Disarticulation and chains of equivalence: agonism and non-sectarian movements in post-war Beirut

Abstract

Divided cities are characterised by intergroup contestation over the wider issue of state legitimacy. Violent conflict has left a legacy of segregation, weak public services and clientelistic networks. Debates and practices for conflict management in divided cities centre on accommodationist or integrationist approaches. While accommodationist methods seek to recognise and accommodate ethnosectarian divisions within public institutions, it risks intensifying ethnosectarian polarisation and empowering elites to deepen control over communities. Integrationist methods, alternatively, aim to foster shared identities and relationships between groups, but are too optimistic in assuming that divisions can be overcome through rational deliberation. As an alternative, I deploy Mouffe's theory of agonistic conflict to show how various non-sectarian movements contest the hegemony of a sectarian system that reproduces exclusion and inequality. To this end, I use key dimensions of agonism -'rearticulation/disarticulation' and 'chains of equivalence'-to analyse different types of non-sectarian actors and successive waves of protest, known as 'You Stink' and the 'Thawra' , in post-war Beirut. The divided cityDivided cities are the ground zero upon which ethnosectarian 1 conflicts emerge and are sustained in the long term. Cities such as Belfast, Jerusalem, Beirut and Mostar are shaped by violently contending visions of state belonging that have left a legacy of polarisation across the polity and wider society (

Lil Watan: Queer patriotism in chauvinistic Lebanon

“…There exists a robust scholarship on the complicity of ‘“liberal queer strategies” with “urban modes of governance that are often inseparable from neoliberal, racist, nationalist, and militarist logics”’ in the Global North (Oswin as cited in Nagle, 2021: 3), to which I have attempted to contribute through this article, focusing in particular on how such strategies have been taken up in Global South contexts in similar ways, as a result of the manner in which the war on terror and its security logics have travelled and been localised and instrumentalised in contexts like Lebanon.…”

“…A compelling and growing body of literature has grappled with that which is obscured by discourses that celebrate Lebanon’s and, more specifically, its capital Beirut’s gay friendliness and supposedly cosmopolitan culture more broadly (Allouche, 2017; Makarem, 2011; Merabet, 2014; Mikdashi, 2016b; Moussawi, 2018, 2020; Nagle, 2018, 2021; Sayegh and Al Ali, 2019). The scholarship on the subject draws attention, in particular, to the economic developments that have framed some LGBT subjects as deserving of tolerance while others are targeted for harassment, arrest and punishment; for example, the effects of the neoliberal reconstruction model introduced by the late former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in the aftermath of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war (1975–1990) (Nagle, 2021). 5…”

“…It is important to point out that LGBT activism in Lebanon is not a monolith. The scene plays host to a range of strategies and ideologies, both in terms of how activists relate to their local context and how they engage international LGBT organising (Makarem, 2011; Moussawi, 2015; Nagle, 2021; Naber and Zaatari, 2014). Scholars distinguish between NGOs, more underground, grassroots groups, and radical queer activists who fold their work on sexuality into a broader leftist politics.…”

“…5.As John Nagle (2021: 2) writes, ‘on the one hand, gentrification has created a space of implicit tolerance for specific assemblages of sexuality, class and power, which are nonthreatening to institutionalised homophobia, especially gender-normative and middle-class LGBTQ people. On the other, this dynamic is mirrored by the ruthless, violent cleansing of spaces and forms of sexuality deemed to be transgressive.…”

“…Helem started off as a node in a broader left-wing movement in Lebanon and emphasised the intersectional and anti-imperial nature of its activism, framing its agenda as also anti-sectarian and anti-racist and articulating a commitment to working-class concerns (Makarem, 2011). Over the years, Helem has ‘undergone substantial change in personnel and leadership’ (Nagle, 2021: 7) and has come to focus its work on advocacy around LGBT issues in particular, although it still voices support for other social justice causes.…”