The Lebanese Environment Movement and Changes to Cultural Orientations: The Case of North Lebanon

Abstract

Environmental movements, like other contemporary social movements, are one of the main pressure groups that have contributed and continue to contribute to the change to cultural orientations within society. Despite there being some studies that have dealt with these movements in Lebanon, none have examined the background social dynamic of activists within these movements, and the values they believe in. This would reveal the activists’ social environments, their cultural orientations and in turn shed light on how this impacts their own projects for cultural change and their ability to achieve their goals. The above is all within a social and sectarian context particular to Lebanon, a context that produces its own values which may at times conflict with global values of democracy, justice, and freedom. This study examines the ability of environmental movements in Lebanon to bring about change in cultural orientations of society, in an environment where social actors are split between global values that underlie contemporary social movements and religious and social values that – in whole or in part – conflict with the former.