ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the forms of mobilisation and politicisation around electricity issues in Beirut, recognising the centrality of the material and spatial dimensions of the infrastructure network in these emerging forms of social protest. It draws on the work of Mitchell and Cupples, proposes a framework for analysing the politicisation of infrastructure in cities. It discusses a geographical analysis of the social and political context of the Lebanese electricity crisis, highlighting the prevailing uneven access to electrical power and the resulting street protests. The chapter examines the different forms of protest and dissent that, by drawing on its material and relational properties, are entangled in the electricity grid. It discusses the new social and power relationships built around alternative and informal electricity networks based on private generators. It presents a typology based on various combinations of grid and urban politics. The chapter consists of interviews with a variety of stakeholders within the Lebanese electricity industry.
