Ethnicity homegrown: how the Lebanese-Argentines in Buenos Aires construct ethnicity

This work explores the construction of ethnicity among the Lebanese-Argentine population of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although exact figures for the Lebanese population of Argentina are unknown, estimates hover around one and a half million (the national census does not require specification of ethnicity). The majority of these third-, fourth- and fifth-generation Lebanese-Argentines are descendents of early Syro-Lebanese immigrants. These migrants from Greater Syria culturally assimilated to their new “home” at the insistence of the Argentine government and xenophobic elite of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Consequently, constructing a Lebanese-Argentine ethnic identity today means doing so when distance and passing time mean a cultural chasm between Lebanon and Buenos Aires. Just how do those of Lebanese heritage in Buenos Aires do it then? Some of them do not. The thesis argues that Lebanese-Argentine ethnic identity is non-essential. However, if and when descendants of Lebanese heritage do decide to construct a hybrid Lebanese ethnic identity in Buenos Aires, it is a simulation of what it means to be Lebanese. More explicitly, members of the Lebanese-Argentine ethnic group reference and express ethnic emblems germane to Lebanese ethnicity according to their understanding of Lebanese-ness. And the implications are profound. Those Lebanese-Argentines who subscribe to a Lebanese ethnic identity join an imagined global Lebanese ethnic community, one which has the potential to supersede national borders and influence the course of international politics

Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian Explanations of Political Actions in the Middle East

This study investigated how people affiliated with different parties in an international conflict understand their own actions and the actions of their adversaries. Using data gathered in the Middle East in 1982, the study examined the explanations offered by 1336 Israeli Jews, Palestinians (living in Israel) and Egyptians to three political events in the Middle East: \u27Israeli Air Force conducts a raid on Beirut,\u27 \u27Palestinians attack a bus on the Haifa-Tel Aviv highway,\u27 and \u27A peace treaty is announced between Israel and Egypt.\u27 The study, an exploratory analysis, was carried out in a sequence of stages. First, the analysis involved a comparison of the substantive interpretations of the \u27same\u27 events by people from three Middle Eastern societies. Second, a typology of responses to the three political events was developed which identified different cognitive orientations toward the conflict environment. Third, distinctive patterns of response across the three political events were identified using latent class analysis (Lazarsfeld, 1954, 1959; Goodman, 1974). It was expected that parties to a conflict would explain the \u27same\u27 events differently. The extent of these differences, however, varied not only by nationality, but with each type of event. War events were seen as more familiar and predictable in their causes and consequences than peace events. Thus, the study revealed parallel ways of thinking about war events across societies. In contrast, a peace action generated differences in interpretation among all three of the national groups. At the cognitive level the peace action appeared to unsettle the stereotypic expectations that each party has of the others, implying that rather than trying to change perceptions by addressing them directly via cognitive techniques, more types of events are needed which can shake up the closed perceptual system created by ongoing hostile events

Administrative reforms in pluralistic societies : the case of Lebanon.

This dissertation examines the processes and dynamics of administrative reform in the Lebanese multi-confessional context. It explores whether these processes exhibit special features or characteristics and the extent to which they are conditioned by the realities of the Lebanese pluralistic environment. The orientation in this thesis is indeed consistent with recent writings in the administrative reform literature, which emphasize the contextual distinctiveness of administration and reform in each country and the need to account for embedded contextual differences. The research thus attempts to place Lebanese administrative reform in a specific historical, cultural, and political frame of reference and link it to the realities of pluralism and sectarian politics in Lebanon. Further, the research undertakes an in-depth case study examination of two adrninistrtive ectocs (tee a&3 ad &i g greater insight into post-war Lebanese reform patterns and dynamics. The research highlights the complexity of administrative reform and the fact that reform endeavors are invariably conditioned by a multitude of embedded and contingent factors, cultural, political and economic. The research also suggests the potential influence of the regional and international environments on country-specific programs of planned change. Indeed, the research suggests that the complex inter-relationships of these various factors and their specific constellations in specific periods can exert a significant influence on the course and fate of reform initiatives and help account for the specific reform trajectories observed in Lebanon before and after the wa

Intercommunal relations and the 1958 crisis in Lebanon.

The 1958 crisis in Lebanon was a significant event in modern Middle Eastern and international history. Interpretations, however, overlook or subordinate the Lebanese dimensions and how the Lebanese interpreted crisis and causation, through the lens of established community mythologies. Lebanon contains different, confessionally-defined communities, with a long history of tensions and clashes between them. Examination of these enables the Lebanese dimensions to the 1958 crisis to be given due weight. While regional and international dimensions are of clear importance, the crisis resulted from internal Lebanese factors, long and short term, relating to the different communities, rather than to the impact of international issues such as Nasserism. Where such issues were significant it was because they were not imposed, but invoked by Lebanese elements in the name of Lebanese foreign policy, in order to further their own cause and agendas for Lebanon. The mythologies surrounding the 'historical' evolution of the communities helped shape the differing agendas for Lebanon. Of the communities, the Maronite community and its invocation of mythology has played a consistently significant role. The Druze and Sunni, were, at different times, of significance also, particularly in terms of relations with the Maronites. These groups used their interpretations of the 'history' of Lebanon to justify their agendas for the future of Lebanon, and in so doing, helped to precipitate a crisis. The political compromise set up to administer Lebanon was based on 'historical' assumptions and differences, and was consequently vulnerable. In this context, the role of Chamoun in escalating the ever-present level of intercommunal tension, in 1957 and 1958, is another major element in the study. The study uses a range of sources, including official and private papers, unpublished memoirs, oral evidence and newspapers, to map communal feelings and tensions leading to the crisis itself, and its resolution

The Role of Civil Society in a Fragmented and a Weak Arab State: Developing or Fragmenting the State? Analyzing the Mujtama Ahli, Mujtama Taefi and Mujtama Madani in Lebanon

Discussing Civil Society in the Middle East. Civil Society Liberal Democracy and the Lebanese State. Weak States; Failed States and the Case of Lebanon. Mujtama Ahli, Mujtama Taefi and the State in Lebanon. Development of the Mujtama Madani and the State of Lebanon.Discussing Civil Society in the Middle East. Civil Society Liberal Democracy and the Lebanese State. Weak States; Failed States and the Case of Lebanon. Mujtama Ahli, Mujtama Taefi and the State in Lebanon. Development of the Mujtama Madani and the State of Lebanon.LUISS PhD Thesi

Lebanese Subjectivities and Media Use: Post/Global Contexts

Media use is neither socially determined nor socially determinative outside of subjectivity, the process by which the self makes meaning of its place in the world. To further our understandings of media and social change, this dissertation examines the relationship between Lebanese media use and subjectivities in different times and geographic locations, including within the Lebanese diaspora. It incorporates three case studies, including textual analyses of 1) representations of Syro-Lebanese Oklahoman immigrants in The Oklahoman from 1901 to 1958; 2) discourses on media and communication in the contemporary Lebanese civil war novel; and 3) constructions of journalistic authority within the Lebanese blogosphere during the 2006 Summer Israeli-Hizballah war. Through these case studies, this dissertation investigates how global power is constructed/perpetuated/resisted via existing communication channels and patterns of relating that have been created throughout history