[This Engaging Books belongs to ASI and MESPI’s year-long effort to mark, interrogate, and reflect on the Arab uprisings by producing resources for educators, researchers, students, and journalists to understand the last decade of political upheaval historically and in the lived present. To check out other publications and events from the Ten Years On project visit The Arab Uprisings Project and MESPI.
Table of Contents
Edited by Fatima El-Issawi and Francesco Cavatorta
About the Book
About the Editor
Scholarly Praise
Additional Information
Excerpt
Call for Reviews
By Bahia Shehab
About the Book
About the Author
In the Media
Additional Information
Excerpt
Call for Reviews
By Bahia Shehab
About the Book
About the Author
In the Media
Additional Information
Excerpt
Call for Reviews
Edited by Fatima El-Issawi and Francesco Cavatorta
About the Book
The aim of this volume is to adopt an original analytical approach in explaining various dynamics at work behind the Arab Spring, through giving voice to local dynamics and legacies rather than concentrating on debates about paradigms. It highlights micro-perspectives of change and resistance as well as of contentious politics that are often marginalised and left unexplored in favour of macro-analyses. First, the stories of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Algeria are told through diverse and novel perspectives, looking at factors that have not yet been sufficiently underlined but carry explanatory power for what has occurred. Second, rather than focusing on macro-comparative regional trends – however useful they might be – the contributors to the book focus on the particularities of each country, highlighting distinctive micro-dynamics of change and continuity. The essays collected here are contributions from renowned writers and researchers from the Middle East, along with Western experts, thus allowing the formation of a sophisticated dialogic exchange.
About the Author
Fatima El-Issawi is a Reader in Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Essex. Francesco Cavatorta is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur l’Afrique et le Moyen Orient (CIRAM) at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.
Scholarly Praise for The Unfinished Arab Spring
“This book makes a compelling critique of the common paradigms through which scholars see the region and the enduring tendency to over-emphasize the role of elite politics and formal political institutions. The dynamics of protest and social movements at this moment of heightened contentious politics deserve our closer attention because they reveal the lasting effects of the erosion of trust in formal political institutions.” – Rory McCarthy, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Additional Information
£40.00
Published: April 2020
Pages: 304
ISBN:9781909942486
Excerpt
Introduction. The Arab Uprisings: Micro-Dynamics of Activism and Revolt between Change and Continuity
The Arab uprisings of 2011 have generated a significant amount of scholarship, as they represented a seemingly momentous shift in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Although the implications and future consequences of these uprisings have yet to be fully teased out, given the relatively short period of time that has since elapsed, the revolts and their immediate aftermath have been dissected and analysed from numerous perspectives and theoretical frameworks. Central to such debates on how to interpret the uprisings has been the theorised struggle between democratisation and authoritarian resilience. Flowing from that macro-debate, there have been numerous studies looking at specific aspects of the uprisings, ranging from the actors driving the protests to the responses of the military and security apparatuses, and from the rise of political parties and elections to the massive violence and instability that characterises the region, including renewed sectarian rivalries. In light of the absence of genuine democratisation across the region – with the exception of Tunisia – more recent studies have examined the ‘desire’ for democracy that Arabs might, or might not, have, and the meaning that they give to the term. These studies are usually based on survey research, which carries with it a number of potential pitfalls. Narratives of the uprisings and their developments usually focus, moreover, on national actors and institutions, marginalising micro-dynamics of struggle and dissent.
Following the uprisings, we have also witnessed diverging institutional trajectories between the different countries involved, and it has therefore become quite difficult to generalise about the region. With an intensive focus on mainstream politics and institutions, and on regional-level analyses, comes the risk of failing to explore what happens ‘below the radar’ of ruling elites and established opposition parties and movements, within countries that have experienced a revolt and those where seemingly no changes took place. In short, there is a danger of making the same mistake as was made in the 2000s, when the focus on authoritarian mechanisms of reproduction of power and elites made it impossible to gauge the level of change occurring in society, and that was to lead to the 2011 revolts. Little has been said thus far about the inner dynamics of protest movements – both peaceful and violent – and the impact that these have on the everyday life on citizens, with significant consequences for the regimes in place. Central to the preoccupations of this book is the notion that the consequences of the 2011 Arab revolts have still to be fully worked out, and that their shockwaves might be felt for much longer than one would have expected, as the anti-regime movements in Algeria and Sudan in 2019 demonstrated. What the 2019 protests in two seemingly stable authoritarian countries suggested is that there are various micro-dynamics operating at the local level that often go undetected, and that there is a need to pay greater attention to these. Among the factors that have permitted local and often marginal movements to impact broader politics has been the ability of non-elite agents to use social media platforms to challenge regime policies: an issue highlighted in this volume. From football fans chanting anti-regime slogans in stadiums to ordinary citizens using YouTube to express frustration at their poor living conditions, a number of previously marginal social and political actors managed to disrupt mainstream media and politics, giving more space and power to subaltern, as against dominant, publics; and the same patterns still characterise the politics of the Arab world, demonstrating that the effects of the 2011 revolts have not yet faded. The highlighting or downplaying of specific social and political contentions is connected to the role played by institutional media in shaping the trajectories and sometimes the outcomes of movements’ struggles and priorities, through the important processes of framing and agenda-setting, direct and indirect alliances between media and the institutions of power and the way in which these alliances contribute to the formation of both media narratives and political processes in complex, interdependent dynamics.
Democratisation, Authoritarianism and the Uprisings
A recent survey by Di Peri of the literature on democratisation and authoritarianism in the Arab world summarises how the paradigms of democratisation and authoritarian resilience have come to dominate our understanding of Arab political developments. During the heydays of the democratisation paradigm in the 1980s and 1990s, the liberalising steps that Arab regimes were undertaking at the time were interpreted as an indication that democratic mechanisms and genuine political pluralism were about to make their way to the region, just as they had done in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Despite its failure, the process of democratisation in Algeria seemed to confirm that democracy had become a central issue, and setbacks were to be expected, just as had occurred elsewhere before democracy succeeded in establishing itself. By the early 2000s, the democratisation paradigm began to demonstrate signs of intellectual fatigue, as processes of democratisation that had begun over the previous decades stalled or were reversed. Furthermore, the democracies that had been set up seemed quite weak. In the Arab world, the liberalising reforms of the 1990s turned out to be largely cosmetic: no Arab country transitioned to democracy, and many could be considered at best ‘liberalised autocracies’. Following on from this, the debate on Arab political systems shifted away from the democratisation paradigm to explore the reasons behind the survival of authoritarianism. It was argued that there was no real point in looking for signs of democratisation in the region, and that scholars should instead focus on what was confronting them in reality: namely, the survival of authoritarian rule behind a façade of the espousal of certain democratic mechanisms and pseudo-liberal reforms. Faced with the seemingly unchanging authoritarian nature of Arab regimes, the success of the paradigm of authoritarian survival became the dominant theme within the literature, with research exploring the different strategies that regimes applied to remain in power. The dominance of this paradigm went unchallenged, as the reality on the ground did not seem to shift, with the majority of authoritarian leaders, such as Mubarak, Ben Ali, Saleh and Qaddafi having been in power since the 1980s, while in monarchies power was simply passed on to the next generation. The Syrian regime, for its part, experienced a quasi-monarchical transfer of power with Hafez al-Assad’s son Bashar taking over the presidency, and suggestions that a similar process could take place in a number of other republics seemed to confirm that Arab authoritarian regimes were secure. The focus on the part of the vast majority of scholars of the Arab world upon authoritarian survival was not necessarily misplaced, as it reflected the level of analysis with which the literature was mostly concerned: namely, national actors and institutions. A few scholars did analyse politics ‘under the radar’, and contended that Arab societies were in a state of mobilisation when one looked away from national politics and focused instead on local actors. Indeed, many voices for change were active and audible on the margins, but these did not receive much academic, political or media attention. Those who pointed to the relevance of the voices on the margins turned out to be correct, however, although surprise at the uprisings was still considerable. The revolts modified the scholarly debate once more, with the democratisation paradigm returning to the fore- front to explain the events and suggest how they might develop. The paradigm is also highly prescriptive, and it was therefore offered as a guide to what actors should or should not do to make the transition to democracy successful. Enthusiasm for the uprisings – both scholarly and among policy-makers – ended quite quickly, as processes of transition to democracy failed and a number of countries descended into civil conflict. As for those countries that did not experience a civil conflict, authoritarianism retrenched. This led to the return of the authoritarian resilience paradigm at the forefront of explanations for political events taking place in the region, again sidelining the democratisation paradigm, the helpful- ness of which, to an extent, was limited to the case of Tunisia. Although there have been calls to develop a more middle-of-the-road perspective, combining aspects of both paradigms to account for diverging trajectories, or moving beyond them altogether, this has hardly happened.
In the wake of this meta-debate between paradigms, there has been a plethora of studies looking at specific aspects of the trajectories taken by the different countries and actors involved, with a specific focus on what worked – Tunisia – and what did not: everywhere else. Comparative work distinguishing between different countries has increased significantly, with scholars examining the role of militaries, trade unions, political parties, social movements and cross-ideological coalitions, the role of media and technology and the desire of ordinary Arab citizens for democracy. This volume plays its part in contributing to this trend through micro-level analyses of how the return of authoritarian rule and the explosion of violence have of course modified how citizens relate to power, but have also been unable to ‘turn the clock back’, as practices of dissent remain strong below the surface, even in democratic Tunisia.
In short, the perception of authoritarian continuity and of a failure of contestation does not account for the many changes that have occurred or are in the making within Arab societies: the Arab uprisings of 2011 should not be considered a finite, time-limited event, as the extent of their shockwaves and genuine impact have yet to be fully appreciated. The idea that ‘nothing has changed’, and that the revolts were simply a blip that made Arab citizens reconsider the value and usefulness of open dissent, might be useful as a political device for Arab ruling elites and, often, their international allies. However, it obscures the fact that behind a façade of retrenched authoritarianism and violent chaos, states and societies have indeed changed considerably since 2011, with the ripple effects of the uprisings still affecting the relationship between state and society, as the cases of Algeria and Sudan suggest, but also in Egypt, with a resurgence of protests despite stifling authoritarianism and heavy repression, and in Morocco, with the rise of protests claiming to be in continuity with the 20 February movement. Albrecht and Schlumberger had already made this point about the evolving nature of Arab regimes and societies well before the uprisings, when they argued that Arab societies had changed profoundly despite the apparent authoritarian sclerosis from which they were suf- fering. It is even more the case today that no Arab polity has been left unaffected by the uprisings, even though they seemed to succeed only in Tunisia.
This book therefore aims to celebrate and give weight to the disruptive power of human agency when this agency is restricted by hegemonic power. In terms of Bourdieu’s habitus, the individual’s embodiment of preconditioned social structures does not lead to a deterministic behaviour in which personal agency has no place. As individuals adopt into their practices the social conditions and structures in which they were formed, they tend to reproduce these structures in a process that is flexible and can lead to the modification and sometimes to the transformation of those practices. As Swartz puts it, practices ‘are not to be reduced to either habitus or field but grow out of the “interrelationship” established at each point in time by the sets of relations represented by both’. This volume provides solid evidence of this active agency in times of uncertainty driven by troubled transitions or attempted transitions to democracy. The late-2019 street protests in Egypt, taking place in an environment of acute repression, is a further testament to the vitality of such agency confronted by a dehumanising form of oppression. This agency contradicts assumptions of a passive Arab public sphere wherein civil society is co-opted or silenced through counter-revolutionary forces’ clever use of stick- and-carrot tactics to quell dissent. These acts of rebellious agency, taking creative forms in several domains, are beautifully defined by Bayat as the ‘art of presence’:
... a way in which a society, through the practices of daily life, may regenerate itself by affirming the values that deject the authoritarian personality, get ahead of its elites, and become capable of enforcing its sensibilities on the state and its henchmen.
A growing dynamic hybridity in the media and political spheres empowers such agency. Beyond dichotomies of old and new, online and offline, liberal and authoritarian, diversity and uncertainty define the hybrid media and political systems across the region. Power is exercised and understood as ‘the use of resources of varying kinds that in any given context of dependence and interde- pendence to enable individuals or collectivities to pursue their values and interests, both with and within different but interrelated media’. While media hybridity is fuelling political hybridity, it is increasing the levels of uncertainty. By so doing, it is enabling subaltern publics to form and even to thrive in certain contexts. As the contributors to this volume convincingly demonstrate, the relationship between various societal agents in ‘the field’ is governed by interdependence, rather than dependence or independence. This interconnectedness is an opportunity for creativity, including for dissenting agency, mainly through its ability to expand plural- ism and to challenge restrictive mainstream media and political structures. In most of the countries of the ‘Arab Spring’, media structures and practices witnessed significant diversification mirroring nascent political pluralism. This diversification regressed with the collapse of the democratic experiment into conflicts or renewed autocracy, but there is no linear progressive or regressive path that countries move along, as significant pockets of pluralistic engagement remain in authoritarian systems, and pockets of authoritarian practice remain in democratic ones.
Call for Reviews
If you would like to review the book for the Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya, please email info@jadaliyya.com
By Bahia Shehab
About the Book
Part visual history, part memoir, You Can Crush the Flowers is the celebrated Egyptian-Lebanese artist Bahia Shehab’s chronicle of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and its aftermath, as it manifested itself not only in the art on the streets of Cairo but also through the wider visual culture that emerged during the revolution. Marking the ten-year anniversary of the revolution, the book tells the stories that inspired both her own artwork and those of her fellow-revolutionaries. It narrates the events of the revolution as they unfolded, describing on one hand the tactics deployed by the regime to drive protesters from the street — from the use of tear gas and snipers to employing brute force, intimidation techniques and virginity tests — and on the other hand the retaliation by the protesters online and on the street in marches, chants, street art and memes. Throughout this powerful and moving account, and using a vast array of over 250 images, Bahia Shehab responds to what she has witnessed as both artist and activist. The result bears witness to the brutality of the regime and pays tribute to the protestors who bravely defied it.
About the Author
Bahia Shehab is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and art historian. Her work is concerned with identity and preserving cultural heritage. Through investigating Islamic art history she reinterprets contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues. She is Professor of Design at The American University in Cairo. Her books At the Corner of a Dream: A Journey of Resistance & Revolution – The Street Art of Bahia Shehab (2019) and You Can Crush the Flowers: A Visual Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution (2021) were published by Gingko.
In the Media
Asia House Podcast: Art, Revolution & People’s Voices
Interview with the Arab British Centre
Savoir dir non: French article on Bahia’s ‘A Thousand Times No’
Additional Information
£20.00
Published: January 2021
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781909942530
Excerpt
In Lebanon, during the war, parties were affiliated with armed militias. So we stayed away from politics. But here in Egypt the images and sounds in my newsfeed have re- cruited me to the revolution. Now I watch what is happening in my adoptive home- land and I fear it might escalate into a civil war. I worry my daughters will have to live through the same nightmare I experienced in Beirut...
[To read more, click here.]
Call for Reviews
If you would like to review the book for the Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya, please email info@jadaliyya.com
By Bahia Shehab
About the Book
Lebanese-Egyptian street artist Bahia Shehab began taking to the streets during the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Since then, she has taken her peaceful resistance, using lines from Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, to the streets of the world, from New York to Tokyo, Amsterdam to Honolulu. This book documents not only Shehab’s striking artwork itself, but also the stories of the people she meets along the way, and her observations from the streets of each new city she visits. It is her artist manifesto, a cry for freedom and dignity, and a call to never stop dreaming.
‘The world has been led to believe that the Egyptian Revolution has failed. The mainstream media would have us believe that law and order have been reinstated by the military regime. All forms of resistance and opposition have been silenced. This book aims to offer another side to this story; it is an expression of our human right to live in freedom and with dignity.’ At the Corner of a Dream hopes to illustrate how an idea that started on the streets of Cairo has travelled to the walls of the world. ‘I paint Darwish’s words on the walls of cities around the world in anticipation of a dream that I believe is around the corner for all of us.’
About the Author
Bahia Shehab is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and art historian. Her work is concerned with identity and preserving cultural heritage. Through investigating Islamic art history she reinterprets contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues. She is Professor of Design at The American University in Cairo. Her books At the Corner of a Dream: A Journey of Resistance & Revolution – The Street Art of Bahia Shehab (2019) and You Can Crush the Flowers: A Visual Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution (2021) were published by Gingko.
In the Media
Click here to read a review of this book by the Burlington Contemporary.
Read more about Bahia Shehab’s book and exhibition:
The Art Newspaper, September 2019
The London Magazine, October 2019
Additional Information
£25.00
Published: September 2019
ISBN: 9781909942394
Excerpt
When I visited Istanbul in the summer of 2016, I immediately felt at home. There was something about the hilly streets and green trees, the Ottoman buildings, the closeness to the sea, the good food and the energy of its people that reminded me so much of Beirut...
[To read more, click here.]
Call for Reviews
If you would like to review the book for the Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya, please email info@jadaliyya.com