Charlotte Gaudreau is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at McGill University, following her Master's at McGill and BA from Université du Québec à Montréal in the same discipline. Her research interests span the impacts of colonialism, sub-state nationalism, and contemporary social movements — from Turtle Island to the Middle East. Her doctoral work examines Lebanon's civil society landscape, investigating the complex intersections between foreign aid, the NGO sector, and grassroots anti-establishment movements.

Project description: 

In crisis-torn Lebanon, as the state struggles to provide basic services, thousands of non-governmental organizations have emerged to fill this void. But does this growing "NGO-ization" of society help or hinder real social change? My mixed-method research explores how Lebanon's landscape of NGOs and social movements has evolved dialectically since the civil war. Through a novel dataset, I provide the first quantitative analysis of Lebanon's associational sector. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, I uncover how the state and external actors pressure social movement organizations to become professional NGOs. By mapping these dynamics, this research offers vital insights into how Lebanese civil society is shaped by exogenous factors, weak state institutions, and recurring crises.