Imagination Studio is part of Joanna Choukeir’s PhD research at the University of the Arts London. In the future, Imagination Studio hopes to inspire, empower and support more Imaginers to realise the unimaginable for a better Lebanon. Imagination Studio ideas are owned by Imaginers who may choose to continue developing and implementing them in the future. This piece first appeared on tayyar.org.
A space to imagine and achieve a less divided Lebanon
by Joanna Choukeir and Jana Abou Reslan
It is not an unknown that in Lebanon, young people such as Charbel from Besharreh and Sahar from Sour are very unlikely to meet one day, study together, work together, live in the same neighbourhood, become friends, or even fall in love! It has become such as god-given fact that we no longer consider this segregation between social groups as unnatural, unusual or an issue that needs resolving.
But in a country that only takes a five-hour drive to cross from North to South, and with a tiny population of four-million and a wide diversity of at least eighteen religious sects, what can justify living most of our life before meeting and interacting with someone from another social group? The answer is Lebanon’s obvious social, political, sectarian and geographic rigidity.
Evidence suggests that countries that proactively work towards social integration and cohesion among their various social groups, are more likely to improve their social and economic development. And when we talk about social integration and cohesion, we’re talking beyond acceptance, tolerance and co-existence. We’re talking about active collaboration between the social groups. In Lebanon, there seems to be a lack of proactivity or interest to increase this collaboration.
This is where Imagination Studio comes in. Imagination Studio takes a proactive step, but in a way that is slightly different to traditional social and political activism approaches. Imagination Studio is a space supporting Lebanese youth from different regions, across different disciplines, and through different networks, to put their heads together and imagine the unimaginable for a more integrated, less divided Lebanon. This is known as co-creation. Using our collective experience and expertise, we can transform imagined ideas into better informed and actionable social interventions. These are interventions that help people like Charbel from Bsharreh and Sahar from Sour meet one day, study together, work together, live in the same neighbourhood, become friends and event fall in love! Our aim is more young people engaging with others outside their social group at school, university, work, home and in the community.
The Imagination Studio community is a group of 30 young Imaginers aged 18 to 30, who have creative, social, political, activist, entrepreneurial or journalism backgrounds and interests. The 30 bright and enthusiastic Imaginers have distributed themselves into five teams, with each team focusing on one barrier to social integration in Lebanon. Here are the five teams and their ideas:
“My boyfriend is Druze. I love him and I can’t let him go. But my religion doesn’t permit me to have him. I can’t tell anyone that my boyfriend is Druze because many would mock me, or would say that it’s more respectful for me to die than to marry a Druze.”
Team members: Roland Abou Younes, Ghassan Bou Diab, Andre Francis, Vanessa Mghames, Sarah Zbeidy
Team idea: Civil marriage for sect 19. This idea pushes for a change in policy, where individuals who choose to leave their sect undisclosed on official documents, are also granted the right for a civil marriage in foreign embassies in Lebanon. They are sect 19.
“I have friends with this political party. But you know, things got heated politically during the elections, so there was a lot of tension between us then.”
Team members: Jana Abou Reslan, Halla el-Ahmad, Andre Francis, Charbel Gemayel, Aisha Habli, Charbel Naim, Zeina Saab
Team idea: Integration in civic education. This idea brings interventions to youth in schools, during the years when they are starting to form their political standing. The interventions include fun activities such as role-play and games encouraging youth to dissociate their friends’ personality from the political party they support.
“Honestly, beyond Tripoli, Beirut and a little bit of Keserwan, I haven’t been.”
Team members: Roa Abou Zeid, Maria El-Solh, Nayla Feghaly, Andre Francis, Maryam Harb, Habib Rahmeh, Saad Reslan, Alexandre Roumi, Doreen Toutikian
Team idea: Exchange weekends. This idea provides an online platform which links young people from two different regions to visit one another over the weekend and see what life is like 'on the other side'. Trust is based on an online rating system for each person who has hosted visits.
“Here in Lebanon, thank God, you turn on the TV to watch the news, the first 15 minutes would be boasting and honouring a political party. We don’t have TV channels in Lebanon in the full sense of the word. I mean they are all channels that follow a particular political party, so they are bound to be politically biased.”
Team members: Raymonda Adib, Vanessa Bassil, Gwen Bou Jaoudeh, Dima Boulad, Youssef Chaker, Mohamad Chamas, Aisha Habli, Bruna Keserwani, Joseph Maalouf, Dalal Mawad, Vanessa Mghames, Assaad Thebian
Team idea: User-generated media channel. This idea makes use of open user-generated social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Flickr and YouTube, to invite Lebanese youth to curate their own media channels and generate their own news-worthy content.
“I despise people who sit across from me in a meeting or conference, people who are Arabs just like me, living next to me, their house near mine, I despise it when they speak one word in French.”
Team members: Mohamad Chamas, Halla el-Ahmad, Maryam Harb, Hanane Kai, David Mounir Nabti, Saad Reslan, Assaad Thebian
Team idea: Touring hear bus. The bus is run by a group of volunteers with various linguistic styles. The bus tours different regions in Lebanon and hosts pop-up activities around language, such as a karaoke of English hit songs sung in Arabic, or a competition to write Arabic in latin script or vice versa!
Imaginers are working together on a voluntary basis through a series of ten monthly Imagination Studio workshops where they are transforming their ideas from concept to implementation on a small scale. The workshops started in October 2011 and are continuing until October 2012, with the vision of testing ideas during the summer to evaluate the impact they are making on the young people who come across them!
“Imagination Studio is a fun, creative way to interact, learn and imagine. It is a space to experiment and communicate without borders or limits.” Jana Abou Reslan
“We are all devoted to bring about positive change, if not on a large scale, then on a smaller scale, beginning with ourselves.” Aisha Habli
“I am so happy to learn that so many are interested in this extremely important issue. I look forward to continuing to participate in this initiative to produce something really vital for our country.” Zeina Saab
“I am delighted that I have met so many good and positive people.” Charbel Naim
You can follow the progress of Imagination Studio, or get in touch to help out too, by visiting the blog: imaginationstudio.org
