Informal consent: the complexities of public participation in post-civil war Lebanon

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This study is an in-depth analysis of the case of post-civil war planning in Lebanon through the personal accounts of urban planners living and working there. Interviews with these planners engender a deeper understanding of the issues facing public participation on the ground in this setting. An institutional analysis of the interviews then provides us with insight into the historical, political, social, cultural, psychological, and religious institutions that influence public participation in post-civil war Lebanon.; Lebanon is a country that has been perennially and somewhat continuously in the throes of conflict. Post-civil war contexts offer more intensified and concentrated circumstances that can provide planning with new information about public participation because some things do not become apparent except in extreme situations. Although the purposes of public participation are often similar to those under normal circumstances, in post-civil war situations they become more delicate, critical, and time-sensitive.; The various complications and complexities facing participation in Lebanon -- as catharsis and healing, as time-sensitive, as interwoven in the context, and as institutionally-based -- enlighten our understanding of the nuanced, multifaceted, and highly intricate nature and practice of public participation. Everyday rational planning in other societies can better understand the intricacies of participation from the extraordinary case of Lebanon. The challenge for planning scholars and practitioners is in the endogenization and utilization of this knowledge.