74
Marieke Schöning
trality and the dominance of economic reasoning within the aid sector obfuscate power
structures and hinder multilayered identity formation as the basis of hybrid active youth
citizenship.
This causes the dissemination of a depoliticised form of active youth citizenship, which
leads to the third conclusion that current practices within the aid sector in Lebanon actual-
ly hamper what international development discourse aims to achieve, namely responsible
and effective active youth citizenship. The current practices run contrary to the intentions
to empower local actors, and leave young Syrians feeling powerless and disappointed.
The potential gatekeeping roles young, educated Syrians can take up in processes of
peacebuilding and inclusive development are ignored, and even jeopardised. This can
have detrimental effects in a context where levels of distrust towards international, often
Western, agendas are already high, and anti-Western groups tout for attention. Distrust
can further be amplified since exclusion feeds into the narrative promoted by the Syrian
authorities that the counterparts for international cooperation are limited to themselves
and terrorist groups; this ignores the legitimate efforts of Syrian civil society.
With respect to practical conclusions, the author suggests that influential actors in the
field of international development should explicitly address the unequal power relations
found in this study. Concretely, they need to seek a more holistic approach towards
promoting active youth citizenship that includes monitoring of how other international
interventions encroach on development intentions, and respective governance. In addi-
tion, the promotion of active citizenship cannot be framed as detached from local political
context. The latter has to be taken into account and incorporated into programming,
without being used as an excuse to deny global citizens their rights to active participation
in the international community.
Kaynakça/References
• Abboud, S.N. (2016). Syria [Kindle 4]. Hot Spots in Global Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press. Retrieved
from Amazon.de.
• Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research (AISSR) (2013). AISSR ethical procedure and ques-
tions. Retrieved from:
[Accessed: 17 June
2016].
• Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Re-
vised ed.). London: Verso.
• Arendt, H. (1968). The origins of totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
• Bayat, A. (2010) Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East (ISIM Series on Contem-
porary Muslim Societies). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Belhadj, S. (2013). La Syrie de Bashar al-Asad: Anatomie d’un régime autoritaire. Paris: Éditions Belin.
• Boekelo, M. (2016) Of citizens and ordinary men: Political subjectivity and contestations of sectarianism
in reconstruction-era Beirut (Doctoral dissertation). Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
