Navigating Polycrises through Collaboration: Uncovering the Political and Institutional Dynamics of Crisis Governance in Beirut, Lebanon

This research examines the factors that promote or limit collaboration between actors responding to polycrises, focusing on nonprofits that deliver shelter services to vulnerable groups and displaced populations. It focuses on Beirut (Lebanon), which has been grappling with compound crises under the strain of a hegemonic dysfunctional state (Harb et al., 2024) and an outbreak of a new war with Israel. Whether those actors are “thrust into” roles or voluntarily “step up” to address governance failures in crisis response, they do so by forming collaboration activities (Simo & Bies, 2007), and the politics of this dynamic along with their roles (Hardy & Phillips, 1998), is the core focus of this research. Collaboration is particularly challenging when it involves different types of organizations (Hooper, 2019), spans across departments and sectors (de Jong et al., 2021), and addresses complex problems, crises, and disasters (Zoraster, 2006; Uhr, 2017). When multiple risks collide - they produce what has been termed polycrises - the phenomenon of interwoven and overlapping crises. This research asks how and why actors responding to Polycrises collaborate and engage in bridging work to understand the political and organizational landscape of actors involved in crisis response, their relationships, and what these actors consider the barriers/limits to addressing interlinked crises. In doing so, the research seeks to provide lessons for crisis governance in dysfunctional states. Methodologically, this research takes an in-depth case study approach. It takes crisis response plans addressing the different crises, starting with the Syrian refugee crisis until today’s displacement crisis caused by the war. The first part of the research analyzes crisis governance strategies, institutional frameworks, and actor networks through desk review and power mapping of actors. The second part examines how collaboration actually happens on the ground at a mesoscale through semi-structured interviews with organizational representatives of shelter organizations.