This is a platform for sharing the progress of my PhD research at the London College of Communication. It is an interactive space which invites discourse through readers’ comments, suggestions and insights into other contexts and/or researches that are tackling similar questions.
Read more about the research on the About page.
Share relevant research on the Forum page.
This is a podcast and slideshow from my presentation today at RNUAL 3, University of the Arts London. I’m very grateful for the enthusiasm the audience showed for this piece of research, and a big thanks to Sheila for the late night rehearsals!
photography: Wasma Mansour
4.2.3.0 (What’s this number?)
The research is approaching a pre-insight gathering stage, which entails conducting scoping fieldwork in designated districts in Lebanon, throughout the month of July 2009. The aim of the scoping phase, as the name suggests, is to scope out the problem of social segregation on the field, and compare it with the context of social life in Lebanon assimilated in the literature review. The insight gathered from scoping will be valuable in designing research methods for the comprehensive ethnographic fieldwork planned for summer 2010. The scoping phase will focus on 3 methods:
1– Interviews with local authorities and community volunteers in designated districts.
2– Informal chats with youth groups in casual assembly venues, such as community centres, universities, bars, hairdressers, etc. in designated districts.
3– Cultural probe tasks with a small number of young people from designated districts.
The following focuses on the third method: A review of cultural probes and its appropriation for collecting inspiration/information on the social integration behaviours and barriers of youth groups in Lebanon.
Defining cultural probes
Cultural Probes are an innovative design-led approach developed in 1999 by Bill Gaver, Tony Dunne and Elena Pacenti as part of the Presence Project at the Royal College of Art. The aim of the project is to develop innovative technologies in domestic environments (1999). The probes constitute a collection of evocative tasks for exploring attitudes and aspirations and developing an empathetic and engaging understanding of a particular audience (Gaver et al., 2004).
Cultural probes were quickly adopted by numerous industrial and academic design and research group (Black, 2009) such as the Design Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Cooperative Systems Engineering Group and Uscreates. Research topics ranged from designing technological interventions in domestic places (Gaver et al., 1999), to improving the health of staff in workplaces (Uscreates, 2007), to strengthening family intimacy (Kjeldskov et al, 2004).
The procedure of cultural probes starts with recruiting a small number of participants, then holding a face-to-face placing interview where every participant is given a cultural probes kit and an explanation about the project and the required probe tasks (Gaver et al., 1999). The participants then carry out these tasks over a specific period of time, usually from a week to 3 months. Researchers may want to carry out intermediary check-in interviews to verify the quality of task execution, or ask participants to send some probe responses back throughout the specified period of time. At the end of the period, participants may send the cultural probes back by post, or researchers can visit to collect and discuss further some of the task responses (Corti, 1993).
Advantages and relevance
There are a number of advantes to cultural probes that suggest its relevant to the case study of youth in Lebanon:
Unfamiliar and diverse audience: The Presence Project at the Royal College of Art entailed looking into 3 different communities: Majorstua, a district of Oslo; the Bijlmer, a large planned community in Amsterdam; and Peccioli, a small village outside Pisa. The researchers at the Royal College of Art were unfamiliar with any of these communities, and as a result, designed similar cultural probes for the 3 communities with very minor alterations (mainly linguistic). Thus, the motive behind conceiving cultural probes addressed the dilemma of ‘developing projects for unfamiliar groups’, so that through their function of understanding the local cultures, discussion and collaborative design can follow (Gaver et al., 1999). Correspondingly, despite the fact that Lebanon is a small country geographically, the wide range of social groups and their vast differences in culture, lifestyles and opinons make it challenging for a researcher to design insight-gathering methods and plan ethnographic fieldwork based solely on the literature review of this context. Due to numerous social integration barriers (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 76-94), even a researcher from Lebanon is not likely to be ‘socially’ informed of social groups outside his/her own. This is why cultural probes can be advantageous in this particular research, by offering a quick but enlightening narrative into the lifestyles of different young member of Lebanese social groups.
Interactivity and engagement: The unusual method of cultural probes can capture the participant’s attention, enthusiasm and curiosity more than would be the case with traditional methods. The researchers from the Presence Project described the initial reaction of their participants to the probes as follows:
“An assortment of maps, postcards, cameras and booklets began accumulating in front of them. Curious, they started examining the materials. Soon they were smiling and discussing them with the neighbors. As the feeling of the group livened perceptibly, we started explaining the contents. Worry transformed to excitement. Perhaps the probes would work after all.” (Gaver et al., 1999)
Elie Awad, the founder of Lebanese non-governmental organisation Youth for Tolerance said that often, his numerous interactions and activities with youth groups were met with a high level of apathy in engagement (Awad, 2009). In this case, the cultural probes method may prove helpful in engaging youth groups in Lebanon, if the choice of probes reflects a range of interesting objects that this audience already engages in on a daily basis.
Minimal influence in sensitive inquiries: The tasks in cultural probes are carried out by participants in their own time and away for the researcher’s interference. In addition, the tasks do not ask closed or direct questions regarding the insight required for the research. So for example, in a study on mediated intimacy at home, researchers provided diaries that asked participants to describe the temporal flow of their daily lives, instead of asking them for example, to describe their relationship with their partner. This is particularly important in the scoping stage of the case study of social groups in Lebanon. Direct questions regarding acceptance or rejection of other social groups and religious affiliation may seem obtrusive and intimidating, and yield doubtful responses, particularly if participants want to project an non-dicriminatory image about themselves. Therefore, asking indirect questions regarding social circles, travel locations, etc. may help answer these questions more efficiently.
Review of different cultural probes
The following typology will expand on some of the probes that have been deployed within the past 10 years. A cultural probes kit can bring together a combination of some of the following, but each probe acts as a stand-alone tool, to, in combination with others, provide a multi-layered narrative of the participants’ lives:
Camera: This is usually a disposable camera repackaged with instructions of photos to take such as ‘your home’ or ‘the first person you see today’ (Gaver et al., 1999). This probe useful when dealing with literacy issues.
(Gaver et al., 2004)
Listening glass: Participants are asked to place the glass on walls or doors of ethically safe environments to listen and write what is heard in the other room. It is a great probe for collecting knowledge not only about the participants but the people around them as well.
(www.sxc.hu)
Voice recorder: Cheap digital recorders are labeled with prompts asking participants to record specific instances that occur to them as soon as they can. For example, the Interaction Design group at the Royal College of Art asked participants to describe a vivid dream in 10 minutes as soon as they awaken from it (Gaver et al., 2004).
(Gaver et al., 2004)
List keeping: Participants are asked to collect routine lists from their every day lives such as to do lists, shopping lists, receipts, etc. (Dix, 2004).
(www.sxc.hu)
Diary: This probe became prevalent in social research in the early 90s before cultural probes were pioneered. It was inspired by the work of biographers and historians who had always considered diary documents a major history telling evidence. In cultural probes, the diary is given to participants over a certain period of time. The diary content can be as open as a blank notebook, or more closed with a series of specific writing or drawing tasks. The advantage of a diary is that it captures instant information that may otherwise be forgotten when inquired about later on in an interview for example. It also aids in addressing personal questions. Louise Corti writes that if followed by a concluding interview, diaries can give more insightful information than other traditional methods. The disadvantages of diaries however is that they require high literacy skills and are time consuming to upkeep (Corti, 1993).
(www.sxc.hu)
Postcard: Because of its friendly connotation, a postcard can address questions in an informal mode of communication. Another advantage is that it allows instant feedback from participants rather than waiting for the entire cultural probes kit to be returned or collected. Questions can be ‘please tell us a piece of advice or insight that has been important for ou’ or ‘what place does art have in your life’ (Gaver et al., 1999). Participants may choose to answer by drawing or writing or even creating photo collages.
(Gaver et al., 1999)
Map: This may literally refer to geographically mapping routes taken or valuable landmarks, or socially mapping relationships with family and friends. This allows people to come up with their own ways of visually representing their environmental or social connections.
(Gaver et al., 2004)
Conversation kit: This was developed at Uscreates to gather insight about the lifestyles of people at risk of cancer in Stoke on Trent. Participants, who were cancer awareness volunteers, were given a self-explanatory kit for holding conversations with friends and family members within the target audience. Thus participants took over the role of the researcher and completed conversation tasks successfully because of their intimate relationship with the interviewees. The kit included recorded instructions on an audio device, question and answer conversation forms, badges, and a range of feedback methods such as blog, post, voicemail, and email (Uscreates, 2009).
(Uscreates, 2009)
Text messaging: This probe was deployed by Uscreates as part of Experience Food at Work, a project which aims to improve eating habits in the workplace. This probe differs from others in that tasks are not given at the beginning of the probing period, but are texted by phone during precise times in the day. For example the question ‘what did you have for lunch today?’ would be sent to participants following lunchtime (Uscreates, 2007).
(Uscreates, 2007)
Online blogging: This probe is particularly useful when participants are highly engaged in online networking. It can function in the same way as instant cameras or diaries, only digitally through WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
(Uscreates, 2008)
Inspiration vs. information controversy
Controversy has dominated discussions on whether cultural Probes are aimed at inspiring the researcher/designer or collecting fundamental information on audiences for further analysis. Graver – one of the first initiators of the concept of cultural probes – Boucher, Pennington and Walker, advocate that the objective of cultural probes is purely inspirational for capturing clues about lives and thoughts and inspiring design ideas. They criticise the approach of many research and design groups who have later adopted, adapted and rationalised cultural probes to produce informational comprehensible results (Gaver et al., 2004 pp. 1). An example would be the Cooperative Systems Engineering Group who made a pragmatic adaptation of the cultural probes approach to replace traditional questionnaire and interview methods for collecting unobtrusive contextual ethnographic information (Hemmings et al., 2002). A collaborative paper between the University of Nottingham and Lancaster University for the Equator (Equator, 2000) evaluates both the inspirational motive of the Royal College of Art and the informational motive of Lancaster University concluding that both are valid uses of cultural probes, however, in the latter case, much theory, peer communication and testing needs to go into the process of designing the probes in order to draw substantial conclusions from the findings (Hemmings et al. 2002).
The aim of deploying cultural probes in the case study of Lebanese youth groups is inspirational. This is because real life insight into these groups is relatively new territory, so this research does not yet have the required background information to rigorously design cultural probes for informational and analytical objectives. However, if this method proves fruitful in the scoping exercise, then thorough revisions and re-designs of the probes may be incorporated in the ethnographic fieldwork stage in the future.
Process of designing cultural probes for youth groups in Lebanon
The different stages of designing the cultural probes will be headed according to the design process followed at the Computer Related Design group at the Royal College (Hemmings, 2002). The order of the headings is representational and does not necessarily reflect the process in chronological form:
1. Planning
2. Recruiting participants
3. Selecting volunteers
4. Assembling cultural probes
5. Deploying cultural probes
6. Retrieving and analysing probes
7. Speculative design
Practice is feeding into writing for this section, so will update when I’m happy with the cultural probes I’m designing!
References
Awad, E. (2009) Interview with Youth for Tolerance founder [Internet] London, Beirut, 9 May [During a discussion evaluating the launch of the 961 Report newsletter, and communication intervention for integration]
Corti, L. (1993) Using Diaries in Social Research [Internet] in: N. Gilbert (ed.), Sociology at Surrey, Social Research Update (2), March 1993. Available from <http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU2.html> [Accessed 13 May 2009]
Dix, A. (2004) Case study: Cultural probes – Methods to study new environments [Internet] Human Computer Interaction. Available from <http://www.hcibook.com/e3/casestudy/cultural-probes> [Accessed 11 May 2009]
Equator (2000) Domestic Probes [Internet] Equator: Experience: Domestic Environment. Available from < http://www.equator.ac.uk/index.php/articles/629> [Accessed 11 May 2009
Gaver, W.W., Dunne, A., & Pacenti, E. (1999) Cultural Probes. Interactions, Vol.6 (1), pp. 21-29.
Gaver, W., Boucher, A., Pennington, S., & Walker, B. (2004) Cultural Probes and the value of uncertainty. Interactions, Vol. 11(5), pp. 53-56.
Hemmings, T. et al. (2002) Probing the Probes. Proceedings of the 2002 Participatory Design Conference. Malmaö, Sweden, pp. 42-50.
Kjeldskov, J. (2004) Using Cultural Probes to Explore Mediated Intimacy. AJIS Special Issue, Iss. December, pp. 102-115.
Saadeh, S. A. (1992) The Social Structure of Lebanon: Democracy or Servitude? Beirut: Dar Annahar.
Uscreates (2007) Experience Food at Work [Internet] Food Vision. Available from <http://www.foodvision.gov.uk/pages/experience-food-at-work> [Accessed 25 May 2009]
Uscreates (2008) Uscreates Comfort Zone [Internet] Available from www.uscreatescomfortzone.wordpress.com [Accessed 25 may 2009]
Uscreates (2009) Community Toolkits [Internet] NHS Stoke Cancer Awareness Programme. Available from < http://stokecancerawareness.wordpress.com/category/community-toolkits> [Accessed 25 May 2009]
3.1.0.0 (What’s this number?)
So again, I come across another video (thanks Sheila!) that explains clearly and interestingly, something not so easy for us Graphic Designers to put simply. And we all know the well dreaded questions:
“So you’re a Graphic Designer, so what is it exactly that you do?”
“Why do you need to read, write and analyse? Aren’t you just supposed to be making things look nice?”
“Why is it taking you so long to design this… (fill in the blank)?”
and so on and so forth… If you’re a Graphic Designer, share in the comments some of the strange questions you’ve been asked about what you do.
Happy watching!
2.1.2.0 (What’s this number?)
The following literature review defines the social structure in Lebanon, outlines barriers to social integration, and proposes solutions for overcoming these barriers; all in relation to youth members of social groups.
In describing social groups in Lebanon, this research makes frequent referencing to Safia Antoun Saadeh’s book ‘The Social Structure of Lebanon’ (Saadeh, 1992) . Dar Annahar, a prominent publishing house in Beirut, reviewed the book as a rare piece of work. Although numerous books have been written about Lebanon in the past decades, very few were those that ‘dealt specifically and comprehensively with the social composition of Lebanon from a structural point of view.’ (Dar Annahar, 2008).
A Nominal Social Structure
Peter Blau distinguished two types of parameters in a social structure, the nominal and the graduated. The former divides the population into impermeable groups with no possibility of overlaps such as gender, religion or race, while the latter divides society into groups that may alter over time such as age, income or power. The correlation of both the nominal and graduated parameter leads to the ordinal parameter that forms the hierarchies of a social structure. (Saadeh, 1992 pp.19).
In Lebanon, the division of social groups is based on the nominal parameter of religious affiliation (Saadeh, 1992 pp.20). The social groups incorporate three religions: Islam (including Druze), Christianity and Judaism, divided into 18 sects and dispersed in mixed and uniform towns and cities across Lebanon. Saadeh refers to these social groups as castes, because of their characteristic similarities.
The nominal social structure is reflected in the division of power in the government according to a consociational democratic system. Article 24 of the Lebanese Constitution states that The Chamber of Deputies should be elected on a confessional basis along three criteria: Equal representation between religions, proportional representation between sects and proportional representation between different geographic regions. The Doha agreement for the 2009 elections equally represented two religious groups, Christians and Muslims, proportionally divided into 11 sects (each forming at least one political party) and distributed along 25 districts. The total is 128 deputees who are considered official representatives of their respective social groups.
Barriers to Social Integration
Throughout history, the conflict between social groups in Lebanon witnessed everchanging solidarities and oppositions, many of which resulted in civil wars, the last ending in 1990. Today, although the conflict is mainly non-violent, Lebanese social groups are still noticeably isolated (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 74). Kamal Salibi writes that actual contact between different social groups is almost entirely restricted to political co-operation (Salibi, 1977 pp. xiv). Mohammed El Machnouk reiterates this by comparing the social structure to the Baalbeck pillars with only the top part – the government – holding the pillars – the social groups – together (Machnouk, 2001 min. 9:45). Saadeh examines the links between social groups further, by expanding on five features of the post-civil war social structure that have erected or accentuated barriers to social integration (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 76) . The features are expanded on below, and discussed in relation to their effect on youth integration:
1– Socio-political rigidity: The most influential social group altered throughout historical episodes: Druzes during the Ottoman rule (1516-1918), Maronite Christians during and after the French Mandate (1926-1975) and Sunni Muslims following the 15-year Civil War (1995-present) (Salibi, 1977 & Traboulsi, 2007). Since the Independence in 1943, Article 95 of the Lebanese constitution gave social groups hierarchical supremacy in the government depending on the size of their communities. Thus, people became entrenched in their social groups and are continuously attempting to increase their numbers. This has created an ongoing competition among different social groups to advance in power at the expense of the others, thus breeding discrimination in youth on the basis of religious affiliation (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 76-79).
2– Segregation: The Civil War restructured an unofficial physical geographical segregation in such a way that every major social group now dominates at least one area: The Druze in the Shouf, the Shiites in the Bekaa and South Lebanon, the Sunnis in Tripoli and Sidon and parts of North Lebanon, and the Maronites in Metn, Keserwan and parts of North Lebanon. The population in the capital city Beirut is divided into Christians in East Beirut, Sunnis in most of West Beirut, and Shiites in South and some of West Beirut. Three decades of geographical segregation led to the growth of young individuals isolated from their counterparts in other social groups. They were brought up to, at best ignore, and at worse denigrate, the ‘other side’. This has led to fear, apprehension and distrust between young people of different social groups, thus deepening the lines of segregation (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 79-81).
3– Emphasis on differences rather than similarities: To set themselves apart as an identifiable community, each social group adopted a peculiar lifestyle through fashion, values, language and dialect. Elements of the Lebanese cultural identify were very homogeneous, so social groups looked outside Lebanon for cultural identities of nations they paralleled their religious beliefs to. Thus Sunnis associated with Saudi Arabia, Shiites with Iran, and Christians with the West. As a result, youth groups acquired in their upbringing, skills that allowed them to identify and judge members of other social groups by their physical appearance, their dialects or their interests (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 81-84).
4– Social institutions: A number of these furthered the continuation of disparate social groups.
First is the Judiciary System, divided into state laws (such as voting and business laws) that are set and controlled by the government, and exclusive personal status laws (such as marriage and inheritance) for each sect. Every social group must adhere to the personal status laws placed by the religious agency that represents it. Therefore, Bkirki, supported by the Maronite Council, is the reference point for Maronite laws, Majlis al-Millah for Greek Orthodox, Dar al-Ifta for Sunni, Al Majlis al-Shii al-Aala for Shia, and Shaykh al-Aql for Druze. The absence of a common civil law for all has increased inequality and division among social groups. A simple example is family members of different religions being unable to inherit from one another because different personal status laws would apply for each religion (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 85-88).
The second institution is marriage. It is closely regulated because it can jeapordise the very existence of social groups if inter-community marriages and births are not supervised. On religious grounds, a Muslim woman is prohibited from marrying into another religious group, but a Christian woman is not. Furthermore, children follow the religious sect of their fathers. These two factors resulted in an increase in Muslims and decrease in Christians, giving the latter group an incentive to promote social controls and pressures that deter youth groups from marrying into other social groups, and encourage endogamy (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 88-89). From 1952 to the present, the Lawyer’s syndicate has requested numerously that civil marriage be initiated, but religious agencies have refused continuously. (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 86).
The third institution that limits social integration is the educational system, which is separated into the private and public sectors. Before the civil war, the government that ran the public sector encouraged the mingling of students and staff of different social groups within the same institution, but from as ealry as 1976, public institutions started quickly dividing into branches representing the religious affiliation of the local area. In addition, the public sector is notorious for its lack of organization and low standards, and this has driven many parents who can afford it, to resort to the private sector for the education if their children. Religious institutions mainly run this sector, and open their doors to students within the same affiliation with minor exceptions. In these private institutions, the content and cultural aspects of the teachings are driven along religious ideologies (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 90-91). As a consequence, both the public and private educational sectors today offer very limited opportunities in schools and universities for youth of different social groups to study in a diverse environment.
5– Social mobility: In general terms, this refers to the movement of individuals from one social group to another. If this movement occurs at the same level, it contributes largely to social integration. However, in Lebanon, it is only possible on an upward or downward level according to two strict conditions: The first is the upper or lower movement of the social group as a whole, and the second is the upper or lower movement of the individual within his/her own social group. Attempts that met the first condition in the past led to two civil wars, in 1958 and 1975, both guided by the Sunnis as they tried to move upwards towards the Maronite group. Attempts that met the second condition led to further segregation between members of the same social groups as they tried to unseat the feudal families and overtake supremacy of the social group. The most violent of these attempts was the devastating war in 1989 between Michel Aoun’s army and the Lebanese Forces. The consequence was a division that is still existent today in the Maronite social group. Safia Saadeh states that ambitious youths who seek to further their status beyond the social mobility restrictions in Lebanon find immigration as the only outlet (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 91-94).
A Solution to Social Segregation
In her concluding chapter, Saadeh contemplates different solutions for integrating divided social groups. She discusses a number of different alternatives in the political system; from maintaining consociational democracy to shifting towards complete democracy, fundamentalism or secularism. She dissects every system and controverts it offering reasons as to why it wouldn’t solve the problem (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 117-124). These arguments will not be covered here because the subject of this research is not aiming to alter the political system. However, what this research is concerned with is the eventual solution that Saadeh proposes on the social rather than political level. She refers to this as social association through five steps (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 124-126):
1– Opening up geographical areas and mixing populations.
2– Promoting the proliferation of social groups into many parties rather than the strict division of Christian and Muslim. This provides a greater leeway for intergroup association.
3– Profiting from the open economy to encourage business interactions between members of different social groups.
4– Dividing labour opportunities geographically to encourage the mobility of workers into different areas.
5– Encouraging intergroup friendships and relationships.
In the recent past, a number of organisations such as Youth for Tolerance, the Forum for Development Culture and Dialogue and UNESCO, have placed at least one of these steps high on their agendas.
It is important to note that integration is not the amalgamation of a society into one social group (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 124). On the contrary, it is the tolerance, interaction and cooperation of diversified social groups for pluralistic existence; to replace segregation, discrimination and hostility that may culminate in their extinction.
References:
Article 24, The Lebanese Constitution. (1926, ammended 1995).
Dar Annahar (2008) Description: The Social Structure of Lebanon [Internet] Available from <http://www.darannahar.com/category/1000280/product/319/>[Accessed 18 May 2009]
Doha agreement (2008).
Mashnouk, M. (2001) Interview in: The War of Lebanon, The Roots of Conflict. Episode 2. Directed by Omar Al-Issawi. Doha: Al Jazeera, 44min [Video: DVD]
Saadeh, S. A. (1992) The Social Structure of Lebanon: Democracy or Servitude? Beirut: Dar Annahar.
Salibi, K. (1977) The Modern History of Lebanon. New York: Caravan Books.
Traboulsi, F. (2007) A History of Modern Lebanon. London: Pluto Press.
2.3.2.2 (What’s this number?)
One of the key terms of my PhD research is ’social integration’. In the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, the United Nations listed 3 agenda headings as a priority for action, one of which was ‘enhancing social integration’ – alongside ‘decreasing poverty’ and ‘reducing unemployment’.
The United Nations defines social integration in relation to 2 approaches:
1) Social integration as an inclusionary goal: for greater justice and equality of life particularly targeted towards minority groups and deprived communities
2) Social integration as heightened solidarity and mutual identification: for promoting tolerance and harmonious interaction at all levels of society to decrease the likelihood of violence
A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to meet Elie Awad, the founder of Lebanese NGO Youth for Tolerance. This NGO is concerned with both approaches to social integration. Their statement reads:
“We at Youth for Tolerance, or Y4T in short, work to promote a culture of tolerance that will result in respect, acceptance and appreciation of religious and political diversity in Lebanon, as well as in a better inclusion of all socially marginalized groups.”
Youth for Tolerance, as their name suggests, focus on the stage of tolerance. They break down the social integration process into small steps:
1) Noticing differences
2) Finding differences amusing
3) Finding differences enriching
4) Seeing beyond differences
One of their many interventions to achieve this is a small simple booklet: ‘Tolerance for Dummies’, a guide for young Lebanese to achieve tolerance.
Although it is rigorous and highly grounded in conflict management theories, it is written in an easily accessible, engaging and entertaining voice. It contains tips, anecdotes, warnings, fun exercises and lots of humour for ‘achieving tolerance nirvana’ as the subtitle states. To make the reader’s experience even more interesting, it asks him/her to flip the book over if they disagree with any of the tolerance statements. What’s on the back? ‘Civil War for Dummies’! So the second half of the book is a detailed simple process, again with lots of humour and interactivity, couterarguing tolerance and explaining how simple anti-tolerant steps can quickly instigate the other extreme: A civil war.
Front and back covers
I highly recommend reading this booklet. It demonstrates how the typical everyday behaviour of every single young Lebanese can inflict a snowballing effect on Lebanese integration or segregation. ‘The whole is the sum of the parts’.
If you would like a PDF copy of the booklet please leave your email address in the comments, or get in touch with Elie Awad at info@youthfortolerance.org.
2.1.2.1 (What’s this number?)
Although I categorised this post under My Triumphs, the credit should go to my dear friend, David Habchy who recommended ////o/ (www.111101.net) to me.
I believe many researchers who are pursuing their research abroad on the context of Lebanon, would probably agree that it is challenging to find references on Lebanon in universities abroad, and particularly in the West. In my case, I found a handful of sources on Lebanon at the University of the Arts London, only one of which was relevant to my research area. So for the past year, I ordered numerous books and DVDs from Amazon and relied on the favours of family and friends to supply me with the rest upon their visit to London.
So why is ////o/ a Triumph?
////o/ is a compilaton of artworks, writings and references on Lebanon, founded and developed by Naji Zahar since 11 November 2001 – thus the name 111101. Being an online resource, it is inherently accessible to everyone with an internet connection irrespective of location, and this is very useful for both the Lebanese diaspora and foreigners. The resource brings together the works of numerous artists such as Nada Sehnaoui, Nadim Karam and Ahsraf Osman, and writers like Fawwaz Traboulsi, Mai Ghoussoub and Leila Mroueh.
Writings section
The website is structured into 4 sections: ‘Artworks’, ‘Writings’, ‘Projects’ and ‘References’. These are divided into subsections some of which are insightful and enriching (Theses, Book Excerpts, Articles, Photography…) while others are unique and intriguing (Poems, Letters, Installations, Performances…).
Site map
A 5th section, ‘Facts’, is Naji Zahar’s personal contribution in developing databases, timelines and mappings to document, one; the events of the Lebanese Civil War, and two; worldwide conflicts from the year 0 A.D to present. Both are very remarkable achievements. The website also contains a number of unusual interactive animations to keep the visitors stimulated!
World conflicts timeline
The content of ////o/ that will be most valuable for my PhD research is Fawaz Traboulsi’s PhD thesis: Identités et solidarités croisées dans les conflits du Liban contemporain, Carole Dagher’s article: Le Liban à la Croisée du Repli et de l’Ouverture Inter-Communautaire, Jayce Salloum’s installation: Untitled, and many more. I will be posting detailed reviews of these works and their relationship to my PhD in the future.
To conclude, ////o/ is a distinct and unsurpassed platform for disseminating new contributions to knowledge, in both theory and practice, about the Lebanese context.
2.3.2.2 (What’s this number?)
A number of non-governmental organisations and community groups collaborated on an unusual social intervention in Lebanon: A bus tour titled هدير بوسطة: ذكريات بلد (Roar of a bus: Memories of a Country) based on the lyrics of Fairuz’s popular bus ride ballad. The bus tour starts on the 13th of April – the date marking the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 – and ends on the 10th of May. So 34 years later, the bus will embrace 10 young Lebanese volunteers on a tour of 34 areas in Lebanon, to introduce them to 45 civil organisations and action groups who are working towards a peaceful Lebanon. Activities include performances, workshops, presentations, discussions, crafts and more. Thus, the bus tour will create a link between the young volunteers and the organisations.
The bus team includes – alongside the 10 young participants – reporters, photographers and filmmakers who will be archiving the daily events of the tour, and facilitators who will be running workshops and sessions on conflict management.
The bus tour will drive from Beirut towards the South, Mount Lebanon, Bekaa and then the North counties. An opening event will take place before the tour begins on the 12th of April at 4:00 pm in Zico House, Spears, Sanayeh where Nada Sehnaoui will screen her film: ألم يكفنا 15 عاماً من الإختباء في الحمامات؟ (Aren’t 15 years of hiding in the toilets enough?). Everyone is welcome to attend this event. A closing event is also scheduled on the 10th of May and the details will be announced closer to the date.
This is the detailed itinerary of the bus tour:
12 April: Beirut (opening event) بيروت
13 April: Nabatiyeh نبطية
14 April: Tyr صور
15 April: Tyr suburbs قرى في محيط صور
16 April: Bint Jbeil بنت جبيل
17 April: Sidon and the suburbs صيدا ومحيطها
18 April: Aley عاليه
19-21 April: Break
22 April: Beirut بيروت
23 April: Break
24 April: Beirut بيروت
25 April: Saadnayel and Taalbeya سعدنايل وتعلبايا
26 April: Shamstar شمسطار
27 April: Hermel, Aersel, Fakhi and Ain هرمل، عرسال، فكهي، وعين
28 April: Nabha and Younin نبها ويونين
29 April: Ghaza and Jib Jinnin غزة وجب جنين
30 April: Baalbeck بعلبك
1 May: Break
2 May: Halba حلبا
3 May: Berkayel برقايل
4 May: Meniyeh and Dnayeh منية وضنية
5 May: Break
6 May: Bedawi بداوي
7-8 May: Tripoli طرابلس
9 May: Break
10 May: Beirut (closing event) بيروت
3.2.1.2 (What’s this number?)
Think Public, a public service and communication design company in London, created a simple video demonstrating the process of co-design. This is a forthcoming tool using participatory methods to tackle a research problem.
My methodology will also be adopting participatory methods where my target audience and different stakeholders such as mayors, community workers, etc. can contribute to the research (probably more than I could myself). I will not explain how co-design works because I think this video definitely does a better job at it!
