Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and I) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804775257 ISBN 13: 9780804775250

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

The Middle East and North Africa have become places that almost everyone "knows" something about. Too frequently written off as culturally defined by Islam, strongly anti-Western, and uniquely susceptible to irrational political radicalism, authoritarianism, and terrorism—these regions are rarely considered as sites of social and political mobilization. However, this new volume reveals a rich array of mobilizations that neither lead inexorably toward democratization nor degenerate into violence.

These case studies of Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are inspired by social movement theory, but also critique and expand the horizons of the theory's classical concepts of political opportunity structures, collective action frames, mobilization structures, and repertoires of contention through intensive fieldwork. This strong empirical base allows for a nuanced understanding of contexts, culturally conditioned rationality, the strengths and weaknesses of local networks, and innovation in contentious action in a region where, with the exception of Turkey, there was little sign of broad-based movements for democratization until the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings of 2010-11.

About this title

About the Author

Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University, and a past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Frédéric Vairel is Assistant Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Review

"It is a must-read for historians and social scientists interested in social movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and an important resource for understanding the region's recent political change, contemporary history, and, in spite of the modest disclaimers of the editors, the uprising of 2011."—John Chalcraft, Arab Studies Journal Reviews
"This is an excellent volume and a much needed addition to the scholarship on social movements, revolutions, and Middle Eastern studies. I recommend it to all those wishing to understand the tumultuous events of the Arab spring and collective action in the region more generally."—Atef Said, Mobilization

"An altogether welcome addition to both the social movement literature and the growing body of work on contention in the Middle East and North Africa. In the wake of 9/11, scholars rushed to fill the gaping void in scholarly knowledge of all manner of 'Islamacist' movements, but generally without tapping into the rich body of work on contentious politics that had been produced in recent years. And for their part, movement scholars were missing in action when it came to knowledge of events in this crucial region of the world. This exceptional collection has gone a long way towards remedying this problem and bringing these two important literatures into productive dialog with each other."—Doug McAdam, Stanford University

"Protest in the Middle East and North Africa is not just a monopoly of Islamists. This volume juxtaposes Islamist activism with movements by workers, intellectuals, feminists, human rights activists, and others that don't get much attention in the West, but which present a fuller picture of political and social upheavals in the region."—Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0804775257
• ISBN 13: 9780804775250
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Beinin Joel, Vairel Frédéric