Limbo urbanism: developing planning theories and practices from small but rapidly urbanising places in the South West Asian/North African region
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
'Limbo urbanism' will generate publications and academic-practitioner discussions about rapid urbanisation in previously 'overlooked' urban places (Ruszczyk et al., 2020), and prepare the partnerships and intellectual ground for a three-year fellowship proposal. The fellowship asks: what are the challenges facing urban planners working in small towns affected by mass forced migration, when seeking to harness limited resources and address the diverse needs of an unstable and diverse resident population?
The primary focus of this fellowship is the publication of a monograph and two-to-three open access journal articles based on ethnographic research in Lebanon and written up as a PhD thesis. In the thesis, I examined the trajectories and impacts of rapid urbanisation in Marj, Majdal Anjar and Bar Elias in Lebanon, whose demographics and environments have been affected by mass forced migration from Syria. Whilst forced migrants have been blamed for increasing poverty rates and poor resource management in Lebanon, I argued that historical inequitable planning practices enmesh with major global events to create common fears among Syrian and Lebanese residents, about their futures in these towns. Developing work by Fawaz, al-Hage and Harb (2021), I showed that both groups of residents expect to face increasingly difficult living situations as a result of exploitative agrarian-capitalist labour practices, and an inequitable housing rental market. I proposed a theoretical framework for understanding the enmeshment of planning practices with forced migration, and its impacts on residents.
I will write a book proposal which revises my thesis as an Urban Studies monograph. I have identified UCL Press as a potential publisher, with a track record of publishing Urban Studies and Planning Studies, and as open access publishers. I will author two-to-three open access journal articles, to be submitted to UCL's Transformative Agreement (open-access) journals such as Urban Planning, Urban Studies and Geoforum. These will summarise two empirical chapters and a part of the methodology chapter from the thesis. I will use early-stage feedback from reviewers to inform the monograph. I aim to have published these journal articles and been offered a book contract prior to submitting a proposal for a three-year fellowship.
I will author the monograph in concert with a seminar series, in which I will create a network of scholars, planning practitioners and planning activists with intersecting expertise. I thereby aim to expand the reach of my research to other geographies in the Levantine and SWANA region, and to ensure maximum impact of the research by sharing it with people who might use the work for teaching, further research, and policy-formation. The series will expand four core debates which were discussed in the thesis, under the umbrella term, 'Limbo urbanism'. These debates concern: what constitutes 'the urban' and 'urbanisation'; planning from the 'periphery' of national political geographies; declining and emerging economies of small urban places in predominantly rural regions; and, the uncertain futures of rapid urbanisation trajectories.
I will host the series across three institutions: University College London's Geography Department, Development Planning Unit and American University of Beirut's Beirut Urban Lab. Through this workshop series, I aim to identify a team of scholars who are prepared to advise on a three-year fellowship proposal, for the ESRC New Investigator, Leverhulme Early Career and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship schemes. With my mentor's guidance, I will establish a small advisory group from workshop speakers and participants. Together, we will identify funders, core themes, questions and methodologies to build a case for support by the end of the fellowship.
The primary focus of this fellowship is the publication of a monograph and two-to-three open access journal articles based on ethnographic research in Lebanon and written up as a PhD thesis. In the thesis, I examined the trajectories and impacts of rapid urbanisation in Marj, Majdal Anjar and Bar Elias in Lebanon, whose demographics and environments have been affected by mass forced migration from Syria. Whilst forced migrants have been blamed for increasing poverty rates and poor resource management in Lebanon, I argued that historical inequitable planning practices enmesh with major global events to create common fears among Syrian and Lebanese residents, about their futures in these towns. Developing work by Fawaz, al-Hage and Harb (2021), I showed that both groups of residents expect to face increasingly difficult living situations as a result of exploitative agrarian-capitalist labour practices, and an inequitable housing rental market. I proposed a theoretical framework for understanding the enmeshment of planning practices with forced migration, and its impacts on residents.
I will write a book proposal which revises my thesis as an Urban Studies monograph. I have identified UCL Press as a potential publisher, with a track record of publishing Urban Studies and Planning Studies, and as open access publishers. I will author two-to-three open access journal articles, to be submitted to UCL's Transformative Agreement (open-access) journals such as Urban Planning, Urban Studies and Geoforum. These will summarise two empirical chapters and a part of the methodology chapter from the thesis. I will use early-stage feedback from reviewers to inform the monograph. I aim to have published these journal articles and been offered a book contract prior to submitting a proposal for a three-year fellowship.
I will author the monograph in concert with a seminar series, in which I will create a network of scholars, planning practitioners and planning activists with intersecting expertise. I thereby aim to expand the reach of my research to other geographies in the Levantine and SWANA region, and to ensure maximum impact of the research by sharing it with people who might use the work for teaching, further research, and policy-formation. The series will expand four core debates which were discussed in the thesis, under the umbrella term, 'Limbo urbanism'. These debates concern: what constitutes 'the urban' and 'urbanisation'; planning from the 'periphery' of national political geographies; declining and emerging economies of small urban places in predominantly rural regions; and, the uncertain futures of rapid urbanisation trajectories.
I will host the series across three institutions: University College London's Geography Department, Development Planning Unit and American University of Beirut's Beirut Urban Lab. Through this workshop series, I aim to identify a team of scholars who are prepared to advise on a three-year fellowship proposal, for the ESRC New Investigator, Leverhulme Early Career and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship schemes. With my mentor's guidance, I will establish a small advisory group from workshop speakers and participants. Together, we will identify funders, core themes, questions and methodologies to build a case for support by the end of the fellowship.
