Vice president of I2UD Dr. Mona Serageldin gave a keynote lecture at the 2015 City Debates conference at the American University of Beirut. The conference, entitled “Other Gentrifications: Urban Change Beyond the Core”, took place on March 4-6th. City Debates explored the processes of urban change associated with gentrification within a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern setting. The conference brought together scholars and practitioners working on cities across the region to discuss gentrification in the context of post-conflict and post-crisis reconstructions, foreign and domestic investment and disinvestment, communal and political tensions, and regional insecurities.
Dr. Serageldin spoke on “The Dynamics of Neighborhood Transformation, Long Term Trends, and Immediate Responses to Turmoil and Civil Unrest”. In her lecture she explored issues of spatial segregation, social exclusion, diversity, and social mixity in the context of Mashreq countries. Her presentation highlighted the role of remittances in proliferating densification of informal settlements and sharpening class differentiation within them, the impact of government-led upgrading projects on gentrification and displacement, and the resurgence of semi-private spaces. Dr. Serageldin’s lecture also focused on the recent impacts of turmoil and civil unrest, including the rapid growth of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in urban areas and the increase of security concerns conditioning locational choice, which is leading to the fragmentation of cities into ethnic and religious enclaves and socially homogenous neighborhoods.
City Debates was sponsored by the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut in collaboration with the AUB Neighborhood Initiative. For more information, visit the conference website.