Urban forms at intersection of Imperialism and Colonialism

Towards the end of the 19th century and the WWI geopolitical aftermath, Beirut presents a case along the Eastern Mediterranean at the intersection of two major colonial powers, the Ottoman Imperialism and French Colonialism. Dissociated from the province of Damascus in 1888, Beirut was elevated to the rank of provincial capital of Wilâya, the geographical borders of which spanned the equivalent of four actual countries. Following this administrative upgrade Beirut benefited from the Tanzimat reforms and the Sultan Abdul Hamid II jubilee in 1901. This paper will highlight the implementations of these political moments on urban forms and the urban landmarks for the ruler’s glory. Under the French mandate, Beirut role shifted from being provincial capital of a Wilâya part of the Ottoman Empire, to being capital of a Republic country with newly defined borders. Preceding the French Colonialism, Sultan Abdul Hamid II envisioned Westernizing some of the Ottoman Empire cities to the image of the European urban model. Alternately, the French were very enthusiastic to modernize Beirut, their prime image in the Levant. At this moment, Beirut’s urban fate was at the intersection of two visions of Westernization, the late Ottoman Imperialism and the early French Colonialism. An attempt to better understand the urban implications of this turn of century intersection, will be achieved by highlighting urban forms continuities and ruptures as a methodology observed in the broader geopolitical context. It is a chance to reflect on the modes of borrowing Western urban forms and examining the blurred boundaries of their planning, juxtaposition or imposition on an existing urban order. It will as well unfold in a parallel mode how each colonial power approached and applied different urban practices on their occupied territories

Recurrent Warscape in Beirut public spaces: forty years later (1975-2015)

In the context of a tormented Middle East geopolitics and the ongoing Arabo-Israeli conflict, a civil war erupted in Lebanon in 1975 and went uninterrupted for fifteen long years. As early as the first two-years-round of civil war in 1975-77, violent armed conflict manifested itself in an urban nature and contextualized in the capital Beirut. Back then, the civil war targeted systematically the public spaces and achieved purposefully the dual objective of mutating social practice and mutilating their urban form into a geography of fear. Intriguingly, during the unreconciled civil war aftermath, the display of instability and conflict kept on marking sporadically the same public spaces at different incidents. Three decades following the eruption of urban violence in 1975, intermittent events of social and political nature took place between 2005 and 2015, triggered by the assassination of the prime minister. This paper will tackle the two case studies of public spaces which are the pivots of the recurrent warscape: Place des Martyrs and the seaside hotels’ area, both symbols of social and geographic contestations at simultaneous times of peace and war. Based on an interdisciplinary literature, the socio political manifestations will be highlighted by unfolding them across time and space. Signs of discontentment and instability are manifested under different facets and patterns varying from passive intangible representations to active outbursts. The perpetuation of events hitherto occurring in the same urban spaces will be studied from the perspective of the social and political realities. In the absence of a mono-causal factor for warscape recurrence, mapping conflict in the urban space is a suggested tool to approach the perpetuation issue from a context-specific perspective. It is as well an opportunity to raise the question on the relation between the socio-political claims and their reverberation in the same urban spaces

On the making of public spaces in Beirut

[eng] This research tackles the public spaces in the framework of Beirut’s mosaic history, whereby the Middle East constitutes the background and not the context. It will first identify the public spaces by shedding light on their genesis and tracking their evolution in relation to the city’s urban history. The approach on public spaces history is multi-faceted and interpreted based on a parallelism between the urban morphology, the functional aspect, social practice, and political condition. In the same way, the significance of public spaces is tackled as an intrinsic dimension transcending their physical existence, embodied in history and memory, thus their possible cohesion in the future city plans. Following the study of the relation of public spaces to the urban history, a closer look will be based on the two case studies of Martyr Square and the Waterfront’s transformation across time. The research followed a dual scale reading of the public spaces; a general overview was followed by a closer perspective on the case studies. This bi-fold display highlighted all the complex aspect of the public spaces in their continuities and discontinuities within the city model. The question on public spaces arises in the aftermath of the reconstruction following the civil war years. In a socially and physically traumatized city, studying public spaces will set a reference for the future intervention

Narrating Beirut Public Spaces Westernization

Towards the late 19th century, Beirut is at the crossroad of two main political powers, the Ottoman Empire and the French Mandate. Dissociated from the province of Damascus in 1888, Beirut was elevated to the rank of provincial capital of Wilâya, the geographical borders of which spanned the equivalent of four actual countries. Preceding the French regime, the Ottomans envisioned westernizing some of the Empire cities to the image of the European urban example. Alternately, the French were very prone to modernize Beirut, a city considered as their prime image in the Levant. At this moment of its history, Beirut’s urban fate was at the intersection of two visions of Westernization, the late Ottoman and the early French mandate rules. This paper taps into Beirut’s urban identity through the lens of its public spaces, in the broader geographical and political context. By framing the intersection of the Late Ottoman and French visions of Westernization, the studied intramuros and extramuros public spaces reveal the transformations of the urban fabric. Whilst tackling the public spaces spatial transformation, the paper discusses as well the urban implications of Westernization on the city as a whole, highlighting the major shift of the urban model from a medieval city with a port into a major port-city.Vers la fin du 19e siècle, Beyrouth est au croisement de deux grandes puissances politiques, l'empire Ottoman et le Mandat Français. Dissociée de la province de Damas en 1888, Beyrouth était élevée au rang de capitale provinciale de Wilâya, dont les frontières géographiques couvrent l'équivalent de quatre pays actuels. Avant le régime français, les Ottomans avaient envisagé d'occidentaliser certaines des villes de l'Empire à l'image de l'exemple urbain Européen. Alternativement, les Français étaient très enclins à moderniser Beyrouth, une ville considérée comme leur image privilégiée au Levant. À ce moment de son histoire, le destin urbain de Beyrouth se trouvait à la croisée de deux visions d’Occidentalisation, celles de la fin de la période Ottomane et des premières années du Mandat français. Ce document s’appuie sur l’identité urbaine de Beyrouth à travers la perspective de ses espaces publics, dans un contexte géographique et politique plus large. En encadrant l'intersection des visions occidentale et Ottomane tardives, les espaces publics intramuros et extramuros étudiés révèlent les transformations du tissu urbain. Tout en abordant la transformation spatiale des espaces publics, le document discute également des implications urbaines de l'occidentalisation sur la ville dans son ensemble, en soulignant le changement majeur du modèle urbain d'une ville médiévale dotée d'un port, à une ville portuaire majeure

T-Cell-Specific CerS4 Depletion Prolonged Inflammation and Enhanced Tumor Burden in the AOM/DSS-Induced CAC Model

To better understand the role of sphingolipids in the multifactorial process of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we elucidated the role of CerS4 in colitis and colitis-associated cancer (CAC). For this, we utilized the azoxymethane/dextran sodium sulphate (AOM/DSS)-induced colitis model in global CerS4 knockout (CerS4 KO), intestinal epithelial (CerS4 Vil/Cre), or T-cell restricted knockout (CerS4 LCK/Cre) mice. CerS4 KO mice were highly sensitive to the toxic effect of AOM/DSS, leading to a high mortality rate. CerS4 Vil/Cre mice had smaller tumors than WT mice. In contrast, CerS4 LCK/Cre mice frequently suffered from pancolitis and developed more colon tumors. In vitro, CerS4-depleted CD8+ T-cells isolated from the thymi of CerS4 LCK/Cre mice showed impaired proliferation and prolonged cytokine production after stimulation in comparison with T-cells from WT mice. Depletion of CerS4 in human Jurkat T-cells led to a constitutively activated T-cell receptor and NF-κB signaling pathway. In conclusion, the deficiency of CerS4 in T-cells led to an enduring active status of these cells and prevents the resolution of inflammation, leading to a higher tumor burden in the CAC mouse model. In contrast, CerS4 deficiency in epithelial cells resulted in smaller colon tumors and seemed to be beneficial. The higher tumor incidence in CerS4 LCK/Cre mice and the toxic effect of AOM/DSS in CerS4 KO mice exhibited the importance of CerS4 in other tissues and revealed the complexity of general targeting CerS4

Liban

Le Liban est au carrefour de la Méditerranée et de l'Orient arabe. Il concrétise une longue histoire naturelle de la construction des paysages levantins jusqu'à leurs façonnements par l’Homme depuis l’Holocène jusqu'à 21e siècle. Ce numéro spécial propose au travers les six articles, des lectures historiques et contemporaine de la transformation des territoires dans sa capitale Beyrouth, dans son espace montagnard et sa plaine agricole. Dans un premier volet, les transformations de l’espace urbain à Beyrouth sont décrites au travers l’occidentalisation des espaces publics depuis la fin du 19e siècle, suivies d’une étude morpho-dynamique à une échelle fine du tissu du bâti de la ville depuis 1950. Dans un deuxième volet, le Mont-Liban a connu aussi une recomposition territoriale de son espace reflétant une mobilité des populations et leurs adaptations depuis le Néolithique jusqu’aux époques historiques. Une étude de cette recomposition politique du territoire montagnard depuis 1975 repositionne le Mont-Liban entre espace « refuges » et espace « mondialisé ». Le dernier volet se focalise sur la plaine agricole de la Beqaa, les transformations de son occupation du sol ainsi que les stratégies d’adaptations adoptées face aux défis accrus de sécheresse. Lebanon is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean basin and the Middle-East. The country’s landscape reflects a variety of ecosystems, topography and micro-climate. Located at the crossroads of human dispersal routes, the landscape is hampered by human activity since the Neolithic time. This issue proposes different case studies regarding territorial transformation divided into three thematic parts. First, the transformation of the urban spaces in Beirut are described through the westernization of public spaces since the end of the 19th century followed by a morpho-dynamic study of the urban fabric of the city since 1950. Second, the mountainous areas of Lebanon were also impacted by human activity and mobility since the Neolithic. A first case study on spatial pattern of human occupation in Mount Lebanon describe the population dynamics and the adaptation strategies adopted in an archeological site. A second case study describe the political transformation of the Mount-Lebanon since 1975 to examine the mountain territory role between a "refuge" and a "globalized" space. The last part focuses on the agricultural sector in the Beqaa plain with two cases studies, one on the drought monitoring since 2001 and the other on land and water uses strategies followed by farmers to cope with drought challenges