When infrastructural disruptions reshape political solidarities: Lebanese fragmentations through the lens of access to electricity

Originally conceived as a national project aimed at fostering material and political solidarity among citizen-users of the public electricity service, the electricity networked infrastructure of Électricité du Liban has progressively become a source of mistrust and insecurity. More broadly, it has come to symbolize the multiple crises of the Lebanese state. Indeed, since the end of the civil war, severe electricity shortages have shaped the daily lives of Lebanese citizens. Rather than remaining passive, they have resorted to a variety of alternative supply systems. Yet, these decentralized and compensatory solutions have opened new channels of exchange and mediation that are not only economic but also political. This growing heterogeneity in access to electricity has fostered the emergence of unconventional players and enabled the formation of new political ties through alternative forms of provision, thereby destabilizing the solidarities traditionally associated with the national system. As the public electricity service deteriorates, new forms of dependence, domination or cooperation are being forged. These political reconfigurations both reflect and reinforce the manifold fragmentations traversing Lebanese society (economic, sectarian, political, and territorial). In this context, the paper explores the socio-material relationships that are made and unmade through the provision of electricity. Both the national infrastructure and its decentralised alternatives are considered as political spaces (of contestation, emancipation, domination, etc.). The analysis draws on the Lebanese case, a deeply fragmented society in which citizenship is notably mediated by sectarian affiliation.