Ana Almuedo-Castillo (Exeter): Resisting the sectarian: A paradigm for peacebuilding in Lebanon

The politisation of sectarianism and the institutionalisation of confessionalism as a form of organisation for the political, social and economic life have encouraged the perpetuation of sectarian conflict as a form of interaction in Lebanon. The entrenchment of sectarianism in Lebanese politics and society have drawn a picture of immobile sectarian boundaries and conflict. However, the study of sectarian conflict requires the acknowledgement that sectarianism may not be the only political and social paradigm operating in Lebanon, whilst it is necessary that we study spaces where this paradigm is contested. Resistance and contestation of the sectarian conflict is an ongoing process in any divided society. Lebanese citizens marrying abroad as a way of avoiding the current Lebanese law by which all citizens have to marry under one of the 18 officially recognised religions represent a community that have made the informed decision of not abiding with the sectarian system. These Lebanese may not have mobilised as a group to claim their right to civil marriage; they do form not a collectivity of actors or a social movement, but through their act they have found the path of least resistance to the imposition of sectarianism upon their lives. Everyday forms of resistance against sectarianism happen at the bottom of the society as a quiet, invisible and even unintended practice of contestation. The study of this practice may in the first place provide us with a critical approach to sectarianism, while in the second place it advances a new paradigm for the study of peacebuilding as a bottom-up and intrinsic local process.