Paper short abstract:

The economic collapse in Lebanon has forced civil society organizations to fill in for the state that has not been able to offer basic care for its denizens. In this paper, I consider how this collapse has directed the agency of these organizations that have been forced to act upon and amid it.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2019, Lebanon has been ravaged by an economic collapse of a magnitude not seen since the mid-1800s. People’s savings have evaporated due to rampant inflation of the Lira, shortages have rendered many basic goods unavailable, and people have resorted to desperate means to access their diminished savings to provide for their families. For many, the crumbling economic reality is yet another manifestation of the inability of the Lebanese state to care for its denizens, while media, international actors and Lebanese civil society have named Lebanon as a collapsed, failing, or already failed state.

Amid this economic crisis, Lebanese civil society has organized to deliver services, infrastructural maintenance and social benefits to fill in for the state that has failed to make the welfare of its denizens its priority. In this paper, I aim to interrogate how this economic failure has directed the actions of these organizations that try to mitigate the increased vulnerability of their beneficiaries. In doing so, I turn to ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Lebanese civil society organizations that have acted as a surrogate state, providing basic support for those unable to provide for themselves. By looking at the ways these organizations have been forced to act not only upon but also amid the failures of the state, the aim is to consider the limits the present economic and political reality has set on doing, questioning the often Eurocentric and privileged notions of agency and capacity.