There’s nothing more permanent than temporary solutions: the solar panel transition and everyday coping in Lebanon’s multi-dimensional crisis since 2020

What happens when a country, a population, or at least a segment thereof, navigates in a permanent state of crisis that becomes normalised into their everyday? Engaging with this question, this article analyses the evolution of Lebanon’s post-civil war electricity sector, with a particular focus on the on-going electricity crisis since 2020. We challenge perceptions of the temporary nature of crisis within much of the crisis literature and argue that processes of ‘everyday informality’ in the Lebanese context are structured by citizens’ assessment of effective service provision. This provides impetus for the contemplation of alternative forms of governance, often unfolding as coping mechanisms against adversities, that bypass and supplant state regulations in the energy sector in order to sustain the energy needs of individuals, households and businesses, manifesting informality in spite of the state.