Rebuilding in the context of conflict: urban reconstruction policy in Damascus through the lens of the informal city

Abstract

The article analyzes the Syrian reconstruction through the prism of informal urbanization. It shows that in the context of an unfinished conflict,
the choices of Damascus in favor of urban renewal join the fundamental logics of eviction characteristic of policies vis-à-vis informal settlements.
Through a double legislative apparatus of town planning and security, this policy of selective urban disappearances destroys rather than rebuilds
the places of life and memory of two categories of the population, which overlap considerably: the opponents of the regime and the inhabitants of
informal settlements.