This paper reflects on the theoretical and methodological perspectives that studied the precarious informal sector in the Arab world to shine light on this sector in the poorest region in Lebanon and the Mediterranean: Tripoli. The paper proposes a theoretical framework for a comparative study of informality in the Arab world, and reflects on research methodology in contexts marked by violence both structural and non-structural. The paper will serve as a lens that informs the study of urban informality – a sector that has not yet been explored by scholars of Lebanon - in which I contend that the intersections of various forms of identities (regional, class, sectarian, gender etc) under a neoliberal economy and a sectarian regime created an environment of structural and non-structural violence. I am interested in how the violence, which is embedded in the historical development of institutional, social, cultural, and economic inequalities, shapes the meaning of being precarious in Lebanon as embodied by being a Tripolitans, and how those who live in precariousness make sense of their lives, and resist and challenge such violence. The paper serves as the basis for a research project that will inform the theoretical and methodological approach to studying informality in Lebanon by focusing in the first phase on Tripoli. The project will explore on the one hand on how neoliberal policies in postwar Lebanon have been wedded to discourses on the “war on terrorism,” and “counter-terrorism” strategies to subvert prospects for class organizing and social change emerging from this side of the country where class antagonisms, and class struggles are pronounced. It also unpacks the effects of such strategies on the residents of the Northern city by looking at how the intertwining processes of neoliberalism and counterterrorism have made the conditions of lives for Tripolitans into a constant violent existence. It is a daily encounter with structural and non-structural forms of violence that marks the everyday life there despite the fact that this city in particular is the birthplace of the richest men in the Arab world. The research is therefore at the intersection of political economy, political violence, and resistance strategies by the residents of the informal sectors in Tripoli and its poor neighborhoods.