Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the relationship between the process of heritagisation and urban politics in a post-war context. By analysing the discourses and practices of different social actors in Beirut, it seeks to explore how they use the rhetoric of heritage in metropolitan conflicts.

Paper long abstract:

In the aftermath of the civil war (1975-90), Beirut has become a laboratory for post-war reconstruction, and some parts of the city give the impression of functioning as an eternal construction site of large-scale urban renewal experiment. These socio-spatial transformations attracted mixed reactions, and many concerns were voiced by city residents, social activists, architects, and urban planners - especially with regard to the profound alteration of Beirut's historic core. This critique can assuredly be viewed as part of the struggle for an identity in a post-war context where the conception of heritage began to shift from a matter of family legacy to its understanding as a more collective phenomenon. And in this sense, it has been gradually mobilised as a tool in the battle against Beirut's radical gentrification.

By analysing the relationship between heritagisation and urban politics in post-war Beirut, this paper examines how the rhetoric of heritage is deployed to appropriate and stake claims to urban space. Also, I grapple with the notion of sustainability that is enmeshed within discourses and practices of heritage in the Lebanese capital. Finally, I explore how urban social actors produce aesthetic and historical epistemologies - the social process by which certain values and evidence are created and mobilised in claim-making.