes) starting minute 27:00, which include accounts of their persecution and intimidation by “gangs” affiliated with the cement industry during a panel organized in Amioun Municipality by Public Works Studio (timecode). Defamation lawsuits have also been filed by cement companies against local activists. See for example: Rania Hamze (Citation2019) AlSabeh Cement Company files lawsuit against George Inati: citizen appears before the judiciary accused of defending his town, its environment and its residents, Legal Agenda, 24 February 2019, Available at: https://tinyurl.com/mv5mbhbs, accessed September 3, 2020. Examples of initiatives by local activists can be found in: Nizar Saghieh & Rania Hamze (Citation2019) Mobilizations by Koura Residents in Defense of the Region and Themselves, Legal Agenda, January 29, 2019, Available at: https://tinyurl.com/eubnwkv8, accessed September 3, 2020.
47 Lauren Berlant (Citation2007) Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency), Critical Inquiry, 33 (4), pp. 754–780.
48 From focus group discussions held with local civic groups in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
49 Cimenterie Nationale YouTube Channel (2019) CN, 14 February 2019. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyPvnGnzn3A, accessed September 3, 2020.
50 Based on fieldwork interviews with local activists from Chekka and surroundings in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.
51 Yifei Li & Judith Shapiro (Citation2021) Rethinking Extractivism On China’s Belt And Road – Food, Tourism, and Talent, in John–Andrew McNeish & Judith Shapiro, eds., Our Extractive Age – Expressions of Violence and Resistance (New York: Routledge), pp. 135–154.
52 See: Annahar Newspaper (2020) Kfarhazir Committee: Whenever the Cement Companies Are Subjected to Popular and Judicial Pressure, They Hint at Dismissing Workers as a Ploy, Annahar, May 25, 2020. Available at: https://tinyurl.com/22uv7vtn, accessed September 3, 2020.
53 See: MTV Lebanon News YouTube Channel (2019) 17/09/2019 - AlSabeh Cement. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSZToYn9PPI, accessed September 3, 2020.
54 Many residents of Koura mention mainstream media’s silence on the harms resulting from the cement industry, and their non-responsiveness when called in to cover protests and actions by residents against cement factories and quarries. (Based on fieldwork interviews conducted with residents of Chekka and surrounding towns in December 2018 through Public Works Studio.) See also: Nizar Saghieh (Citation2019) “Illegal Enrichment” with Deadly Fangs: What Do We Do When We Discover the Largest Corruption Dossier in Lebanon? Legal Agenda, March 1, 2019. Available at: https://tinyurl.com/3xyn4atf, accessed September 3, 2020.
55 The competition titled “Beyond Cement” was co-organized by Public Works Studio and the Order of Engineers and Architects, under the patronage of the Federation of Municipalities in Koura.
56 Nixon, Slow Violence and The Environmentalism of The Poor.