Maintaining unsustainability: A relational-comparative assessment of rapid urban transformation in Dublin and Beirut

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jan 2018
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

Uni
Principal Investigator(s):

Markus HESSE

About

The nascent category of ‘relational cities’ or, better, relational urbanisation, has highlighted the specific features, qualities and problems of ‘small-but-global’ urban configurations experiencing rapid transformation towards positionality within a capitalist economic framework of material, human and capital flows. This project seeks to extend research on the ‘relational city’ beyond a subset of micro-states, city-states and regional financial hubs to take account of the problems in housing, infrastructure and labour in the major cities of ‘small states’ which arise from rapid re-orientation of the city (and state’s) economy in an economic context of globalisation, financialisation and an industrial shift towards advanced services. A relational-comparative study using primarily qualitative methodologies considers the case studies of Dublin (Ireland) and Beirut (Lebanon). The study engages with institutional, civil society, economic and political actors to explore the complex governance paradigm and political geographies which underpin the particular form of ‘uneven development’ relevant to an increasing number of smaller, but internationalising, cities and produce the magnified problems in housing, transport, logistics, infrastructure and labour they encounter, and how these are contested, mitigated and maintained.