Weaving memories: an ecosystem of initiatives that deal with the legacies of civil war in Lebanon

The following study delves on the ways in which a wide array of promoters – whose work span from activism, awareness-making, policy reform, artistic and cultural productions, education, philanthropy to diplomacy – interact in the hopes of developing a broader understanding of the civil war that scarred Lebanon. To do so, the research builds on onsite observations carried out around members of the Forum for the Memory and the future, one of the many undertakings that comprised an entangled ecosystem of initiatives happening in a country that continues to ignore the whereabouts of thousands of compatriots and keeps being immersed in a profound institutional crisis. The research argues that their daily activities are anchored in what YungSong Lee (2021) pointed as the three pillars upon which peace rests: plurality, subtlety, and connectivity. Further, it shows that these initiatives – sometimes knowingly, others spontaneously – make use of this theoretical tool. More interestingly it sheds light on how the way they interact resembles those present in the theory of complex systems and invites to consider such an approach when facing other pressing social challenges. Lastly, this research identifies that members' main motivation for such efforts lies in their desire to overcome the fear that the civil war installed. And, in what appears to have theoretical implications, their interactions, rather than advocating an emancipatory peace, seem to be inclined towards a constant adaptation to the parameters set by an uplifted liberal peace-sustaining agenda.