Paper short abstract:

Electricity cuts in Beirut may add up to more than three hours per day, and are only partially scheduled. This paper examines Beirutis' relationship with electricity as a source of energy.

Paper long abstract:

Every three hours between 9:00 and 21:00, electricity in Beirut is cut for an uncertain period of time. This daily on-and-off relationship has immediate and material consequences: electric appliances run their course of life faster and constant reliance on energy generators pressures the economy as well as the environment. Creative responses have emerged at the face of this predicament, such as the mobile application that estimates the timings of electricity cuts and notifies the users. These and other material consequences of erratic electricity supply are compounded by heightened intellectual and emotional judgments, for instance a disbelief in the government in fulfilling its primary responsibilities. Infrastructure, and consequently electricity, is considered to be the most available in urban centers. Lebanon presents a counterintuitive case where the capital city has less consistent access to electricity than some other cities; the most central neighborhoods of Beirut experience power cuts the most. To cope with this, individuals and institutions mobilize extra resources to stay connected to the grid. An inexorable pursuit of electric energy suggests a normalization of electricity in urban daily life. How is electricity taken for granted in Beirut? What are the everyday manifestations of this internalization? Based on interviews with residents of Beirut, this paper will offer non-hierarchizing glimpses of the interplay between a society and electricity.