The Finnish Institute in the Middle East invites you to submit abstracts for a workshop to be convened under the theme, Spaces of everyday life – Spaces of contestation: Urban space as lived and fought for. The workshop is scheduled to take place in Beirut on November 18-19, 2025. The workshop aims to bring together scholars working on the intersections of urban studies, social movements, everyday politics, and the histories of the modern Middle East.
This workshop focuses on contestations over public space in Middle Eastern urban environments. In the past decade and half, popular dissent has paraded with uprisings and popular revolts, locally called revolutions. These have often revolved around central squares and urban spaces of national heritage, a trend preceded by uprisings in post-socialist eastern Europe during the early 2000’s. These distinctly urban events have facilitated live media coverage, also an important element for today’s acts of resistance. But not all resistance takes place in large gatherings or as part of transformative events. Besides, political work takes place in the everyday, when people gather in their neighbourhoods, as spontaneous groups or as concerned citizens. We will ask: what are the urban spaces of everyday contestations where residents struggle and cultivate possibilities for a decent living? What happens in such spaces? How are such spaces linked to wider political dissent? And how should such spaces be intersectionally conceptualized? Are they best discussed as public spaces or urban commons, or are other concepts needed? While the Arab uprisings of 2011 and 2019 pointed local and global attention on large gatherings and mass protests, less heed was paid to everyday spaces of resistance and contestation. After the setbacks suffered by the revolts and uprisings, we find relevance in return to persistent questions of everyday spatial dissent. This workshop redirects attention to the quotidian, while keeping in mind the lessons from a decade of public and scholarly focus on the square as a locus of protest and active citizenship.
Please submit a 400-word abstract with a short bio to lotta.huotari@fime.fi by October 31st.
There is limited financial assistance to cover travel and accommodation expenses for participants who are not based in Beirut. Please indicate in your application whether you will be needing financial assistance to attend. We might consider online presentations for those unable to travel/attend in person.