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Neoliberal Urbanity and the Right to the City: A View from Beirut's Periphery
Author(s) -
Fawaz Mona
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01585.x
Subject(s) - neoliberalism (international relations) , urbanity , right to the city , ideology , neighbourhood (mathematics) , human settlement , state (computer science) , sociology , public space , political economy , political science , economy , law , economics , geography , politics , archaeology , architectural engineering , mathematical analysis , mathematics , engineering , algorithm , computer science
Drawing on Lefebvre's theorization of space in order to examine the compatibility of neoliberalism and the right to the city, this study investigates how the formation of informal settlements since the 1950s had provided low‐income dwellers in Beirut (Lebanon) a means to conceive of and engage in city making (neighbourhood production, management, and organization) at a time when state regulations and/or market constraints would have excluded them from the city. It also examines how the prevailing neoliberal ideology of the 1990s, as translated through Lebanon's sectarian‐clientelist regime, is curtailing these possibilities. Evidence for the article was drawn from interviews with dwellers, developers and public officials, as well as from archival searches and aerial photographs.