200 - Thematic Session. Social Change from the Bottom Up? The Status of Social Movements in the Middle East

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

Media coverage and popular histories of the Middle East focus on the attempts by the Global North to integrate the region into United States-led-market-driven-globalization, the struggles by corrupt authoritarian regimes to sustain, retain, or consolidate power, and the sometimes spectacular attempts by competing or insurgent elites to overthrow the existing power structure.

A usually ignored aspect of these high profile conflicts has been the importance of popular mass movements that have challenged the rule and the goals of the various elite contenders. These movements have sought and sometimes achieved major victories, even when faced by devastating military invasions from the Global North, the fully mobilized repressive apparatus of authoritarian regimes, and the sometimes-spectacular terrorism of contending elites.

Only during the Arab Spring did these social-movement engines of resistance and social change become visible in the mainstream media and popular press. But this visibility subsided with the subsidence of the Arab Spring, despite the continued relevance and importance of popular mass movements, both in the high visibility “hot spots” and the low visibility countries without media-worthy elite conflicts. This session will look at the shape and condition of mass movements in the region in the years since the Arab Spring, and discuss the prospects for meaningful social change.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Michael Schwartz, Stony Brook State University

Presider

• Michael Schwartz, Stony Brook State University

Panelists

• Gilbert Achcar, University of London

• Juan R. Cole, University of Michigan

• Deepa Kumar

• Valentine M. Moghadam, Northeastern University