2025/01/02 by Najib B. Hourani · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Middle East Politics and Society #Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts #Peacebuilding and International Security
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/00187259.2025.2464212
openalex publication_date 2025/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
The regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Asad collapsed in December, 2024, in the face of an offensive led by the Islamist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (The Syrian Liberation Organization). It has inherited from al-Asad a country in economic and social collapse, and a state with little capacity with which to address the needs of its people, much less rebuild the country. In this article, I explore the al-Asad regime’s neoliberal urban reconstruction in Syria and contrast it with the ways ordinary people think about house and home in the informal settlements of Douma, a secondary city just northeast of Damascus. Doumis’ understandings of house and home cannot be separated from familial relations, historical narratives and community ties, and in this light, are suggestive of alternative approaches reconstruction that might make possible an urbanism oriented toward restoration of such ties, and fulfil Doumis’ hopes for the future.