CENTRES AND CENTRALITIES
Once there is a need to build a political centre the “builders” go to space-time to find legitimacy: in the case of Beirut many factors participated in this construction, and one of them is certainly the Justinian one. The Justinian Law was at the base of European civilisation and was quite a pertinent argument in the quest for legitimacy of a new sovereign political centre. We can here ask some further research questions:
Pre-war Beirut used to be the apparent centre of the Middle East: highly specialised economy, advanced tourist services, great cultural manifestations, and a beautiful strategic geographical situation. Unfortunately this is no more the case: Beirut, in spite of the reconstruction plan, has not been able to reclaim its lost supposed-to-be-centrality. One can go far and argue that Beirut was never a “real” centre, that is, where decision is made and where real power abides.
Cet article se propose de démontrer que les déplacements des lieux d’installation de fonctions centrales à l’économie et aux réseaux de la ville de Beyrouth (et donc ceux de sa “centralité”) ne sont que l’expression spatiale de phénomènes conjoncturels variés. La centralité beyrouthine, loin de se focaliser en un seul lieu par une accumulation progressive d’attributs, s’est déplacée selon des contextes géopolitiques.
Calenda – Géographie
