Class-based Mobilisation in Lebanon and Iraq: A Weapon Against Sectarianism?

Since the breakout of mass protests in October 2019, Lebanon and Iraq have seen an increase of various forms of class-based mobilisation. These protests challenge sectarianism through the establishment and reactivation of syndicates as well as the empowerment of local poor and working-class communities. This suggests that class-based identities can be a strong vehicle for popular resistance and form a basis for new political communities in societies riven by sectarian divides. But what drives and impedes class-based mobilisation in sectarian societies?

This project aims to inform debates concerning how popular movements can contribute to depoliticising sectarian identities in the Middle East. It will look at how class-based networks and organisations are able to resist various counter strategies employed by elites to reactivate sectarian divisions. And through a series of qualitative case studies, the research will explore how and under which conditions class-based mobilisation can work as a vehicle for popular contestation of sectarianism in Lebanon and Iraq.

This research is part of a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.