With the onset of the garbage crisis in Lebanon in July 2015, the unbearable odors and mounting heaps of waste presented the tipping point for people’s growing anger and resentment against self-serving political elites, debilitating public services, and deteriorating socio-economic conditions. In response, the socio-political scene witnessed significant developments following the eruption of popular discontent, with the multiplication of media-savvy protest groups, followed by the rise of “independent” municipal electoral campaigns and, most recently, the emergence of a “non-traditional” “political party experiment.” Running under the elusive banner of “civil society,” emerging collective actions have all been attempting to advance “alternative” forms of organization and political participation. Examining three contentious and intriguing developments that have captured public attention, namely Al-Hirak, Beirut Madinati, and Sabaa, this article explores the antinomies of collective organization and action in the building of political “alternatives.” The research makes use of a thorough content analysis of Facebook campaigning posts and interview data and engages with literature on “new” social movements, digital activism, and collective organization to explore collective actors’ contending relations to “the political” at the organizational level. The research concludes that rather than reconcile individuals with political participation through lasting organizational frameworks and coherent political “alternatives,” novel forms of collective organization increasingly conform to a global neoliberal logic of action that is increasingly fragmentary, individualizing and commercializing, and a fleeting logic of organization that is mostly unaccountable and unrepresentative.

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The Lebanese scene has witnessed important developments since the onset of the garbage crisis, particularly in the translation of ‘civil society’ activism and political disaffection into ‘alternative’ realms of political mobilization and participation. The social movement scene witnessed for the first time on such a large scale the multiplication of campaigns denouncing the political order. However, groups’ contending strategic and ideological orientations raised tensions between tendencies hoping to focus singularly on the garbage crisis and others hoping to place the crisis within its larger structural context. The Hirak’s (movement) inability to affect change compelled several activists towards reformist agendas through the electoral process and logic of gradual ‘change from within.’ The most prominent electoral initiative sought to reclaim the city and representative politics under the name (‘Beirut, My City’). The municipal electoral campaign, however, sidelined contentious political issues and structural inequalities vested in the city in favor of an accommodating developmental programe. Following months of deliberation, Beirut Madinati decided to ‘remain at the local level’, while some of its members joined force with other groups to form nationwide parliamentary electoral alliances, alongside a nascent ‘political party experiment,’ Sabaa (Seven). Exploring the recent developments in ‘alternative’ collective action in Lebanon, this research makes use of a content analysis of Facebook campaigning posts and interview data to study actors’ contending relations to ‘the political.’ The research concludes that rather than reconcile citizens with political participation, nascent groups that claim to represent ‘alternatives’ to the ‘corrupt’ political parties and sectarian political order, instead advance a consensual understanding of politics and social change that is more techno-moral and less contentious.