Farhad Khosrokhovar (EHESS, CADIS, Paris)
"The Arab societies in crisis: the aftermath of the Arab revolutions"
The so-called Arab Spring shook most of the Arab autocracies. But two years later, the
auspicious beginnings ended up with deep crises: military coup in Egypt, endless political
crisis in Tunisia, Civil war in Syria, failed state in Libya, Yemen as a country torn apart,
Bahrain under duress, Lebanon destabilized.... Still, the Arab revolutions carried for the first
time the idea of the dignity of the citizen and this is one of the major motives that continue to
shape the hearts and minds of many Arab citizens. The situation is less hopeless than it seems,
although there are many reasons to despair. We shall explore them in order to better
understand the crises that rock the Arab world.
Farhad Khosrokhavar is professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris,
France. His main fields of study are the Iranian society after the Islamic Revolution and
Islam, in particular its radical forms in Europe and the Middle East. He has published 17
books, three of which translated in nine different languages and more than 70 articles, mainly
in French, a dozen in English, few in Persian. He has been a Rockefeller fellow (1990), has
given conferences in different European and American universities (Saint Antony’s college in
Oxford, Britain, Princeton, NYU, Columbia, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Texas
University at Austin…) and many think tanks and other institutions. He was a Yale Visiting
Scholar in 2008 and a Harvard Visiting Scholar in Winter 2009. His latest books are: (with
Houchang E. Chehabi and Clément Therme, eds.) Iran and the Challenges of the TwentyFirst Century, Costa Meza, Mazda Publishers, 2013, The New Arab Revolutions that Shook
the World, Boulder, London, Paradigm Publishers, 2012, Jihadist Ideology: The
Anthropological Perspective, The Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalization (CIR),
Aarhus C, Scandinavian Book A/S, 2011, Inside Jihadism: Understanding Jihadi Movements
Worldwide, Boulder, London, Paradigm Publishers, 2009.
Gennaro Gervasio (BUE-British University in Egypt, Cairo):
“The Egyptian Revolution: a view from below’
The problematique of the relation between power and resistance runs through much of late
twentieth-century Western thought and has recently again become topical in relation to the
waves of social movements and unrest which have swept across North Africa, the Middle
East, and beyond. This paper aims to investigate the emergence of new subaltern subjects as
main protagonists of ‘street politics’ during the Egyptian Revolution(s). As street politics
played a fundamental role in the protest movements before 2011, the role of some
‘traditionally political’ actors, such as independent trade unions, students, had been analysed
in recent studies, but still little research exists on the trajectories of these subjects since 2011.
Based on intensive fieldwork (interviews, focus groups and participant observation), the paper
will look at the new, problematic, emerging subaltern subjects, and at their practices of
resistance to the new and old neo-liberal order. In particular, I will look at both those already
active subjects –such as independent trade unions and civic activism- and especially those
without a tradition of political activism, like the football ‘ultras’ and the self-organised
resistance in the social nonmovements (Bayat 2013) ‘hidden’ at the margins of the large
cities.
Gennaro Gervasio is currently a lecturer in Middle East Politics at the British University in
Egypt (BUE) in Cairo. His research interests include: secularism and Marxism in the Arab
world, the political role of Arab intellectuals, the politics of the Arab media, and civic
activism and social movements in the Arab World (especially Egypt and Morocco). His latest
monography is al-Haraka al-Markisiyya fi Misr 1967-1981 (The Marxist Movement in Egypt
1967-81), Cairo 2010, and more recently he has co-edited the volume Informal Power in the
Middle East: Hidden Geographies (forthcoming).
Katarina Dalacoura (London School of Economics):
“Islamism and Neo-Liberalism in the Aftermath of the 2011 Arab Uprisings”
Socio-economic causes, partly engendered by the ways in which neo-liberal policies were
applied in the Middle East region, were crucial drivers behind the Arab uprisings of 2011.
However, the Islamist movements which, in some settings (Tunisia, Egypt and even Libya,
Morocco), were the main beneficiaries of the overthrow of existing regimes, are not
ideologically opposed to neo-liberal policies. The paper will explore this contradiction and the
tensions it has given rise to. It will draw, briefly, on the history of Islamist movements in the
Middle East and then focus primarily on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Tunisian
Nahda movement. The two groups’ ideologies on issues such as the market, economic
redistribution, globalisation and social justice will be discussed as a precursor for an analysis
of their policies while in power in the post-2011 settings.
Katerina Dalacoura is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the London School of
Economics and Political Science. Her main areas of expertise are in: human rights ,
democracy and democracy promotion, in the Middle East; political Islam; and culture and
religion in International Relations. She is author of Islam, Liberalism and Human Rights:
Implications for International Relations (London: I. B. Tauris, 2003), Engagement or
Coercion: Weighing Western Human Rights Policies towards Turkey, Iran and Egypt
(London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2003) and Islamist Terrorism and
Democracy in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2011). She has published in the
Review of International Studies, Millennium, International Affairs, Democratization,
International Studies Notes and International Relations and has authored a number of
chapters in edited books.
Raoudha Kammoun (University of Manouba, Tunis):
“Women and politics in the Tunisian Uprising: Expectations and participation”
The January 14, 2011 Uprising constitutes a historical turning point in Tunisia. This not-sounexpected protest movement has generated very important political changes; an increasing
interest in politics has been noticed particularly with the emergence of women as vital actors
in the political sphere playing a very active role during the Uprising. They have played roles
as protesters and politicians, activists and academics, journalists and photographers, and
whether poor or privileged, urban or rural. They fearlessly took to the streets, chanting and
waving the banners of revolutionary fervor calling for more freedom, dignity and
socioeconomic equality.
Raoudha Kammoun currently teaches in the Department of English at the University of
Manouba. Her research interests include bilingualism, multiculturalism and language
planning, humor studies, translation, gender studies: feminism, gender and language, gender
and humor, gender-based violence, gender and political discourse, politeness, and
masculinities.
Stephane Lacroix (Sciences-Po, Paris):
“What do Egypt’s Salafis Want ? The Politics and Policies of the Salafi Movement in
Post-Revolutionary Egypt”
This paper will explore the Politics and Policies of Egyptian Salafis in the wake of the 25
January 2011 revolution, when they decided to formally enter the political sphere. After
mapping the different factions within Egyptian Salafism, I will examine what each of them
has been advocating for the post-revolutionary Egyptian state and how this can account for
their appeal. I will then try to explain why their conception of power and politics represents a
novelty within Egyptian political Islam, and why it differs from the more « classical »
conception held by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Stéphane Lacroix is an associate professor of political science at Sciences Po in Paris, and a
researcher at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI). He is the author of
« Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia »
(Harvard University Press, 2011).
Zafer Yörük (Izmir University of Economics, Izmir)
“The Kurdish Question, Urban Protests and the Reconstruction of the Turkish State
and Politics”
Recent urban protests in Turkey have been extensively reflected upon by being related both to
the anti-capitalist revolts in the West, and to the Arab Spring. Such international inspirations
have certainly played a significant role in these revolts, along with a series of indigenous
causes, including, among others, the rising urban/ecological and secular concerns vis-à-vis the
government’s policies, the arrogant externalization of the youth and secular intelligentsia in
the PM’s discourse that accompany sustained police violence, and the popular opposition to
the Turkish state’s de facto involvement in the Syrian civil war. However, analyses that
exclusively emphasize these manifest dynamics would risk neglecting the significance of a
latent factor that paved the grounds of these protests, that is, the ongoing negotiations
between the Turkish government and the Kurdish movement. This paper elaborates on this
rather neglected dimension by posing primarily the question of the place of the Kurdish peace
process, in particular - and the Kurdish question in general – among the structures and
dynamics that constitute the background of the recent protests.
Zafer Fehmi Yörük (MA and PhD in Ideology and Discourse Analysis, University of Essex)
teaches at the Faculty of Communication of Izmir University of Economics. He is the author
of Identity Crisis in Turkey: A Genealogical Inquiry into the Exclusion of the Others
(Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010). Dr Yörük’s theoretical research interests include
identity politics, discourse analysis and psychoanalysis. His research focuse on politics of
Middle East and Turkey with special reference to media and communications.
Yazan Badran (Syria/Belgium)
"Neoliberalism in Syria: or the cynical abandonment of the working man"
Syria’s neoliberal trajectory asserted itself (and consequently, its exclusion and alienation) not
only as an economic model for concentrating wealth, and its generation, but also through the
active social and political promotion of that exclusion. Thus, the debate over neoliberalism’s
role in promulgating the Syrian tragedy is at one and the same time a debate over the coercive
nature of such discourse that eliminates the very concept of self-determination, and a debate
about the failure and unwillingness of the international progressive movements to empower
that very same “oppressed creature” searching for an alternative to his “heartless world” and
“soulless conditions”
Yazan Badran is a Syrian blogger and commentator. He writes about topics related to his
home country and the wider Arab world. He is pursuing his postgraduate studies in media and
communication studies in Belgium.
Jana Nakhal (Lebanon)
“Lebanon 2011: Movement Co-opted”
Contrary to other pre-2011 Arab countries, Lebanon’s specialty was thought to be the
presence of demonstrations, an active left, an effortless formation of political movements,
continuous changes in the political arena, and the freedom to discuss political issues and
criticize politicians. Political upheavals in the Arab world, ongoing since 2011 and thoroughly
unexpected in their scope and consequences, changed the acknowledged perception. Lebanon
had its own attempt at a revolution. During six months, the nucleus of what was expected to
become a potential ‘Lebanese Thawra’ was nonetheless repressed and forgotten.
Jana Nakhal has a bachelor in landscape design. Researching a comprehensive approach to
what the landscape is, what builds it and why, she has developed an interest in social sciences,
planning, and politics. She is writing her thesis in urban planning on illegality in informal
housing in the South of Lebanon. She is active in union organization. She occasionally writes
in Al-Akhbar and Assafir newspapers
Daniel Monterescu (Central European University, Budapest)
“The Failed Revolt? The Israeli “Arab Spring” and its Dissolution”
One of the striking features of the “Arab Uprisings” of 2011 is their cascading effect on social
movements worldwide. The rapid diffusion and mimetic circulation of their core
revolutionary principles to markedly different political contexts throughout the Middle East,
Europe, and the Americas pose a conceptual challenge for the social sciences. Another
distinguishing feature of the Arab revolts is the central role cities play in both enabling
mobilization and repressing protests. The magnitude of the Israeli Social Justice Protests of
summer 2011 (aka J14) came as a surprise to observers and participants alike. For a period of
three months, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in a rallying cry to redefine national
priorities thus turning in the process Israel’s major metropolises into “rebel cities”–festive
spaces of struggle and collective effervescence. This paper critically examines the radical
potential of the Israeli movement and its subsequent dissolution in the face of governmental
pressure, organizational fragmentation and mobilizational fatigue.
Daniel Monterescu is an assistant professor of urban anthropology at the Department of
Sociology and Social Anthropology and Director the Two Year MA program. He has
published widely on ethnic relations and urban space in binational (mixed) towns as part of a
larger project on identity, sociality and gender relations in Mediterranean Cities. His previous
projects examine the construction of Arab masculinity and the narration of life stories in Jaffa.
His publications feature articles in Public Culture, Constellations, Identities, World
Development, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Journal of Mediterranean
Studies, Theory and Criticism, Israeli Sociology and contributions to numerous edited
volumes in English, Arabic and Hebrew. His monograph entitled Gentrifying the Bride of
Palestine is forthcoming in 2014.
Emel Akçali is an assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations and
European Studies of Central European University in Budapest and currently a fellow at the
CEU Institute of Advanced Study, conducting research on the limits of neo-liberal
governmentality and challenges of state (trans-)formation in post-revolutionary Tunisia. Her
main research interests span state and societal transformations, non-Western and alternative
globalist geopolitical discourses, governmentality studies and critical realist philosophy. Her
most recent publications are ‘Taming’ Arab social movements: Exporting neoliberal
governmentality, Security Dialogue 44, 2013, Geographical Metanarratives in East-Central
Europe: Neo-Turanism in Hungary, Eurasian Geography and Economics 53: 5, 2012,
Turkey’s Bid for European Union Membership: Between “thick” and “thin” conceptions of
Europe, Eurasian Geography and Economics LII 2012 and Getting Real on Fluctuating
National Identities: An Insight from Northern Cyprus, Antipode 43/5, 2011.