Acting upon and amid failure: limits of agency in crisis-hit Lebanon

Lebanon’s current situation is defined by numerous crises that have significantly worsened living conditions in the country. Inadequate infrastructure, a currency crisis and hyperinflation, shortages of medicine, fuel, and other commodities, as well as the inability of the country’s political leadership to resolve the situation, have led to Lebanon being described as a collapsed state or one on the brink of collapse. This research project examines the failure of the Lebanese state from the perspective of agency: what kind of agency does this failure generate, and how does it set limits on what can be done? I analyze materials produced by international organizations and the Lebanese civil society sector to determine how this failure is managed and how efforts are made to mitigate its effects. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I aim to shed light on what it is like to live amidst failure: how do the effects of crises shape the everyday agency of people living in Lebanon?