De la territorialisation des controverses : métropolisation, déterritorialisation et (re)territorialisation à Beyrouth

This article deals with modalities of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation in cities undergoing metropolisation processes. In these cities, territorial evolution is becoming less related to logics of centrality linking the city and its hinterlands. It is more affected by competition logics between different centralities anchored in different local and international actors and place networks, leading to the “deterritorialisation” of the city. This evolution represents a considerable political challenge for urban citizens as well as for institutions in charge of urban regulation. The main answers to this challenge usually aim to bring back coherence through efforts of “reterritorialisation”. This reterritorialisation builds on territorial governance strategies that may deploy on three different scales : metropolitan, regional or local. Through the case of Beirut, this article stresses that, though of different or even opposing nature, these three forms of territorial governance may be simultaneously operating in the same urban context. The article also asserts that focusing on the development of controversies linked to the organization and use of urban space, and mainly to large urban projects, could serve as a framework for understanding the articulation, tension and mutual development of these governances. Controversies push actors to position themselves, build or redefine networks and engage in projects that would transform urban space, resulting in various modalities of reterritorialisation of the city