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Seeds for socio-spatial justice and equitable mobility for all: The “Bus Map Project” as “Riders’ Rights” in Beirut
Tijdschriftbijdrage - Tijdschriftartikel
The present article discusses the possibilities and limitations of transport-related innovative initiatives in Beirut,
Lebanon, through a socio-spatial institutionalist perspective, within a socially divided neoliberal context splintered
by sectarianism and political turmoil. The article examines the reach of the grassroots initiative “Bus Map Project”,
which in 2019 became the NGO “Riders Rights” (BMP–RR), in achieving socio-spatial justice and equitable
mobility by recreating and reshaping the debate on Beirut’s informal transit system. The latter has various
ambivalent features, and an often negative connotation, since it operates in mixed traffic with other vehicles, with
no fixed stops, and is not considered as formal transit. However, it is a private–publicؘ–civil hybrid system. The
empirical data is built on participatory action research (PAR) with BMP–RR since 2018, socio-spatial and
ethnographic analysis of the informal transit system, and in-depth interviews with various transport-related
agencies. The conclusion emphasizes that the radical ambitions of socially innovative arrangements are possible
even in so unstable and divided contexts as Beirut. However, they are limited by the structural problems of a
consociational government, which are deeply rooted in the Lebanese history and cannot be easily overcome by
such initiatives.
Tijdschrift: Urbani izziv/Urban Challenges
ISSN: 0353-6483
Volume: 32
Pagina's: 77 - 90
Jaar van publicatie:2021
Toegankelijkheid:Open