Beyrouth, Grand-Beyrouth

Author / Creator

Jean-Luc Arnaud (dir.)

Available as

Online

Summary

Beirut, Greater Beirut. Behind the terse title of this book, to say the least, it is not just a question of the size of the Beirut conurbation. To account for the debates and positions taken - impl...

Beirut, Greater Beirut. Behind the terse title of this book, to say the least, it is not just a question of the size of the Beirut conurbation. To account for the debates and positions taken - implicit or not - relating to the development of the urbanization of Beirut since the middle of the 19th century, the notion of limit and that of extent have been more strongly mobilized; those of territory and hinterland have also been used. Through the thirteen articles gathered in this book, the authors try to better understand how Beirut, a simple cabotage port with only a few thousand inhabitants in the middle of the 19th century, currently groups together more than a million and spans several tens of square kilometres. It is therefore a work in history, but not only. After seventeen years of a war which particularly affected it, the Lebanese capital is being rebuilt. Beyond the urban space, this reconstruction is part of issues that can only be grasped in an analysis of the territories of Beirut and Lebanon which extend from the inner suburbs to the borders of the Syrian plain. If the works of historians constitute the first part of the publication, it is geographers, anthropologists, architects and town planners who have fed the others. Beyond the increase in the volume of knowledge, the fact that the authors are for the most part young researchers - less marked than their elders by the difficulties of carrying out research during the war - also contributes, in its way,

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