by Samar Maqusi & Joana Dabaj
The story began seven years ago when the RELIEF project was launched in Lebanon in pursuit of studying how to build a prosperous and inclusive future for communities affected by mass displacement. More specifically for us, our story focused on an area of research under the theme of The Vital City, the remit of its theme being “to ensure that the city works for the people who have come to live in it.” Taking that as our central theme, we embarked on a spatially-based research journey to understand how displacement and its dynamics can work together to construct a public realm which is able to offer public goods and services inside a conflictual geography that lacks the provision and sustenance of said services and goods. This led us to understand the dynamic relationship people have with their environments and the ways in which people utilize the attributes of their distressed immediate environments to build forms of livelihood and sustain their lives and wellbeing within perpetual states of uncertainty. This research was based and inspired by our practical experience in Lebanon, more specifically Samar’s study and work in Burj El Barajneh camp, and Joana and her team CatalyticAction’s study and work in Bar Elias, El Mina and Beirut.
WHY SOCIAL VALUES IN LEBANON?
Our research findings illustrated that it is through people-interaction that Lebanon and all its inhabited spaces have been able to keep a form of vitalism afloat. The “social value” (created between community members) is fundamental in the survival and livelihood of Lebanon. We thus understood early on (inside RELIEF’S Vital City) that for people to actually interact and socialize, forms of public space needed to be provided. We also acknowledged the variance in character, needs and specifics for various communities and localities across Lebanon. Our field research showed that some needs stemmed from complete lack of open space, such as in the refugee camp, while other needs encompassed the arrival of new refugee communities which caused socio-economic tensions to that locality. While the needs vary, public spaces presented a solution to address multiple vulnerabilities communities face.
During the course of RELIEF I, we each implemented a number of spatial interventions to produce spaces—through a co-creation methodology-- that offer the local community opportunities to socialize, engage and improve their mental wellbeing within a distressed geography as that of Lebanon. As a number of years elapsed since the building of these spaces including a number of disasters that have befall Lebanon, we see a real value in measuring the impact (i.e. added social value) of these research-based interventions across space and time. What it is that makes sociality valuable in the context of Lebanon, and what are those values people find in socializing with each other and with strangers in Lebanon. For this research we are focusing on the Bar Elias Participatory Spatial intervention (Bekaa, 2019), Burj el Barajneh Attabat (Beirut, 2021&2022), and El Mina Participatory Spatial intervention (Tripoli, 2022).
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL VALUE
The overarching aim of our spatial interventions was to utilize existing spaces inside our localities and co-design elements within that space that address the identified needs of the community for an engaging space to socialize better and spend time with others, as well as oneself. It was also an attempt to trigger further development and growth of the public space. This was possible due to the fact that most of Lebanon sustains itself through a great deal of informal economy and infrastructure, which allows its community members to mobilise the environment for its own benefit. The ability and degree of mobilization emanates from the social context and social cultural fabric of each locality. It’s the social wellbeing that allows for this informal mobilization, and our interventions work towards enhancing that social welfare.
CO-CREATION WORKSHOP
This is why we have designed a workshop in Lebanon entitled ‘Contextualising the meaning of 'social values in public space' within Arabic and across localities.’ To understand the social wellbeing of a community in Lebanon, we must first engage in an exercise of understanding what various academic terms and concepts around public space and social connectedness mean in Arabic, and what kind of value the Lebanese culture across time and space attributes to such terms and concepts. The approach to this workshop was to design for a conversation on the meaning of public space and forms of sociality with the local communities that have been part of the co-creation process in RELIEF I, while localizing these conversations inside each particular locality. The participatory workshop took place in mid July, 2024 involving community members and citizen scientists who worked with us over the years, as well as external experts and the wider PROCOL team.
The workshop began by sharing one word illustrating the value of public spaces. Participants shared values highlighting the sociability aspect of public spaces, such as تعارف “meeting someone new,” الجَمْعة “getting together,” and ترابط “connecting”. The value of public spaces in bringing people from different backgrounds together was illustrated through words such as (اندماج (افراد المجتمع “cohesion” and “integration”, مفتوح being “open” and يعبر حدود “transcending borders.” Public space is also seen as a space of expression through “voice”, “opinions”, and “freedom”.
An overview of public spaces from around the world and from Lebanon including the spatial interventions sparked a discussion about the difference between public spaces in the West versus the Lebanese context. Notably, the quality of social interactions and the familiarity present among people in public spaces in Lebanon was one of the biggest differences participants pointed out. “Public spaces in the West are very calm, but there’s a positive chaos in our spaces that you don’t find there. In the West you find groups of children and adults in public spaces, but there’s no jam’aa (جَمعة)”. The word jam’aa came up several times throughout the workshop. Although literally translated to “gathering, or a get-together”, the spoken Arabic word of jam’aa entails a sense of cosiness, familiarity and conviviality between people. The quote above illustrates this nuance: while public spaces in the West are also spaces of gathering and getting together, there’s a lack of familiarity among different groups. Sociability, as highlighted in this discussion, depends on the context and the specificity of each community. Participants reflected that in Western contexts, there’s more value for individualism rather than community and public spaces reflect that.
In Lebanon, where residents lack access to basic services, community and familiarity play a big role in facilitating everyday life needs with the limited access to basic services. In that sense, familiarity among people in Lebanon was seen as fostering a sense of safety within the community, through the smallest interactions such as the familiarity existing between people and their neighbourhood grocery store.
The nature or qualities of a public space play an important role in shaping the interactions and connections between the people sharing it, highlighted in the discussion about different localities. “When we were co-designing the Participatory Spatial Intervention in Bar Elias, the shape and place of the bench we designed facilitated social interactions” (Bar Elias citizen scientist). To illustrate this further, Bar Elias and Burj El Barajneh camp had similar use of public spaces: ceremonial such as celebrations and condolences, political such as protests, social and relief based such as distribution of humanitarian aid, religious practices, and play. Public spaces are where the community comes together to express opinions, discuss public matters. Meanwhile in El Mina, participants pointed out that the Cornish, considered a key public space, is a tourist attraction that brings people from different areas where the practices of public space are different. Public space in El Mina is a space where people go to watch the sunset, walk, cycle. Festivals take place, families meet through their children, and couples take wedding and engagement photographs.
While similarities existed between different localities, each had its own specificities as well. For example, inside Burj el Barajneh camp roofs of buildings are utilised as social spaces while families animate them with greenery and horticultural practices, seating areas hosting neighbours and visitors, pigeon flying activities, evening relaxation and conversations, as well as ceremonial practices such as weddings and funerals.
Brainstorming a lexicon revealed shared concepts across localities, though terminologies varied depending on the different dialects. Generated words related to the type/timing of the hangout (صبحية، عصرونية، سهرة), activities in public space especially gossip (لقلقة، تركيب مقلة), chatting, sitting and resting, and lingering, small talk and negative attitudes.
To conclude the workshop we asked each participant to share what is the value that the public space represents to them. Having started the workshop with the same question, we wanted to see how the workshop discussions impacted their understanding. One of the Bar Elias citizen scientists first shared that it is about “meeting new people - تعارف ”, while at the end he discussed that it is about “Identity and feeling of belonging - الهوية والشعور بالانتماء”, especially when he sees an elderly person using public space. “When I see an older person in public space it reminds me of my family in the village in Syria.” For one of the community researchers from Burj el Barajneh, at the start of the workshop the value of public space to her is about sharing “opinions- آراء” and towards the end of the workshop the value became about “building new connection, hope, respect - بناء علاقات جديدة، الأمل، الاحترام”. While for one of the experts the value that public space represents to them remained about “freedom - حرية” but added also “responsibility - مسؤولية, culture - ثقافة, community - مجتمع, nature - طبيعة, and infrastructure - بنى تحتية”. All these examples show the importance of how the different activities throughout the workshop helped develop a deeper or a different understanding of the personal value of public space.
CONCLUSION AND WAY FORWARD
We understand that the concept of sociality is expansive and multidisciplinary, thus, the specific aim of this project is to capture the meaning of social behaviour and social connectedness exercised and emanated from engaging with a specific public space in a specific context and time. This project is piloted to collect initial insights that would help us develop a ‘framework’ that is an evaluation and measurement tool for social value and progress in spatial interventions in Lebanon across times and cultures. This framework and its application will in turn contribute to debates about what works and why for future urban research, and change the narrative about how we understand and measure social impact.
This blog piece is written by ‘Vital city’ team experts Dr Samar Maqusi and Joana Dabaj as they embark on their PROCOL Lebanon research project to unpack ‘Social values of public spaces across time and culture’ in Lebanon. The blog post gives a background overview about the research and provides insights from their recent co-production workshop in Lebanon.
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