Memory and Identity in Post-Civil War Lebanon

The Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) left deep fractures in social cohesion, urban fabric and cultural narratives. In its wake, communities have engaged in contested processes of remembering and identity-making, negotiating between the urges for reconciliation and the legacies of sectarian division. Public spaces, material heritage and artistic media have emerged as both battlegrounds and conduits for collective memory, shaping how Lebanese citizens perceive and perform their multifaceted identities. This body of work examines how physical sites—from river corridors to neighbourhood squares—serve as memoryscapes, where official commemorations interweave with grassroots practices of storytelling, art and protest. It also considers the role of generational shifts, diaspora connections and international interventions in reframing past conflicts and imagining future pluralistic selves. The research highlights the interplay between place attachment, social identity and the politics of erasure and restoration, emphasising the global significance of Lebanon’s experience for post-conflict societies seeking to balance heritage preservation, urban redevelopment and communal reconciliation. Concrete examples include efforts to rehabilitate war-scarred buildings, artistic archives of wartime testimonies and the transformation of contested zones into arenas for civic engagement, all underscoring the dynamic relations between remembering and belonging in a society marked by recurring crises.

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Memory and Identity in Post-Civil War Lebanon publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in memory and identity in post-civil war lebanon across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Collective memory: Shared representations of past events that shape group identity and inform present social practices.

Social identity: An individual’s sense of belonging to social groups, often defined by religion, ethnicity or shared experience.

Place attachment: Emotional bond between individuals or communities and specific physical locations, influencing perceptions of heritage and belonging.

Liminality: The quality of being in an intermediate or transitional state, especially in spaces or conditions between established categories.

References

1. Transformations of the Beirut River: Between Temporary and Permanent Liminality. Urban Planning (2024).
2. The Evolutions, Transformations, and Adaptations in Beirut’s Public Spaces. Urban Planning (2022).
3. Yallah Bye or the Dream of a Farewell to War. Il Tolomeo (2021).