Limbo urbanism: developing planning theories and practices from small but rapidly urbanising places in the South West Asian/North African region

《林博城市化》将出版出版物和学术实践者讨论以前被忽视的城市地区的快速城市化(Ruszczyk等人，2020年)，并为一项为期三年的奖学金提案准备合作伙伴关系和知识基础。该奖学金的问题是：在受大规模被迫移民影响的小城镇工作的城市规划者，在寻求利用有限的资源并满足不稳定和多样化的常住人口的多样化需求时，面临着什么挑战？该奖学金的主要重点是出版一本专著和两到三篇开放获取的期刊文章，这些文章基于黎巴嫩的人种学研究，并作为博士论文撰写。在这篇论文中，我研究了黎巴嫩马尔杰、马吉达尔·安贾尔和巴尔·埃利亚斯快速城市化的轨迹和影响，这些地区的人口结构和环境受到了来自叙利亚的大规模被迫移民的影响。虽然强迫移民被指责为黎巴嫩贫困率上升和资源管理不善的罪魁祸首，但我认为，历史上不公平的规划做法与重大全球事件交织在一起，在叙利亚和黎巴嫩居民中造成了对他们在这些城镇的未来的共同担忧。根据法瓦兹、哈奇和哈布(2021年)的工作，我指出，由于剥削性的农业资本主义劳动做法和不公平的住房租赁市场，这两个群体的居民预计将面临越来越困难的生活状况。我提出了一个理论框架来理解规划实践与强制迁移的关系，以及它对居民的影响。我将写一本书提案，将我的论文修改为一本城市研究专著。我已经确定UCL出版社是一个潜在的出版商，有出版城市研究和规划研究的记录，并且是开放获取的出版商。我将撰写两到三篇开放获取期刊文章，提交给伦敦大学学院的转型协议(开放获取)期刊，如城市规划、城市研究和地理论坛。这将是本文的两个实证章节和部分方法论章节。我将使用评论者的早期反馈来为专著提供信息。我的目标是在提交为期三年的奖学金提案之前，发表这些期刊文章，并获得一份图书合同。我将与一系列研讨会一起撰写这本专著，在研讨会上，我将创建一个由具有交叉专业知识的学者、规划实践者和规划活动家组成的网络。因此，我的目标是将我的研究扩展到列文坦和博茨瓦纳地区的其他地区，并通过与可能将其用于教学、进一步研究和政策制定的人分享，确保研究的最大影响。该系列将展开论文中讨论的四个核心辩论，总括术语为“边缘城市主义”。这些辩论涉及：什么构成“城市”和“城市化”；从国家政治地理的“边缘”进行规划；以农村地区为主的小城市地区的经济衰退和新兴经济；以及快速城市化轨迹的不确定未来。我将主持三个机构的系列赛：伦敦大学学院地理系、发展规划组和贝鲁特美国大学贝鲁特城市实验室。通过这个研讨会系列，我的目标是确定一个学者团队，他们准备为ESRC新研究员、Leverhulme早期职业生涯和英国学院博士后奖学金计划的三年奖学金提案提供建议。在导师的指导下，我将建立一个由研讨会演讲者和参与者组成的小型咨询小组。我们将共同确定资助者、核心主题、问题和方法，以便在奖学金结束时建立支持的理由。

'Limbo urbanism' will generate publications and academic-practitioner discussions about rapid urbanisation in previously 'overlooked' urban places (Ruszczyk et al., 2020), and prepare the partnerships and intellectual ground for a three-year fellowship proposal. The fellowship asks: what are the challenges facing urban planners working in small towns affected by mass forced migration, when seeking to harness limited resources and address the diverse needs of an unstable and diverse resident population?The primary focus of this fellowship is the publication of a monograph and two-to-three open access journal articles based on ethnographic research in Lebanon and written up as a PhD thesis. In the thesis, I examined the trajectories and impacts of rapid urbanisation in Marj, Majdal Anjar and Bar Elias in Lebanon, whose demographics and environments have been affected by mass forced migration from Syria. Whilst forced migrants have been blamed for increasing poverty rates and poor resource management in Lebanon, I argued that historical inequitable planning practices enmesh with major global events to create common fears among Syrian and Lebanese residents, about their futures in these towns. Developing work by Fawaz, al-Hage and Harb (2021), I showed that both groups of residents expect to face increasingly difficult living situations as a result of exploitative agrarian-capitalist labour practices, and an inequitable housing rental market. I proposed a theoretical framework for understanding the enmeshment of planning practices with forced migration, and its impacts on residents.I will write a book proposal which revises my thesis as an Urban Studies monograph. I have identified UCL Press as a potential publisher, with a track record of publishing Urban Studies and Planning Studies, and as open access publishers. I will author two-to-three open access journal articles, to be submitted to UCL's Transformative Agreement (open-access) journals such as Urban Planning, Urban Studies and Geoforum. These will summarise two empirical chapters and a part of the methodology chapter from the thesis. I will use early-stage feedback from reviewers to inform the monograph. I aim to have published these journal articles and been offered a book contract prior to submitting a proposal for a three-year fellowship. I will author the monograph in concert with a seminar series, in which I will create a network of scholars, planning practitioners and planning activists with intersecting expertise. I thereby aim to expand the reach of my research to other geographies in the Levantine and SWANA region, and to ensure maximum impact of the research by sharing it with people who might use the work for teaching, further research, and policy-formation. The series will expand four core debates which were discussed in the thesis, under the umbrella term, 'Limbo urbanism'. These debates concern: what constitutes 'the urban' and 'urbanisation'; planning from the 'periphery' of national political geographies; declining and emerging economies of small urban places in predominantly rural regions; and, the uncertain futures of rapid urbanisation trajectories. I will host the series across three institutions: University College London's Geography Department, Development Planning Unit and American University of Beirut's Beirut Urban Lab. Through this workshop series, I aim to identify a team of scholars who are prepared to advise on a three-year fellowship proposal, for the ESRC New Investigator, Leverhulme Early Career and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship schemes. With my mentor's guidance, I will establish a small advisory group from workshop speakers and participants. Together, we will identify funders, core themes, questions and methodologies to build a case for support by the end of the fellowship.