Rima Majed

Lebanon as a Site of Theory-Making

This project examines the intertwined dynamics of neoliberal capitalism, sectarianism (or identity politics) and revolutionary mobilization through the experience of Lebanon since the October 2019 uprising. At its core is the argument that Lebanon should not be understood as an exceptional or peripheral case, but as a site of theory-making that offers new ways of understanding the contemporary crises of capitalism, democracy, and political imagination. The project proposes to think from Lebanon, treating it as “the future’s past”: a place where political, economic, and social contradictions have intensified in ways that foreshadow broader global trajectories.

The project argues that Lebanon anticipated the global neoliberal turn by several decades. Unlike most countries, it developed without a welfare state, following a trajectory of deregulation and market liberalization long before neoliberalism became globally dominant. At the same time, it institutionalized a consociational political system centered on sectarian representation rather than the developmentalist or authoritarian models that characterized much of the postcolonial Middle East. These intertwined histories of neoliberalism and sectarianism make Lebanon an especially revealing vantage point from which to rethink the global crises of capitalism and democracy.

Sectarian Neoliberalism and Contemporary Revolutions

At the center of the project is the concept of “sectarian neoliberalism”, developed through engagement with debates on racial capitalism, neoliberalism, democracy, feminist political economy, and identity politics. The project argues that neoliberal capitalism depends on mechanisms of social differentiation, including gendered, racialized, ethnicized, regionalized, and sectarian divisions, that become constitutive of economic and political rule. In Lebanon, neoliberalism and sectarianism do not simply coexist but operate as a single governing logic. Identity-based power sharing is therefore understood not primarily as a system of political representation but as a system of discrimination embedded within neoliberal governance.

Rethinking Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Revolution

This project insists on theorizing from the periphery rather than about it. Instead of treating Lebanon as a case study through which to illustrate existing concepts, it positions the country as a conceptual laboratory capable of reshaping contemporary debates. In doing so, it challenges several widely accepted assumptions: dominant understandings of revolution rooted in nineteenth- and twentieth-century European experiences; conventional genealogies of neoliberalism; approaches to capitalist crisis that privilege production over social reproduction; the “deeply divided societies” paradigm commonly applied to conflict-ridden societies; and the assumption that revolutions do not occur in so-called “democracies”.

Ultimately, the project seeks to transform Lebanon’s contemporary experience into a broader framework for understanding crisis, democracy, social justice, and revolutionary possibility. By bringing together analyses of neoliberalism, identity politics, labor, and contentious politics, it argues that Lebanon offers not only a local story but also a powerful lens through which to rethink the trajectories of contemporary capitalism and the possibilities of collective transformation. Through this perspective, the project contributes to ongoing debates on revolutionary politics, democratic crisis, and the search for new political horizons in the twenty-first century.