About this Event
Reconstruction is often presented as the hopeful work that begins after war: the rebuilding of homes, neighbourhoods, infrastructure and civic life. But as one of our speakers, Lina Khatib, puts it: “Reconstruction is not the aftermath of war. It is one of the arenas in which the outcome of war is decided.”
This talk asks what happens when war becomes urban business. Who decides what is rebuilt, who returns, who owns the land, who receives compensation and who wins the contracts? Who profits from reconstruction, and who is excluded from the city that emerges afterwards?
Drawing on the speakers’ combined expertise in geopolitics, political economy, urban conflict, visual politics and the urbanisation of war, the event will move across contexts including Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to consider how conflict continues through the built environment — through planning, property, capital, materials and development.
The discussion will ask whether reconstruction can move beyond elite capture, dispossession and erasure, and become instead a process of accountability, return and civic repair.
Speakers
Lina Khatib
Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and Associate Fellow at Chatham House
Lina Khatib is a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, where she previously served as Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme. Her interdisciplinary work spans politics, geopolitics, political economy and socio-political issues in the Middle East, alongside art and culture. She has written widely on power and urban space, including in her book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle.
Deen Sharp
Visiting LSE Fellow in Geography and Environment, London School of Economics; Consultant, United Nations Environment Programme
Deen Sharp, PhD, is a Visiting LSE Fellow in Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and currently works as a consultant with the United Nations Environment Programme on water-responsive urbanism in Africa. His research examines urban conflict, reconstruction and the urbanisation of war. He has co-edited several books, including Reconstruction as Violence in Assad’s Syria, Open Gaza: Architectures of Hope, and Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings.
The event will be followed by informal networking, with a bar open for drinks and the opportunity to continue the conversation.
The series is supported by Jacob Massey, who are providing AV and technical support for the talks, including use of the Building Centre’s immersive screens.
We want this programme to remain accessible while helping us cover the cost of delivering it. Please choose the ticket level that feels right for you. If the £5 ticket would prevent you from attending, please contact us.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00 to GBP 15.00
