Commoning in Turbulent Times: Between Cooptation, Survival, and Social Change in the Aftermath of the October 17 Uprising in Lebanon

The deep socioeconomic and political legitimacy crisis facing the dominant neoliberal system in many parts of the world has resulted in recurrent waves of social mobilizations opposed to the current realities. Far from being classified as a unified movement in regards to what is desired, a notable segment struggles for alternative systems rooted in solidarity, cooperation, and participatory forms of democracy. While not being an all-encompassing ideological direction, a significant overlap lies between such principles and commoning. In line with this general development, albeit with key contextual differences, Lebanon has witnessed a series of social mobilizations since 2011 culminating in the October 17 uprising in 2019. Struggling against a hegemonic sectarian system firmly controlled by ruling political and financial elites, a variety of collective actions were deployed. Beyond the disruptive actions which are not the focus of this paper, alternative ways of life and reimagined realities were temporally born in the squares, as well as more durable ones which fed into and resulted from these mobilizations. Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with activists from various commoning initiatives, the challenges of navigating a complex, hostile, and changing landscape were dissected. With varying degrees of success and failure, initiatives constantly had to grapple with survival against market forces and private property, cooptation and absorption into NGO structures, and internal community building based on commoning principles. To avoid isolation and being driven to the margins, social movements also constitute an opportunity for such initiatives to engage in wider social struggles that attempt to alter the wider socioeconomic landscape into a more favorable environment.