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http://www.joannachoukeir.com/filter/PhD

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Lebanon Workshop at Oxford University

I am really looking forward to attending this workshop and thought I would share more details about it here for anyone interested:

Social and Political Change in the aftermath of the 2005 Hariri Assassination: Implications for Everyday Life in Lebanon

May 20, 2011 – 10.30am – 6.30pm

Fellows’ Dining Room, Hilda Besse Building, 62 Woodstock Road, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University

10.30am – 10.45am: Registration/coffee

10.45am – 11.00am: Introductions and Welcome Remarks

George Asseily, Centre for Lebanese Studies

Luc Borot, Maison Francaise d’Oxford

11.00am – 1.00pm: Lebanese Political Parties and the Politics of Sectarianism

Bernard Rougier, Syria and Sunni Lebanon After 2005: Stakes and Levers

Aurelie Daher, Hezbollah as a Political Actor since Rafic Hariri’s Assassination

Joseph Bahout, Istiqlâl after ihbât? Christian New-Old Dilemmas

1.00pm – 2.30pm: Lunch Break

2.30pm – 4.45pm: Lebanon’s Public Life and Institutions: Reflections on Politics in Society

Sami Hermez, Living Everyday in Anticipation of Violence in Lebanon

Heiko Wimmen, Civic Activism and Non-Sectarian Citizenship: Lebanon 1996-2011

Muzna Al-Masri, Hariri and the Patronage of Nejmeh Football Club: Changing the Players or the Game?

Michelle Obeid, Discussant

5.00pm – 6.30pm: Keynote Speaker

 Theodor Hanf, University of Freiburg & American Uni. Of Beirut, “How Resilient is Lebanese Communalism?” (will be held at the Middle East Centre, 68 Woodstock Road)

Sponsors: Centre for Lebanese Studies; Middle East Centre; Maison Francaise d’Oxford, Oxford-Sciences Po Research Group

For more information: Contact Sami Hermez at sami.hermez@sant.ox.ac.uk or Aurelie Daher at aurelie.daher@politics.ox.ac.uk

Expressions Corner Presentation Podcast

Yesterday, I presented Expressions Corner at the Research Network for the University of the Arts London (RNUAL). The presentation went really well!

Many researchers from the audience came up to me afterwards to share their interests in the research and to offer positive feedback. I felt very pleased, and it was definitely well worth the manic preparations.

Here is a podcast and slideshow of the presentation. Feedback and critique most welcome…

N.B. I cannot thank enough all those who helped deliver Expressions Corner all over Lebanon, despite it proving very difficult sometimes. I thank you a million times for helping with all your passion and goodwill: Cedric, William, Hanane, Habib, Tonnie, Maya, Laurice, Fouad, Sarah, Roy, Mireille, Nahi, Shahed and Suhair.

Thesis Volume 1: Here it is!

So here’s everything I’ve been working on for the past 3 years, compiled into this ‘little’ book. It marks the mid-way confirmation stage of my PhD, i.e. Volume 1 of my thesis. Volume 2 is coming in 3 years time. Hello 2014!

This volume includes writings on the field of study, contextual review and practice to date. There is no way I am going to describe what these contents involve because that could get a bit lengthy (a 30,000 words sort of lengthy), so I will tell the story through pictures of a few spreads instead. Enjoy!

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Presenting Expressions Corner Soon at RNUAL

I will be presenting Expressions Corner at the Research Network for University of the Arts London. The presentation is this Tuesday the 15th of February 12:00 pm at Rootstein Hopkins East Space, London College of Fashion, 20 John Prince’s Street, London W1G 0BJ.

So if you’re around, interested and free, come along!

P.S. I have also just created a new page on the blog: Talk+Publish, which lists my past presentations, lectures, publications, etc. Have a peep.

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Lebanese Youth as Change-Makers

The term youth is very elusive and debatable. Some authors define it through biological markers bracketing it between the ages of puberty and parenthood (cited in Santrock, 1999, p.387), and others use specific cultural and social markers determining status (USaid, 2004). These are a few examples: For the United Kingdom Youth Parliament, youth comprise ages 11 to 18 (2010), for the United Nations General Assembly, it is 15 to 24 (2010), the Commonwealth Youth Programme, 15 to 29 (2010), and the Danish Youth Council, 15 to 34 (2010). This research defines youth through social markers depicting the minimum age as that of civic autonomy and independence, and the maximum as that of emotional, financial and social settlement. According to this definition, youth in Lebanon would belong to the age bracket of 18 to 30 years old. The autonomous age in Lebanon varies depending on religious sect, gender and civics, ranging from 14 to 21 years old, with 18 being the age of legal majority (Figure 1). On the other hand, the average age of marriage in Lebanon is 27.5 years for females and 31 years for males. This is based on Pan Arab Project for Child Development statistics in 1996 (cited in UNDP, 1998). For this reason, 30 years was chosen as the mean age across the two genders, before individuals settle into their social groups.

Despite the debatable age bracket of youth, a number of authors, governments and organisations agree that it is vital to include and engage youth in processes affecting their lifestyles, and that they play a crucial role in positively transforming conflict situations (Cited in Del Felice & Wisler, 2007, p.3). For example, the Home Office Community Cohesion strategy calls for establishing well resourced programmes that engage young people in decision-making processes affecting their communities (Cantle, 2001, p.30). Similarly, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs warns that the constant exclusion of youth in dialogue and social planning contributes to the disintegration and alienation of these stakeholders, and drives their shift towards negative behaviours (Confesor cited in UNDESA, 2005, p.19). Youth should be today, more than ever, at the forefront of social, economic and political developments (UN, 2010).

However, Celina Del Felice and Andria Wisler identified that the potential of youth as change-makers and peace-builders has unfortunately been unexplored to its full capacity by both policy-makers and academics (2007). Correspondingly, Dr. Kaouaci and the United Nations refer to youth as the ‘invisible’ stakeholders (cited in UNDESA, 2005, pp.34, 38). This is how Siobhan McEvoy-Levy phrases this idea:

Neither children nor youth appear as important variables in the literature on peace processes. Nor, authors of important UN reports admit, have adolescents been separately or well considered… A neglect of adolescents and older young people is short-sighted and counterproductive in terms of peace building (McEvoy-Levy, 2001, pp.2-3).

Del Felice and Wisler argue that youth are often seen as either victims or perpetrators, rather than participants in peace-building, and therefore decisions impacting their lives are made for them rather than with them (2007, pp.8-12). A number of case studies such as the International Youth Parliament, Rosario’s Youth Center, the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, and Otpor, demonstrate that youth have succeeded in positively transforming conflict and segregated societies.

Youth’s transformation capacity is supported by a number of reasons, collated by Del Felice and Wisler after extensive observations of case studies and examples. The reasons are that youth are more open to change, they are future-oriented as they have not witnessed the wars and memories of their parents and older generations, they are idealistic and innovative in solving old problems in imaginative ways, they are courageous risk-takers, and they are knowledgeable and experienced in issues relating to their peers (2007, pp.24-25).

These reasons are highly relevant to the case study of Lebanon, as social segregation is a problem dating back at least to the 1970s, with all generations over 30 having actively and physically witnessed or participated in the violent conflict. Their vivid memories of the war and its direct impact on their lives renders this group incapable of tackling the matured problem of social segregation. This leaves youth the healthier group to target and engage for innovative solutions towards integration. According to McEvoy, “youth are the primary actors in grassroots community development/relations work; they are the frontlines of peace building” (2001, p.25). On youth in Lebanon, the United Nations write that “youth must constitute an important focus of development policy”, and that they must be prepared for “full participation in the political, economic and social life of the country” (1998, ch.4, p.58).

Youth in Lebanon form more than one fifth of the country’s population, with a more or less even distribution across different districts in the country (UNDP, 1998, ch.4, p.58). Their rush to higher education means that 96% of both males and females are literate (UNDP, 1998, ch.6, p.76) and that their age at first marriage has now become higher than in most countries of the world (UNDP, 1998, ch.4, p.59). These demographic and social transformations render 18 to 30 year old Lebanese men and women a substantial and valuable asset to target, engage and collaborate with, to develop social integration interventions in Lebanon.

References:

Cantle, T. (2001) Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team. UK: Home Office.

Commonwealth Secretariat (2010) What is CYP? Commonwealth Youth Programme. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/152816/152828/what_is_cyp/> [Accessed 29 October 2010].

Danish Youth Council (2010) About DUF. [Internet] Available from: <http://duf.dk/home/about_duf/> [Accessed 29 October 2010].

Del Felice, C. & Wisler, A. (2007) The Unexplored Power and Potential of Youth as Peace-Builders. Peace Conflict & Development, vol. 11, November. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.peacestudiesjournal.org.uk> [Accessed 27 November 2008].

McEvoy-Levy, S. (2001) Youth as Social and Political Agents: Issues in Post Settlement Peace Building. Kroc Institute Occasional Paper, No. 21:OP:2, December. Research Initiative on the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict (RIREC).

The UN Refugee Agency (2007) Lebanon: Age of majority, particularly for females; paternal custody rights over female children. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/469cd6b31c.html> [Accessed 14 November 2010].

The UN Refugee Agency (2010) Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa 2010 – Lebanon. Freedom House. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b99012177.html> [Accessed 14 November 2010].

US Agency for International Development (USaid) (2004) Youth and Conflict: A Toolkit for Intervention. Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/crosscutting_programs/conflict/publications/docs/CMM_Youth_and_Conflict_Toolkit_April_2005.pdf> [Accessed 16 January 2011].

UK Youth Parliament (2010) About Us. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/4655/index.html> [Accessed 29 October 2010].

United Nations (2010) Youth and the United Nations. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/mdgs.htm> [Accessed 29 October 2010].

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2005) Final Report of the Expert Group Meeting on Dialogue in the Social Integration Process: Building peaceful social relations—by, for and with people. 21-23 November. New York: Division for Social Policy and Development.

United Nations Development Programme (1998) The Demography of Youth, ch. 4. [Internet] Available from: <www.undp.org.lb/programme/governance/advocacy/nhdr/…/chptr4.pdf> [Accessed 29 October 2010].

United Nations Development Programme (1998) Youth and Education, ch. 6. [Internet] Available from: <www.undp.org.lb/programme/governance/advocacy/nhdr/…/chptr6.pdf> [Accessed 16 January 2011].