Book: Fadi Shayya 11 Feb 2010

At the Edge of the City

Reinhabiting Public Space toward the Recovery of Beirut’s Horsh Al-Sanawbar

Edited by Fadi Shayya
Foreword by George Arbid
Design by Danny Khoury
ISBN 978-9953-0-1537-8
192 pages, with color photographs and infographics
Includes poster [by Danny Khoury] and DVD [by Lasse Lau]
First edition in 2010, Published by DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS
Supported by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Middle East Office

Since the early 1990s, Beirut’s Park, Horsh Al-Sanawbar, was sealed off from the lives of many Beiruti residents and visitors, with numerous justifications for their exclusion. At the Edge of the City aspires to chart an alternative discourse from that which produces this exclusion. Through exploring issues of advocacy and politics, the book aims to provide a platform to contest the existing governance of Horsh Al-Sanawbar and to bring forward a well-informed public space public policy agenda.

At the Edge of the City presents multidisciplinary, textual and visual contributions that attempt to shape an understanding of continuously evolving meanings of public space in Beirut, opening up the discussion and raising questions, and challenging the status quo, as well as the social imagination, of public space itself.

horsh_wallpaper-1280x1024-cc.jpg - At the Edge of the City: Fadi Shayya, Danny Khoury

At the Edge of the City is a contemporary critique of urban governance and spatial production in Beirut. The undertaking is advocating in scope, multidisciplinary in approach, and journalistic in style. The book is an edited volume on public space in Beirut, focused on the case of Beirut’s park Horsh Al-Sanawbar, hosting the original textual and visual works of over 25 scholars, professionals, journalists, activists, and artists.

- The undertaking is a contemporary critique of urban governance and spatial production in Beirut; it is advocating in scope, multidisciplinary in approach, and journalistic in style;
- The project is a platform for research on contemporary social-spatial and socio-environmental issues, which hosts the contribution of many young professionals. It is a documentary and analytical effort, as well as a policy oriented undertaking on public space in Lebanon;
- The book is an edited volume on public space in Beirut, focused on the case of Beirut’s park Horsh Al-Sanawbar, hosting the original textual and visual works of over 25 scholars, professionals, journalists, activists, and artists
- The project is supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS

At the Edge of the City: Reinhabiting Public Space toward the Recovery of Beirut’s Horsh Al-Sanawbar. Edited by Fadi Shayya; Foreword by George Arbid. A Discursive Formations book, first edition published in 2010 [ISBN 978-9953-0-1537-8]