WHAT MAKES LEBANON SURVIVE AND REBUILD?
The Vital City approaches Vitality as a process of urbanization and urban transformation. Vitality being essentially the thriving of a biological organism, enabling it to survive and thrive and evolve into the future. Applying this concept to Lebanon to try and understand how people negotiate their spaces and livelihood meant we had to study and understand “process” and “interactions” between people and their environment, to reveal the dynamics which keep Lebanon innovating. In the midst of a crisis and a health pandemic inside Lebanon today, this session is concerned with addressing the following inquiries;
What are new research considerations in the current Lebanese context on our field research and relations? For example, how has displacement transformed its relation to space; as an agent of urbanization? How have people mobilized space to cater to their needs?
What are examples of vitalist modes of being? In what ways does public/social space enable the reconstruction of a healthier, more vital Lebanon?
What are past, current and imagined forms of partnerships that enable local communities to take a constructive role? (For example, the role of Citizen Scientists, PW etc.)
MODERATOR:
Diana Laurillard
SPEAKERS:
Batoul Yassine, Nadine Bekdache, Joana Dabaj, Elizabeth Saleh
Photo Credit Samar Maqusi