Postwar Reconstruction Debate at the Sociology Café

Participants at Té Marbouta

The initiative of Professor Nabil Dajani and Associate Professor Sari Hanafi from the AUB Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, who are the co-organizers of the Sociology Café events, is to "create an environment of informal discussion between students and professors on critical issues of life in Lebanon." On October 30, the informal setting was Té Marbouta, a cozy café in Hamra, where around forty people gathered, mostly AUB faculty and students.

In its first postwar session, the café's debate centered on the reconstruction efforts in Beirut's southern suburb and the South, with particular focus on the sociopolitical dimension. The discussion was initiated by Abdel Halim Fadlallah, deputy director of the Consultation Center for Studies and Documentation, and Mona Harb, assistant professor in the AUB Department of Architecture and Graphic Design.

In noting that any reconstruction effort must tackle the social and developmental dimension in order to be successful, Fadlallah argued that all displaced residents must return to their residential areas, because the mobility was a forced one and would increase the population density in other chosen areas. He also added that the role of the state was eclipsed during and after the war by the response of a flexible and organized civil society.

Harb highlighted Hezbollah's quick and effective shelter policy, characterized by the short-term handling of the basic and immediate needs of the residents, in contrast to the state's laissez-faire reconstruction policy. Harb also commented on the university professors and students who tried to underline socioeconomic revitalization with the current reconstruction efforts through their fieldwork.

With the topic of the debate still making headlines, a lively discussion followed. Professor Dajani claimed that reconstruction must not be based on economic development, and that the national pride generated by the victory of the Lebanese resistance must be used as a basis for reconstruction. Additionally, a large number of participants expressed strong attachment to the local heritage of villages in the South.

The two-hour discussion generated different opinions on the nature of the postwar reconstruction, yet all agreed that the residents of the devastated areas must have a say in the reconstruction process.