Drafts by Dr Howayda Al- Harithy
This article investigates the impact of the Syrian displacement on the economic and urban transfo... more This article investigates the impact of the Syrian displacement on the economic and urban transformation in Ouzaii, a major informal settlement in the southern suburbs of Beirut that is characterised by a complex socio-political structure. It explores the potential of "entrepreneurial systems" that emerge when Syrian refugees become part of the host community and its economy. These systems include Syrian refugees as either part of the lower labour force, business owners, or entrepreneurs. The article locates these entrepreneurial systems within the spatial networks and investigates how Syrian refugees create opportunities for themselves and the host community given the specificity of the market that is subject to legal setups and mediated by the political party of Hezbollah. It uses the construct of "mixed embeddedness" by Kloosterman et al. and the notion of "quiet encroachment" by Asef Bayat to understand how the Syrian refugees were able to infiltrate into Ouzaii's economy and become part of the "entrepreneurial systems" that stimulate the economic cycle and revitalise the urban space.
This article examines the socio-spatial mechanisms that emerge when refugees host other refugees.... more This article examines the socio-spatial mechanisms that emerge when refugees host other refugees. It argues that there is an underlying social infrastructure of care that impacts the refugees' choice of destinations and modes of survival. When refugees host other refugees from close networks of relatives and neighbours, they create their own spatial clusters. In the process, the social infrastructure of care offers one mode of security to vulnerable refugees. Care as a concept and an approach is related to ideas of endurance and maintenance. It facilitates multiple dimensions, from space, to affection and to the everyday. It is able to reconfigure a life possible, life-enduring and a life meaningful in an urban setting. We focus on Ouzaii in Beirut, Lebanon. Ouzaii has been a destination for multiple displaced groups over different periods of time. Ouzaii currently hosts an approximate 10,000 Syrian refugees. They chose Ouzaii as their destination after they were helped by existing refugees who offered shelter and access to jobs. The resultant socio-spatial practices, flourishing businesses and leisurely facilities are evidence of successful social networks that form an infrastructure of care. They also play a role in the reconstitution of Ouzaii itself. We conclude with reflections on how urban informality may offer refugees an alternative right to the city while allowing them to escape the gaze of the humanitarian-aid apparatus that can signify their vulnerability by reducing them to only being aid recipients. Instead, they form protective socio-spatial networks that have proved to be powerful in sustaining their livelihoods, guarding them from possible social discrimination or political threats.
This paper was delivered as a lecture at MIT in May 2001 and at UC Berkeley in Sept. 2002. Its pu... more This paper was delivered as a lecture at MIT in May 2001 and at UC Berkeley in Sept. 2002. Its publication was delayed awaiting more information on the fate of the building in question, the zawiya of Ibn {Arraq, as determined by the ongoing reconstruction project of Beirut's Central District. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Philip Saad for his tremendous help in researching this paper. I would also like to thank Al-Nah¸r Research and Documentation Center, Solidere's Information Offi ce, and Professor Helga Seeden of AUB for providing information critical to this paper.
Lebanon has witnessed multiple waves of displaced peoples throughout its recent history, includin... more Lebanon has witnessed multiple waves of displaced peoples throughout its recent history, including the displacement of Palestinians to Lebanon after the occupation of Palestine in 1948, the internal displacement of families from occupied Southern Lebanon after the Israeli invasion of 1978, and the influx of Syrian refugees after the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011. Many Syrian families had to reconstitute their lives in Lebanon because of the crisis in their country, often in tented and informal settlements or in overpopulated or even abandoned buildings. This article focuses on the process of hosting Syrian refugees in Saida in Southern Lebanon after 2011. It explores service provisions and the two dominant types of housing for Syrian refugees: collective shelters and single apartments within local neighbourhoods. The article argues that mechanisms of exclusion emerge with intensity in cities like Saida that have received and accommodated multiple waves of displacement. Such mechanisms of exclusion in Saida are politically attuned to the historical depth of the hosting experience and emerge at multiple levels, both social and spatial. This is despite Saida's mobilization to provide aid, and its departure from housing refugees Keywords displacement Syrian refugees Lebanon social exclusion housing urban services
PLSC is a new center for the study of Palestine's Land and People, with very rich archives on Pal... more PLSC is a new center for the study of Palestine's Land and People, with very rich archives on Palestine, mapping, atlases and GIS files in the first of its kind in the Arab world
Papers by Dr Howayda Al- Harithy
International journal of Islamic architecture, Dec 31, 2023
This thesis is an application of Al Jurjani's -a Persian scholarliterary theories as a method... more This thesis is an application of Al Jurjani's -a Persian scholarliterary theories as a method for the critical analysis of architectural meaning. The study is based on the understanding of architecture as a mode of communication, and aimed at examining architectural meaning in general, and the metaphorical content in particular. The process is initiated by studying the literary theories of Al Jurjani. It is followed by investigating the analogies between literature and architecture, and establishing a foundation for the analogy proposed by this thesis. The application of Al Jurjani's theories is manifested and examined through the analysis of the case study: Sultan Hasan complex in Cairo. The analysis is mainly concerned with the meanings conveyed by the building, and the different means by which they are achieved. The specific case study leads to a more general scope of issues concerning architectural meaning which are presented in the conclusion. Thesis supervisor: Stanfor...
Land
This paper explores urban recovery as a participatory bottom-up process that highlights the impor... more This paper explores urban recovery as a participatory bottom-up process that highlights the importance and social significance of spaces of shared memories in reconstituting the built as well as the sociocultural fabrics of a place. It examines the multiple modes of engaging local communities in the process of recovering and rehabilitating shared public spaces, including organizing workshops to identify a space of common social significance, co-designing and co-producing a spatial intervention, and maintaining the intervention over the long term. The paper focuses on Karantina, a neighborhood in Beirut that became the site of post-disaster recovery in the aftermath of the Beirut Port blast in August 2020, and the spatial intervention that the urban recovery team at the Beirut Urban Lab implemented in the sub-neighborhood of Al-Khodor. In doing so, the paper contributes experiences from recent work on participatory modes of engaging the local community groups in Al-Khodor. It highlig...
al-Kitab al-'Arabi, May 6, 2021
1. Introduction: The Politics of Post-War Reconstruction in Lebanon Howayda Al-Harithy 2. Influen... more 1. Introduction: The Politics of Post-War Reconstruction in Lebanon Howayda Al-Harithy 2. Influencing the Politics of Reconstruction in Haret Hreik Mona Harb and Mona Fawaz 3. Wa'd: The Reconstruction Project of the Southern Suburb of Beirut Hana Alamuddine 4. The Politics of Identity Reconstruction in Post-War Reconstruction Howayda Al-Harithy 5. Reconstruction of Bint Jbeil and Social Representations of the Urban Space Habib Debs 6. Marginal Landscapes, Marginalized Rural Communities: Sustainable Post-War Recovery in Southern Lebanon Jala Makhzoumi 7. Beyond Compensations: the Post-War Reconstruction Battles of 'Aita al-Cha'b Abir Saksouk Sasso, Nadine Bekdache and Ismael Sheikh Hassan 8. In the Turmoil of Chaos: Beit Bil-Jnoub: A Grass Roots Approach towards a Rational Reconstruction Process Rabih Shibli Afterword Nezar AlSayyad
Refugee Survey Quarterly, 2020
This article investigates the impact of the Syrian displacement on the economic and urban transfo... more This article investigates the impact of the Syrian displacement on the economic and urban transformation in Ouzaii, a major informal settlement in the southern suburbs of Beirut that is characterised by a complex socio-political structure. It explores the potential of “entrepreneurial systems” that emerge when Syrian refugees become part of the host community and its economy. These systems include Syrian refugees as either part of the lower labour force, business owners, or entrepreneurs. The article locates these entrepreneurial systems within the spatial networks and investigates how Syrian refugees create opportunities for themselves and the host community given the specificity of the market that is subject to legal setups and mediated by the political party of Hezbollah. It uses the construct of “mixed embeddedness” by Kloosterman et al. and the notion of “quiet encroachment” by Asef Bayat to understand how the Syrian refugees were able to infiltrate into Ouzaii’s economy and be...
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Drafts by Dr Howayda Al- Harithy
Papers by Dr Howayda Al- Harithy