logo-oibr
  • OIB
    • About
    • News & Analysis
    • Director's Yearly Address
      • Vorwort des Direktors 2024
      • Director’s Address 2024
      • Vorwort des Direktors 2023
      • Director’s Address 2023
      • Director's Address 2022
      • Vorwort zum Jahresbericht 2022
    • Advisory board
    • Josef-van-Ess-Memorial-Lecture
    • Annual Reports
    • Newsletter
    • In the Media
    • Gallery
  • Events
  • Library
    • About
      • Library Team
      • History
    • OIB Catalogues
      • GoTriple
      • OPAC
      • IPAC
    • Repositories & databases
    • Online registration
    • Collection
    • OIB Library Regulations
  • Research
    • Current projects
      • The Japanese Red Army in Lebanon: Solidarity, Militancy, and Transregional Connectivity (Claudia Derichs)
      • Catastrophe, Memory & Critique
      • The ABC of Abū Bakr al-Shanawānī (d. 1610). Arabic letter semiotics on the threshold of modern times (Berenike Metzler)
      • Discourses on Statehood in Iraq (Christian Thuselt)
      • Decolonization, Cold War and the Rise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East (Carol Hakim)
      • A Literary History of Arab Futures: Enlightenment, Ruins, and Dystopia (Zeina Halabi)
      • Kant and the Non-European: Critique, Justice and Freedom
      • Global Weimar – Global Nahda (Princeton University and Orient-Institut Beirut Cooperation)
      • Critical Theory from the Global South: New Perspectives from Beirut (Sami Khatib)
      • Women and religion in post-conflict societies (Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink)
      • From Arabic to Latin: Moving sciences of music around the Mediterranean (Rosy Azar Beyhom)
      • Abrahamic Interdependence - Relationship of the Islamic to the Jewish in Marital Law (Ahmed M. F. Abd-Elsalam)
      • Lebanon’s Art World at Home and Abroad: Trajectories of artists and artworks in/from Lebanon since 1943 (LAWHA) (Nadia von Maltzahn)
      • The New Testament quotations in Ibrahim al-Biqāʿīs (st. 1480) commentary on the Koran (Thomas Würtz)
      • BALANCE AS JUSTICE: DECONSTRUCTION OF PREMODERN ETHICS ON THE BASIS OF ḲINĀLĪZĀDE ꜤALĪ ÇELEBĪ’S AKHLĀḲ-I ꜤALĀ’Ī (FATIH ERMIŞ)
      • From Copying to Burning the Qur’an: Creating Models & Transposing Sacrality (Alya Karame)
      • Living in Limbo (Sarah El Bulbeisi)
      • Escape to Europe: Comparative Refugee Imaginaries (Markus Schmitz)
    • Previous projects
      • Cultural Policies in Lebanon: Cultural Institutions between State and Society (Nadia von Maltzahn)
      • Fictio Statis (Pierre France)
      • The Lebanese Intifada of October 17: Perspectives from Within (Birgit Schäbler)
      • Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Bloc (1950's to 1991) (Birgit Schäbler)
      • Europe and the Middle East (Birgit Schäbler)
      • Picturing the (Un)Dead: Reflections and Deconstructions of Lebanese and Iranian "Martyrs" in Contemporary Photo-Related Art-Practices (Agnes Remeder)
      • Hierarchical Rationality of Religious Beliefs System in Islamic and Christian Theology (Qodratullah Qorbani)
      • The inimitability of the Qur’ān (i‘jāz al-qur’ān) in transconfessional contexts of the early ῾Abbāsid period (Hans-Peter Pökel)
      • Cultural Mobilities and Political Spaces (Christopher Bahl)
      • Al-Qadi al-Fadil (Stefan Leder)
      • Bedouin Syria (Johann Büssow)
      • Borrowing and lending (Jonathan Kriener, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
      • Clergy and conflict management (Thomas Scheffler)
      • Higher Education and Citizenship in Egypt (Daniele Cantini)
      • History Writing at Lebanese Universities (Jonathan Kriener)
      • Knowledge in postgraduate studies (Daniele Cantini)
      • Mamâlik – Spatial Dynamics of Islamic Polities (Kurt Franz)
      • Media culture transformation (Hanan Badr)
      • Museums in Dialogue with the Future (Felicia Meynersen)
      • Political slogans (Nader Srage)
      • Political thought (Stefan Leder)
      • Rural societies in an age of urbanisation (Astrid Meier)
      • S.C.R.I.P.T. - Source Companion for the Research on Islamic Political Thought (Stefan Leder)
      • Talking about art – aesthetic reflection in Egypt and Lebanon (Monique Bellan)
      • Tracing an author’s library (Torsten Wollina)
      • A Literal World: Perceiving the World as a Linguistic Construction before the Emergence of the Metaphor in Arabo-Islamic Thought (Abdallah Soufan)
      • Open Arabic Periodical Editions (OpenArabicPE) (Till Grallert)
      • “Women on the streets!: a genealogy of food riots in the Middle East between the 18th and 20th centuries“ (Till Grallert)
    • OIB Seminar Series
      • Theory & Method Seminar (Zeina Halabi) By invitation only
      • The OIB Colloquium (Fatih Ermis)
      • The Lebanese-Syrian Studies Colloquium (Carol Hakim)
      • The Egyptian Studies Lecture Series (Carol Hakim)
      • The Hans-Robert Roemer Fellow Lecture Series (Jens Hanssen)
      • The OIB-LAfOS Annual Lecture On Lebanese-Ottoman Studies (Jens Hanssen)
      • The Annual Joseph-Van-Ess Lecture (Jens Hanssen)
  • People
    • OIB Team
      • Directorate
      • Administration
      • Library
      • IT
      • Publications
      • Research Associates
      • Cairo Office
      • Fellows-in-Residence
      • Technical Staff
    • Academic Visitors
      • Hans Robert Roemer Fellow
      • Affiliated Researchers
      • Fellows-at-large
      • Journalists-in-Residence
    • LAWHA Team
    • Alumni
  • Publications
    • BI · Bibliotheca Islamica
      • About BI
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • BTS · Beiruter Texte und Studien
      • About BTS
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • OIS · Orient Institut Studies
      • About OIS
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • OIB Blog
    • Extra Series
      • About
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • Latest Publications
  • Academic Support
    • Calls & Grants
      • Call for Early-Career Fellows of the Vienna Center for Advanced Studies (ViCAS)
      • The ERC project KNOW: Polymathy and Interdisciplinarity in Premodern Islamic Epistemic Cultures (1200–1800) invites proposals for its first international workshop
      • Call for papers – Aid Networks and Mechanisms in a Migratory Context: Europe and the Middle East (1945-1970) – Deadline: 30 June 2025
      • Call for applications for a fully funded PhD fellowship at Ghent University
      • الذكرى المئوية للثورة السورية الكبرى (١٩٢٥-٢٠٢٥) في Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme (MMSH), Aix-en-Provence
      • Call for Papers: The Making of the Lebanese Working Class, Historical Materialism, London Conference, November 2025
      • A workshop on editing Arabic texts in manuscripts organised by Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic & Islamic Science & Philosophy
      • Call for applications for the international Senior Fellowship Programme of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, an Institute for Advanced Study based in Essen (Germany) that is part of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr)
      • Junior social scientists working on MENA region – deadline: 4 May 2025
      • Associate Senior Lecturer in History (Middle Eastern) – Lund University
      • CALL FOR PAPERS for the Symposium ARAB-GERMAN RELATIONS IN THE MIRROR OF HISTORY
      • استكتاب للمشاركة في ندوة العلاقات العربية-الألمانية في مرآة التاريخ
      • Call for papers: Diasporas, Exiles, Migrants, and Refugees from Europe in the Middle East and North Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries. A workshop held on July 8-10, 2025, at the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, Germany
      • IEG Fellowship - The Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz call for applications for one fellowship starting in September 2025. Application Deadline: April 14, 2025
      • Faculty vacancy announcement – The City University of New York Faculty Open Rank - Open Rank, Palestinian Studies Cluster Hire/ Art & Humanities
      • Call for Proposals for a conference on the Lebanese Civil War on the 50th anniversary of its outbreak
      • B2B - Call for Papers - Orient-Institut Istanbul
      • Call for submissions: Palestine Studies, German Studies: Special issue of The German Quarterly
      • Call for Applications: Why Location Matters: Research in the Arab World | دعوة إلى تقديم الطلبات: أهمّية مواقع الأبحاث في العالم العربي
      • Stellvertretender Direktor(in)
      • Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter(in) (German version)
      • Research Associate positions
      • Bibliotheksleiter(in)
      • MESA/ACSS/OIB Call for applications
      • Call for applications: MECAM Fellowship Programme 2025-2026
      • Call for applications: Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity for Researchers (f/m/d) From Palestine and Lebanon
      • Call for applications: Khaled al-Asaad Solidarity Funds for researchers in danger
      • Call for Papers International and Interdisciplinary Conference: "Philosophy and Poetry in Islamic Contexts"
      • Call for applications: PhD position at the ERC-KNOW
      • Call for applications: Postdoc position at the ERC-KNOW
      • Call for the Winter School "Reading and Analysing Ottoman Manuscript Sources,” March 17-21, 2025, Rethymno, Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH, deadline December 15, 2024
      • MECAM Traveling Academy for 2024-2025
      • Link zum Call for Sessions (in englischer und deutscher Sprache)
      • ACSS-FMSH Short-Term Postdoctoral Mobility Fellowship Program in the Social Sciences and Humanities, deadline: Dec 09, 2024
      • Call for applications: Scholarship for Lebanon and Turkey-based researchers for the project "Removal Infrastructures for Syrians in Lebanon and Turkey," deadline: 19/06/2024
      • Call for applications: 12 Doctoral Positions at the graduate program "Post-Eurocentric Europe: Narratives of a World Province in Transformation” at the Department of Literature, Art and Media studies of the University of Konstanz, deadline: 30/06/2024
      • Resident scholar program for Lebanon-based and Lebanese scholars at the Finnish Institute in the Middle East
      • Marie Curie Fellowships
      • ACSS Early Career Fellowships
      • Gerald D. Feldman travel grants
    • Vacancies
      • Residential Postdoctoral Fellowships
      • Residential Doctoral Fellowships
      • OIB Research Relief Fellowships 2022/2023
    • Academic Visitors
      • Affiliated Researchers
      • Fellows-at-large
      • Journalists-in-Residence
      • Hans Robert Roemer Fellow
    • Praktika/Interships
      • OIB-Praktika 2025 (German version)
      • OIB Internships 2025 (English version)
    • Guest rooms
Back to Events

Neighborliness in Global Perspective

Orient Institut Beirut, from 12 to 14 December 2019. Location: Cairo, Egypt.

Cairo, Egypt

December, 12 to December 14, 2019

 

Download (full program PDF)


Annual Conference of the Max Weber Foundation
“Neighborliness in Global Perspective”, Orient Institut Beirut, from 12 to 14 December 2019. Location: Cairo, Egypt.


Conference outline: Neighborliness in Global Perspective


Neighborly relations are the most contingent relations in the triad kinship-friendship-neighborhood. Neighbors are close because they live close, not because we feel close to them as in friendships or are related to them through bonds of kinship. Neighborhoods came into being when humans decided to settle instead of roam; they can be found throughout history until this very day in (and between) villages and cities. In a wider and mostly political sense the concept of neighborhood is also employed with regard to countries, world regions and continents (and in the future probably also between planets).

 

If the neighbor is not a friend and not a relative how can our relationship with her/him be described? What is the difference between the neighborliness between neighbors, the affectionate friendliness between friends and the love and obligations between relatives and how do these play out in different epochs and cultures?

 

For Max Weber, interested in rational social action, neighborliness is an unsentimental, economically inspired brotherliness, the neighborhood some kind of unpathetic brotherhood in the economic sense. The neighbor then is the typical “helper in need”. The unspoken ethic of neighborliness in this sense is the rather sober principle of “do ut des” – “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

 

Yet, the desperate and bitter outcry “We were neighbors!” which can be heard long after civil wars ended hints clearly to the fact that the ethic of neighborliness is strong and its violation leaves deep and lasting scars in the communities.

 

The spatial character and the enforced closeness of shared space make the neighborhood boundaries special boundaries, sensitive of touch. The neighbors next door, i.e. the immediate neighborhood space is an extension of one’s personal space – to transgress it or to come too close to it is almost a violation of one’s body, at the least a source of stress. There are no security zones between neighborhoods as with state borders – but a neighboorhod border can end up looking like the Belfast peace lines or Beirut’s green line during the respective brother-wars. Yet, while neighborhood problems can be indicative of larger problems, it takes more to arrive at a situation of war. Neighborhood then, it can be argued, is thus primarily the locus of the political, it is not in itself political.

 

How have states and municipalities in different times and places regulated neighborhoods to maintain security and order, prevent violence and keep up “good neighborliness”? From, for example, Ottoman mahalles, Arab haras and hayys, kasbahs under colonial rule to housing cooperatives in the Eastern Block intricate regulations and rules were enforced, often through local agents, themselves neighbors.

 

From the perspective of the neighborhood: What are the cultural rules and rituals meant to enact good neighborliness? Practices of hospitality, especially in inhospitable environments, are a case in point. How have neighborhoods organized neighborliness and solidarity in precarious conditions? What strategies were developed by neighborhoods to protect themselves against those outside their boundaries, from poor neighborhoods to those of the affluent? What are striking examples of historical good neighborliness – from, for example, rebuilding collectively someone’s burnt-down barn in a village or hiding neighbors in danger, thus possibly risking one’s own life?  What kinds of neighborhood initiatives can serve as examples that neighborhoods can possibly also themselves be political actors?

 

Neighborhood space is not private space nor public space. It is a floating in-between space. The neighbor is the alien living close to us. Neighbors constantly gossip about and spy on each other. World literature is full of tales about the stranger next door as an object of fascination and desire, or as a menace. Romeo and Juliet stemmed from the same neighborhood. Naguib Mahfouz set his most famous novel in a Cairo neighborhood. Currently, popular soap operas  (“Friends”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Lindenstrasse”, “Tales of our Neighborhood”) tell stories about neighbors in modern cities in the US, Berlin and Istanbul. At the same time, it can be argued, they thematize both the longing for and the survival of neighborliness in the anonymous urban space of today. What are similarities and differences in cultural productions on neighborliness and the neighbor?

 

Neighborly relations thus share the same paradox as all other relations: Closeness breeds also hatred, contempt, violence. The paradoxical proximity of spatial closeness and social distance which characterize neighborly relations mostly unmitigated by affection (as in friendship and kinship) make them precarious and neighborliness a challenge - and a concept with deeper implications.

 

Historically, it was the neighbor who inspired theologies of world religions. The neighbor, ‘Nachbar’, ‘voisin’ is ‘der Nächste’ or ‘le prochain’ in the Old Testament. “…thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (LEV, 19, 18) refers originally, as has been argued, to the one living close. Later the command was extended to foreigners and immigrants (LEV, 19:34, CEB). Islam also has a strong and well-thought out ethic of neighborliness. How does neighborliness figure in other world religions?

 

The question of neighborliness thus is also a theological, ethical and political-philosophical one. This makes it a concept apt to reflect on the human capacity of co-existence throughout global history.

 

Being both deep and concrete and expressing both social realities and aspirations it challenges other concepts currently en vogue as “convivencia” and “cosmopolitanism”.  

 

 

A publication is planned.

 

The Annual Conference of the Max Weber Foundation provides a forum for the foundation’s institutes and their research topics, as well as for other partner institutions. The event is organized and hosted by a different institute each year and offers the opportunity for an exchange of different international, comparative and transregional perspectives on current academic issues. Since 2015 it takes place on an annual basis.

 

Each conference is accompanied and documented by a blog, which contains information about program and speakers in advance as well as the conference papers subsequently.

 

    • footer logo
    • footer log2
    • DATA PROTECTION DISCLAIMER
    • SITEMAP
    • IMPRESSUM
    • Rue Hussein Beyhoum 44
      Zokak el-Blat
    • +9611359423
    • sek@orient-institut.org

Follow us:

© 2025, OIB All Right Reserved / OIB Alle Rechte vorbehalten.