Conflicts in children’s everyday lives: fresh perspectives on protracted crisis in Lebanon

Based on child-oriented, ethnographic research in Lebanese school communities, this article offers an alternative approach to understanding the
multitude of conflicts affecting Lebanon. It highlights how young Lebanese
engage with corollaries of conflict in their everyday lives and simultaneously
points to sources of security and resilience that children employ to confront
adverse conditions. These resources, which are located in homes, schools, the
environment and the ways in which young people engage their surroundings, all
face unique conflict-induced pressures and dynamics. Approaching children in
their generational and political contexts can help us identify and strengthen their
capacities to confront, rather than reinforce, adverse conditions. In turn, this may offer a more sustainable way of promoting peace in conflict-affected societies.