This is a conversation with Dr Mona Harb,  Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the Department of  Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut. She also  works at Beirut Urban Lab which is:

"a collaborative and interdisciplinary research space. The Lab produces  scholarship on urbanization by documenting and analyzing ongoing  transformation processes in Lebanon and its region's natural and built  environments. It intervenes as an interlocutor and contributor to  academic debates about historical and contemporary urbanization from its  position in the Global South."

Mona recently wrote reflections on the blast on Jadaliyya - Quick Thoughts: Mona Harb on the Aftermath of the Beirut Explosion - which led to this invitation on The Fire These Times.  We use the blast as the anchor for our conversation. We spoke about the  roles of dominant political figures/parties - especially Hariri Sr+Jr  and Hezbollah in this case - in privatisation processes which have led  to a highly disfigured city even before the August explosion. We spoke  about the difficulties of trying to love Beirut and how it can often  feel like it is too much to handle. In short, we spoke about our very modern experience affecting not just our country but places around the world.

Indeed, although Beirut and Lebanon-focused, this is a conversation that  applies to multiple cities around the world that are facing the  challenges of human-caused destruction (the blast, climate change, urban  inequalities, and so on) while also navigating the limitations imposed  by nation states under the still-dominant (despite everything)  neoliberal framework.

More on the blog post at thefirethisti.me 

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Music by Tarabeat. Photo taken from Beirut Urban Lab.