Paper short abstract:

Drawing from an ethnographic analysis of tangible and intangible infrastructures of mobility in Lebanon, I argue that desire for the state is constantly displaced by the state's own underlying incoherence, which resurfaces problematically in contradictory practices and encounters with citizens.

Paper long abstract:

Although the state is not a coherent unit, mundane encounters with bureaucracies, policies and public officials reify and instantiate it in the life of individuals (Gupta 1995, Mitchell 1999). It is in this guise that the state may be 'desired' by citizens (and non-citizens) as an enabler of 'normal lives' (Jansen 2013). Yet, ambivalent feelings continue to be observed amongst those who in principle desire 'more state' and who could benefit from increased state presence.

This is the case of everyday mobility in Beirut, where inadequate road infrastructure, lacking public transport, and the paralysing road congestion that follows pushes commuters to yearn for a state that does not manifest itself by means of its absence. Yet, increased public intervention in the area of infrastructural development, such as installation of traffic lights and the introduction of a new, stricter road code - themselves instances of Foucaldian governmentality -, has only intensified feelings of disaffection amongst commuters. Abiding by the code, in fact, can still be circumvented by those with political connections (wasta), by appealing to a parallel and competing manifestation of the Lebanese state, the 'corrupt' state.

Drawing from this context, I argue that even when desire for one manifestation of the state is present (Obeid 2010), the tension between heterogeneous and incoherent practices of statecraft destabilises these attachments. The fragile, reified unity of the state is disrupted by its underlying incoherence, which resurfaces in the shape of contradicting performances to mark citizens' encounters with state action with frustrations and discontent.