Daniel Meier - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Daniel Meier
Oriente Moderno, 2014
This article highlights the many dimensions of the threat that exists nowadays in Lebanon regardi... more This article highlights the many dimensions of the threat that exists nowadays in Lebanon regarding the impact of the Syrian uprising turning into a civil war. To do so, I will firstly focus on the issue of Syrian refugee in Lebanon. Recalling the Syrian-Lebanese complex relationship, the article delves in the collective memory of the Palestinian issue in Lebanon that pops up again as thousands of them are fleeing Syria to seek refuge in Palestinian camps. In the second part, the article addresses the related question of Sunnis/Shiites tensions that have become a significant factor in the Syrian civil war and that have been imported into Lebanon by major political parties and entrepreneurs of violence.
Among the cultural production on borderlines in the Middle East, the Hizbullah Museum on the site... more Among the cultural production on borderlines in the Middle East, the Hizbullah Museum on the site of “Mleeta” drawn on several aspects that inscribes it as a borderscape as it links politics with aesthetics. Built in 2010 on the former frontline of the Israeli occupied zone in South Lebanon, Mleeta articulate heritage, memory, and leisure with politics, education and morality. As part of the resistance society building, the blurring of the boundaries between tourism, architecture and ideology is done through the specific using that is ordering the landscape and the natural environment of this southern borderland as a vantage ground for its vision of the world. This major transformation of the borderland into a borderscape was render possible because of the transformation of South Lebanon into a Hizbullah’s military stronghold since the end of the 1980s and thanks to a new political trade-off after the Syrian withdrawal of Lebanon (2005) that confirmed its influence over the Lebanese...
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. The blind spot: Palestinian refugees from Syria in Lebanon Daniel Meier
This paper try to follow an inspiration of the famous sociologist Georg Simmel who tried to show ... more This paper try to follow an inspiration of the famous sociologist Georg Simmel who tried to show that a conflict is not only antagonism but also a form of socialization. His main example was the understanding between enemies to protect the victims or more simply any agreement on a framework to rule the violence. (Simmel, 1992 : 275). Here we would like to focus how violence can be created and protracted in an international context, through the example of one of the most tensed situations of the Middle East crisis, the relation between Hizbullah and Israel. For a long time now, South Lebanon has been a battlefront for these two actors and, occasionally, turned to a war zone. More than describing this situation, we would like to highlight this old and special link that exists between Hizbullah and Israel since 1982 and following its evolution in order to understand what had fuelled and strengthened it. What is surprising is this sort of intimacy that had developed between enemies: dur...
S’il n’est pas rare de voir paraitre des publications collectives sur des questions de territoire... more S’il n’est pas rare de voir paraitre des publications collectives sur des questions de territoire au Moyen-Orient sous la plume de geographes ou d’autres portant sur des enjeux de conflits chez les politologues, il est moins courant de pouvoir lire sous un meme chapeau des contributions melant ces deux themes dans une acception pluridisciplinaire. Les auteurs rassembles dans le present volume melent avantageusement des perspectives historiques, anthropologiques, geographiques ou de science po...
Syria: Borders, Boundaries, and the State, 2020
Most of the political analysis of Hizbullah’s involvement in the conflict in Syria dealt with its... more Most of the political analysis of Hizbullah’s involvement in the conflict in Syria dealt with its relationship with Iran’s regional goals and more directly with the interest to secure the alliance with the Baathist regime in Damascus. While the latter is of some interest for our purpose, this paper would like to reflect upon a larger historical trajectory of the Shiite movement in Lebanon while taking into account its previous experience in the southern borderlands to analyse its current political strategy along the eastern borderlands (Qalamoun region). It aims at identifying the main patterns of power when it comes to the territorialisation of power in border regions. Therefore, the paper will rely on the b/ordering—othering theoretical framework which tends to highlight the interactions between legitimisation process and the use of violence at the edge of the State. Moreover, the paradoxical goals of Hizbullah as a non-state actor will appear as the movement clearly contribute to shape the territorial delineation of Lebanon’s nation-state boundaries alongside its own political identity as a nationalist party.
Cette contribution entend interroger les enjeux d’un terrain de recherche dans les regions disput... more Cette contribution entend interroger les enjeux d’un terrain de recherche dans les regions disputees entre Kurdes et Arabes au nord de l’Irak. Apres avoir souleve plusieurs limites inherentes aux conditions specifiques de cette recherche, l’auteur emmene le lecteur au fil de l’enquete en train de se faire et propose une analyse autoreflexive a partir du reperage des embuscades methodologiques et des difficultes ethiques auxquelles un tel terrain expose le chercheur. Ce faisant, il evoque les conditions de son sejour, ses contacts avec des informateurs et ses observations dans un environnement crepusculaire, tendu et marque par un pouvoir autoritaire. Il revient en particulier sur les conditions de possibilites des interactions qualitatives au vu des enjeux securitaires auquel il doit faire face en preservant une ethique de la pratique qui entend donner la parole a ceux qui ne l’ont pas.
Israël/Palestine, l'illusion de la séparation, 2017
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2011
Revue Géographique de l'Est, 2009
Mediterranean Politics, 2020
Oriente Moderno, 2014
This article highlights the many dimensions of the threat that exists nowadays in Lebanon regardi... more This article highlights the many dimensions of the threat that exists nowadays in Lebanon regarding the impact of the Syrian uprising turning into a civil war. To do so, I will firstly focus on the issue of Syrian refugee in Lebanon. Recalling the Syrian-Lebanese complex relationship, the article delves in the collective memory of the Palestinian issue in Lebanon that pops up again as thousands of them are fleeing Syria to seek refuge in Palestinian camps. In the second part, the article addresses the related question of Sunnis/Shiites tensions that have become a significant factor in the Syrian civil war and that have been imported into Lebanon by major political parties and entrepreneurs of violence.
Among the cultural production on borderlines in the Middle East, the Hizbullah Museum on the site... more Among the cultural production on borderlines in the Middle East, the Hizbullah Museum on the site of “Mleeta” drawn on several aspects that inscribes it as a borderscape as it links politics with aesthetics. Built in 2010 on the former frontline of the Israeli occupied zone in South Lebanon, Mleeta articulate heritage, memory, and leisure with politics, education and morality. As part of the resistance society building, the blurring of the boundaries between tourism, architecture and ideology is done through the specific using that is ordering the landscape and the natural environment of this southern borderland as a vantage ground for its vision of the world. This major transformation of the borderland into a borderscape was render possible because of the transformation of South Lebanon into a Hizbullah’s military stronghold since the end of the 1980s and thanks to a new political trade-off after the Syrian withdrawal of Lebanon (2005) that confirmed its influence over the Lebanese...
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. The blind spot: Palestinian refugees from Syria in Lebanon Daniel Meier
This paper try to follow an inspiration of the famous sociologist Georg Simmel who tried to show ... more This paper try to follow an inspiration of the famous sociologist Georg Simmel who tried to show that a conflict is not only antagonism but also a form of socialization. His main example was the understanding between enemies to protect the victims or more simply any agreement on a framework to rule the violence. (Simmel, 1992 : 275). Here we would like to focus how violence can be created and protracted in an international context, through the example of one of the most tensed situations of the Middle East crisis, the relation between Hizbullah and Israel. For a long time now, South Lebanon has been a battlefront for these two actors and, occasionally, turned to a war zone. More than describing this situation, we would like to highlight this old and special link that exists between Hizbullah and Israel since 1982 and following its evolution in order to understand what had fuelled and strengthened it. What is surprising is this sort of intimacy that had developed between enemies: dur...
S’il n’est pas rare de voir paraitre des publications collectives sur des questions de territoire... more S’il n’est pas rare de voir paraitre des publications collectives sur des questions de territoire au Moyen-Orient sous la plume de geographes ou d’autres portant sur des enjeux de conflits chez les politologues, il est moins courant de pouvoir lire sous un meme chapeau des contributions melant ces deux themes dans une acception pluridisciplinaire. Les auteurs rassembles dans le present volume melent avantageusement des perspectives historiques, anthropologiques, geographiques ou de science po...
Syria: Borders, Boundaries, and the State, 2020
Most of the political analysis of Hizbullah’s involvement in the conflict in Syria dealt with its... more Most of the political analysis of Hizbullah’s involvement in the conflict in Syria dealt with its relationship with Iran’s regional goals and more directly with the interest to secure the alliance with the Baathist regime in Damascus. While the latter is of some interest for our purpose, this paper would like to reflect upon a larger historical trajectory of the Shiite movement in Lebanon while taking into account its previous experience in the southern borderlands to analyse its current political strategy along the eastern borderlands (Qalamoun region). It aims at identifying the main patterns of power when it comes to the territorialisation of power in border regions. Therefore, the paper will rely on the b/ordering—othering theoretical framework which tends to highlight the interactions between legitimisation process and the use of violence at the edge of the State. Moreover, the paradoxical goals of Hizbullah as a non-state actor will appear as the movement clearly contribute to shape the territorial delineation of Lebanon’s nation-state boundaries alongside its own political identity as a nationalist party.
Cette contribution entend interroger les enjeux d’un terrain de recherche dans les regions disput... more Cette contribution entend interroger les enjeux d’un terrain de recherche dans les regions disputees entre Kurdes et Arabes au nord de l’Irak. Apres avoir souleve plusieurs limites inherentes aux conditions specifiques de cette recherche, l’auteur emmene le lecteur au fil de l’enquete en train de se faire et propose une analyse autoreflexive a partir du reperage des embuscades methodologiques et des difficultes ethiques auxquelles un tel terrain expose le chercheur. Ce faisant, il evoque les conditions de son sejour, ses contacts avec des informateurs et ses observations dans un environnement crepusculaire, tendu et marque par un pouvoir autoritaire. Il revient en particulier sur les conditions de possibilites des interactions qualitatives au vu des enjeux securitaires auquel il doit faire face en preservant une ethique de la pratique qui entend donner la parole a ceux qui ne l’ont pas.
Israël/Palestine, l'illusion de la séparation, 2017
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2011
Revue Géographique de l'Est, 2009
Mediterranean Politics, 2020
A Contrario, 2012
This is the introduction to a special number of A Contrario that I coordinated with Daniel Meier.... more This is the introduction to a special number of A Contrario that I coordinated with Daniel Meier. It has three main parts. First it discusses humanitarianism, in attempt to define it and summarize some of what people have been writing on the topic recently. In the second part it considers the place of faith-based organisations in humanitarianism, as well as historical and other linkages between humanitarianism and religion (e.g. missionary work). Third, it summarizes the articles that will be published in the special number.
Palgrave, 2017
This book provides an intimate picture of Lebanon, exploring the impacts of the Arab uprisings of... more This book provides an intimate picture of Lebanon, exploring the impacts of the Arab uprisings of 2011 which are deeply affecting Lebanese politics and society. The book examines Lebanon’s current issues and its deep sectarian divisions, as well as the ways in which it still seems able to find some adaptation paths to face the many challenges left by its regional sectarian and political polarization. Authors delve into border regions, Syrian refugees, the welfare state, the Lebanese Army, popular mobilisations in 2011 and the two main communities, the Sunnis and the Shia. Built on various fieldwork researches, the volume explores each of the topics through the lenses of identification building processes, the re-ordering of social and/or political relations, and the nationhood symbols and meanings.