a multidisciplinary analysis of PRECARisation in Lebanon (labor, mobilities, properties) – PRECARités

PRECARités seeks to understand what hinders the mobilization and development of safety nets in the wake of the multi-sectoral crisis that Lebanon is currently experiencing. It aims to figure out how the Covid pandemic and the explosion of the Beirut seaport, increased social and economic inequalities, uncertainties, and demands for social security. The series of structural weaknesses highlighted by the crises overwhelmed Lebaneses' safety nets. These have generated various forms of precariousness, both in terms of the commodification of protections and social relations (family, community), both of which, paradoxically, constitute two pillars of neoliberal development models. In this sense, the current crisis reveals structural instability, which literature on resilience has masked in the past. With these issues underlined, we may be able to act on them.
Three areas of precarity are highlighted: labour, mobility, and property. To work on this, the team will bring together French and European academics with Lebanese academic in a current situation of precarity, with oher (young or more experienced) researchers whose work has been precarious for a long time. It will conduct a quantitative survey and 5 qualitative case studies, the results of which will be published in a peer-reviewed journal as well as a series of policy briefs. A seminar course offered to Masters students in Lebanese universities will contribute to and reflect on this research. In addition to the production of original data that will be publicly disseminated, the objective of this project is to constitute a research network capable of applying for European grants, putting Lebanon in dialogue with other cases studies.