Archives par mot-clé : Space of day-to-day survival

Antoine Kattar : the space of tradition in daily life, regarding lebanese adolescents

In this article, we offer a reading after-the-fact of interviews with Lebanese adolescents born at the end of the so-called civil war (1975-1990), experiencing their intersubjective and social relations in situations of fragility and precariousness in Karm Al Zaïtoun (a neighborhood in east Beyrouth). Three spaces of circulation influence the formation of identity processes in these Lebanese adolescents : the “ tradition ”space, the “ day-to-day survival ” space, and the “ imported models for identification ” space. Here we will speak more specifically of the relation that the Lebanese adolescent maintains with the “ tradition-” space and the “ day-to-day survival ”space. The latter is marked by identification with heroic figures, territorial domination and the rituals of daily practices. This daily space functions as a space for survival, in which adolescents have a deep investment. The space of tradition provides the adolescent with protection and a form of continuity of self, but it remains threatening and aleatory, insofar as it is marked by a break with the past tied to the war. The absence of confrontation of space with generational time does not facilitate reference to a shared, legitimized past, that could guarantee continuity of self.