Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/53994 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2010/18
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper aims at understanding the dynamics of sectarian violence in the city of Beirut, by looking at the early phase of violence in the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), and the process of dividing Beirut into various sectarian enclaves controlled by the warring militias. The paper aims to show the way in which political actors used sectarian violence as a mechanism of social, political, and territorial control. As a point of departure, the paper views the city not only as a backdrop for conflict and violence, but also as an actual target. The objectives of the paper are threefold. First, it shows how sectarian violence was not random but was, rather, a product of a lengthy process that involved calculation and some levels of planning. It includes defining one's neighbour as an enemy and as a threat. Second, it shows the measures and practices that were employed by militias to consolidate the full control of territory that entailed the transformation of space and place into homogenous entities. Third, it looks at the centrality of the concepts of homogenization of space (and place) and territoriality in the course of waging sectarian violence.
Subjects: 
urbanization
cities
urban conflict
Lebanon
JEL: 
O18
R51
Q34
ISBN: 
978-92-9230-253-5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
536.17 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.