Call for Papers: “Labor in the MENA Region”

Call for Papers: “Labor in the MENA Region”

Call for Papers: “Labor in the MENA Region”

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following is a call for papers put for by The Beirut Winter Institute in Critical Development Studies looking for submissions on labor in the MENA region. Find the Arabic version for the Call for Papers below.]

The “Critical Approaches to Development Studies in the MENA Region” project at the American University of Beirut (AUB) is pleased to announce the call for applications for the first edition of the Beirut Winter Institute in Critical Development Studies to be held in Beirut from 5 to 15 January 2022. The topic of focus for this inaugural ten-day workshop is “Labor in the MENA region”.

The Winter Institute will bring together around 15 early career scholars to discuss their work, fine-tune their research, attend lectures, and strengthen collaborative work amongst young scholars towards joint publications in a peer-reviewed journal, with the help of leading scholars in the discipline.

Selected scholars will be requested to submit a first draft of their paper in either Arabic or English by 10 December 2021. The aim of this workshop is to prepare for the publication of a special issue in a peer-reviewed journal, or an edited book on the topic of Labor in the MENA region.

The workshop leaders include, among others: Joel Beinin, Anne Alexander, Adam Hanieh, and Elizabeth Saleh.

Overview


Research on labor in the MENA region remains scarce and scattered. The Arab uprisings since 2011 opened the door for renewed interest in research on labor in the region, with most of its scholarship being mainly centered around labor movements and mobilization (decline or revival of unions). However, research tackling the structures of the labor market, the transformations in labor relations in the region, the growth of the gig economy and the informal sector, as well as the conceptualization of labor under neoliberalism are still largely under-researched.

The MENA region presents an important avenue to study a wide range of critical issues related to labor. The region features diverse conditions such as scoring the highest rates of (female) youth unemployment and economic inequalities globally, in addition to having a very large informal sector, high influx of migrant workers, increased labor migration, and a convergence of neoliberalism and imperialism that shaped much of its labor relations and organizations. In addition, the recent transformations related to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor relations, and its heavily gendered implications are topics that are still to be further explored and studied. In this light, the Winter Institute aims to offer a space for young scholars to contribute to the study of labor in the MENA region in conversation with the already existing scholarship. Through this exercise, fellows are expected to bring in a much-needed empirical and interdisciplinary approach to the study of labor in the MENA region, grounded in critical theoretical and conceptual approaches.

1 The project is planned to take place in Beirut at the American University of Beirut. If health and political situation does not allow travel to Beirut, the workshop will be relocated.

Questions of Interest


The list of suggested topics includes, but is not limited to the following:

  • -  The precariat in the MENA region
  • -  Labor migration
  • -  Organized labor movements (cooperatives, unions, and new forms of organization)
  • -  The gig economy
  • -  Informal labor
  • -  Unemployment
  • -  Gender, Race and Labor: Domestic workers, reproductive labor, care economy, etc.
  • -  Forced labor
  • -  COVID-19 and labor transformations (remote labor, online offices, etc.)

Eligibility Criteria


This call is open to early career scholars working on issues of labor in the MENA region. Eligible candidates must be in the last year of their PhD or within the first 5 years post PhD. The workshop is tailored for candidates who have a research project underway and are looking to fine-tune it and turn it into a publishable article. Candidates will be asked to send a draft paper by 10 December 2021. Priority is given to candidates in or from the MENA region.

Submission Guidelines


Submissions are open to early career scholars from diverse disciplines and interdisciplinary fields (such as sociology, anthropology, economics, geography, developments studies, etc.) whose work is focused on the study of labor in the MENA.

Applicants must submit the following documents:

  • -  a cover letter explaining their interest in attending the 2022 Winter Institute,
  • -  a CV
  • -  an abstract of a maximum of 500 words (in Arabic or English).

Submissions should be sent to rima.majed@aub.edu.lb no later than 5 October 2021.


يسرّ مشروع "المقاربات النقدية لدراسات التنمية في الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا" في الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت الإعلان عن الدعوة لتقديم طلبات للنسخة الأولى من مؤسّسة بيروت الشتوية لدراسات التنمية النقدية والتي ستُعقَد في بيروت من 5-15 كانون الثاني 2022. ستتمحور هذه الجلسة الافتتاحية لمدّة 10 أيّام حول موضوع  "العمل في الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا". 

ستجمع المؤسّسة الشتوية حوالي 15 باحث/ة في أولى مراحلهم المهنية لمناقشة أعمالهم وتطوير أبحاثهم، لحضور محاضرات، ودعم العمل التشاركي بين الباحثين/ات  لنشر الأبحاث في مجلّات محكّمة علمياً، بمساعدة باحثين/ات رائدين/ات في هذا المجال.  

سيُطلَب من الباحثين/ات المختارين/ات تقديم مسودة أوّلية عن أوراقهم البحثية باللغة العربية أو الانكليزية بتاريخ أقصاه 10 كانون الأوّل 2021. تهدف ورشة العمل هذه للتحضير لنشر عدد خاصّ في مجلة علمية أو كتاب محرَّر عن موضوع "العمل في الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا". 

قادة وميسّرو الجلسة : جويل بينين، آن الكساندر، آدم هنيه، واليزابيث صالح، وغيرهم/ن. 

نبذة


لا يزال البحث في موضوع العمل في الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا قليلاً، ناقصاً ومتناثراً. فتحت الانتفاضات العربية منذ عام 2011 المجال لتجديد الاهتمام في البحث في شؤون العمل في المنطقة بحيث تتمحور معظم الدراسات والبحوث الاكاديمية حول الحركات والتعبئة العمّالية (تراجع أو إعادة إحياء النقابات والاتّحادات). إلّا أنّ البحث لا يزال ناقصاً لحدّ كبير حول بنى سوق العمل، التحوّلات في علاقات العمل في المنطقة، توسّع اقتصاد المطابقة بين العمّال وأصحاب العمل عبر المنصّات الرقمية (gig economy) والقطاع غير الرسمي/غير المنظَّم، بالإضافة إلى مفهوم العمل في ظلّ النيوليبرالية. 

تمثّل منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا مجالاً مهمّاً لدراسة شتّى الأمور النقدية المتعلّقة بالعمل. وذلك نظراً لتواجد ظروف وعوامل متنوّعة مثل أعلى معدّلات البطالة لفئة اليافعين (الإناث) وأعلى درجات انعدام المساواة عالمياً، بالإضافة إلى القطاع الكبير من العمل القطاع غير الرسمي/غير المنظَّم واستقدام الكثير من العمّال المهاجرين، تزايد الهجرة العمّالية، وتلاقي النيوليبرالية بالامبريالية الذي شكّل معظم علاقات العمل والمنظّمات.  

بالإضافة، التحوّلات الأخيرة فيما يتعلّق بتأثير فيروس كورونا على علاقات العمل بجانبه الجندري هي مواضيع جديرة بالبحث والاستكشاف. وفي هذا السياق، تهدف المؤسّسة الشتوية لتقديم مساحة للباحثين الشباب كي يساهموا في دراسَةْ والبحث في علاقات العمل في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا بموازاة الأبحاث القائمة بالفعل. عبر هذا التمرين، يُتوقَّع من الزملاء أن يحضروا بمقاربة تجريبية ومتعدّدة الاختصاصات لدراسة العمل في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا، ومتجذّرة في المقاربات النقدية النظرية والمفاهيمية. 

الأسئلة الجديرة بالاهتمام


اللائحة تضمّ المواضيع التالية لكنّها ليست محصورة بها:

  • الهشاشة في الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا
  • الهجرة العمّالية
  • الحركات العمّالية المنظَّمة (تعاونيات، اتّحادات، نقابات، أشكال تنظيمية جديدة)
  • اقتصاد المطابقة بين العمّال وأصحاب العمل عبر المنصّات الرقمية (gig economy) 
  • العمل غير الرسمي/غير المنظَّم
  • البطالة
  • الجندر (النوع الاجتماعي)، العرق والعمل: العاملات المنزليات، العمل المعيد للإنتاج، الاقتصاد الرعائي…
  • العمل القسري
  • فيروس كورونا والتحوّلات في مجال العمل (العمل عن بعد، المكاتب الافتراضية اونلاين…) 


المؤهّلات المطلوبة للتقديم


هذه الدعوة مفتوحة للباحثين/ات في أولى مراحلهم المهنية والذين يعملون على قضايا العمل في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا. ينبغي على المتقدّمين/ات أن يكونوا في آخر عام من الدكتوراه أو في أوّل 5 سنوات بعد نيل شهادة الدكتوراه. سيتمّ تصميم ورشة العمل لمناسبة المتقدّمين/ات الذين يعملون على مشروع بحثي حاليّاً ويسعون لتطويره من أجل نشره كورقة بحثية.

سيُطلَب من المتقدّمين/ات تقديم مسودة بمهلة أقصاها 10 كانون الأوّل 2021، كما ستكون الأولوية لطلبات الباحثين/ات في أو من الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا. 

إرشادات التقديم


التقديم مفتوح للباحثين/ات في أولى مراحلهم المهنية من مختلف المجالات والاختصاصات المتنوّعة (مثل علم الاجتماع، الاقتصاد، الجغرافيا، علم الانسان/انثروبولوجيا، دراسات التنمية…) والذين يركّزون في بحوثهم على دراسة العمل في الشرق الأوسط وشمال افريقيا. 

على المتقدّمين إرسال المستندات التالية:

  • رسالة إحالة (cover letter) تشرح الأسباب والدوافع للتقديم لحضور المؤسّسة الشتوية لعام 2022
  • سيرة ذاتية
  • ملخّص للبحث لا يزيد عن 500 كلمة (بالعربية او الانكليزية) 

تقديم الطلبات عبر إرسال المستندات إلى rima.majed@aub.edu.lb بمهلة أقصاها 5 اوكتوبر/تشرين الأول 2021.

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412