Edinburgh Napier University

  This research explores the differentiated beach leisure lifestyles and mobilities of local beach goers in Lebanon belonging to different ethno-religious communities. Following the interpretivist/constructivist paradigm, this study is the first of its kind to primarily examine the complex synergy between gender, race, lifestyle, power relations, mental constructions and beach geographies, exposing the various forces at play behind the beach leisure dynamics in Lebanon. Beach leisure is rediscovered from the point of view of ‘what is escaped’, ‘what is avoided’, ‘what is hidden’, ‘what is overlooked’, ‘what is silenced’, bringing to the fore a different perspective and a less known, quite ‘darker’, side of beach leisure in Lebanon. In terms of research design, a case study approach has been adopted, using two qualitative research methods, namely in-depth interviews and participant observation (personal accounts), with the aim to report various ‘voices’ on the ground as well as personally experience local beaches with an autoethnographic lens. Research findings have revealed a hybrid and liquid seaside, made up of racialised, gendered, sexualised, politicised, ‘religioused’, classed and lifestylised Lebanese beaches. These findings shed light on how these beaches and practices are being represented, experienced, performed, navigated and negotiated by locals and how these complex beach leisure dynamics are reflecting the complexities and particularities of Lebanese society and the contradictions found within it. It is concluded that understanding these beach leisure dynamics can, possibly, push us to restructure some of our mental constructions, reconsider our own perceptions, question our taken-for-granted knowledge, as well as redefining our understanding of ‘Lebaneseness’.