Rebel Populism: Revolution and Loss Among Syrian Labourers in Beirut

(Hardback)

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Workers from the Syrian diaspora have maintained a presence in Lebanon for decades, building multimillion-dollar apartment complexes, toiling for backbreaking hours in grocery stores.

From the mid-2000s, liberalising reforms saw accelerating levels of poverty among workers, often paid as low as $20 per day. Instead of opportunity, workers faced the prospect of indefinite economic exile, the unending drudgery of hard labour, and a constant struggle to make ends meet. But in 2011, revolution came to Syria. Rural towns and villages exploded in revolt, but even those workers who remained in Beirut found means to protest at a distance. Their movement, which this book identifies as rebel populism, represents an early instance of an increasingly common global contentious political formation, a form of mass politics that emerges not via a charismatic orator or developed ideological convictions, but through the weaving together of grievances aimed at the ruling class.

Reviews

'Proudfoots Rebel populism is a ground-breaking study into how and why working-class and rural Syrian migrants were drawn to the promise of revolutionary politics and rebel militias. This fascinating book provides an intimate portrayal of young male lives shaped not only by warfare and violence but also hope.'
Joe Glenton, author of Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life

'This inspiring book draws attention to a blind spot in development thinking and action. After this book, the depth and extent of religious inequalities can no longer be overlooked. Readers personally affected by religious discriminations will recognise that they are not alone. Their struggles for equality and tolerance are found in many forms all over the world.'
Robert Chambers, Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies 'Must Reads of 2022'

'Rebel populism is a revelatory exploration of how a group of young Syrian migrant workers in the Lebanons construction industry were transformed into a rebellious populist opposition to the Syrian regime. Proudfoots excellent ethnography documents - with great empathy - how these young men developed, enacted, and expressed this emergent political consciousness largely over Facebook and WhatsApp as a live act of rebellion. Woven into this rich account is the depiction of the shattered futures these young men experience as their progress along a masculine trajectory is blocked. This is a lively and genuinely empathetic study filling gaps in our knowledge of young lives, male lives, in forced migration studies. It is essential reading.'
Dawn Chatty, Emerita Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, University of Oxford

Author Bio

Philip Proudfoot is a Research Fellow in Power and Popular Politics at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex