A- Save the date for our upcoming events
1- On 6 December 2021: “Intersectional Perspectives on Social Protection in Lebanon. Current Inequalities and Ways Forward To Reform”
Roundtable| Social Protection | Lebanon
With speaker
Dr. Michele Scala (Sciences Po Lyon, the centre for Social Sciences Research and Action)
During this roundtable, Dr. Michele Scala will present the Centre for Social Sciences Research & Action ongoing work on social protection in Lebanon, analysing the articulation of intersectional discriminations and privileges of the current social protection framework, and proposing ways forward for reform.
Date and time: Monday 6 December at 11am (Beirut time).
Language: This roundtable will be held in English. Interpretation will be available.
Registration: The roundtable will be hosted on zoom. The link will be sent via email prior to the webinar. Register before December 3, 2021: https://bit.ly/3cJe1Or
Register here
2- On 9 December 2021: “Unrest in the “kingdoms of reforms”: trajectories of contention in Morocco and Jordan”
Webinar | Collective Actions | MENA
With speakers:
Dr. Sarah Ababneh, University of Sheffield
Dr. Myriam Catusse, Institut Français du Proche Orient
Dr. Jillian Schwedler, City University of New York
Dr. Soraya el-Kahaloui, Ghent University
The session will be moderated by
Dr. Rossana Tufaro, the Centre for Social Sciences Research and Action
By shedding a light on the forms and trajectories of social contention in Morocco and Jordan after 2011, this webinar aims at scrutinizing how the ‘return to the social question’ can help us to better understand the profound changes which have been crossing Arab societies in the past decade.
Date and time: Thursday 9 December at 4pm (Beirut time).
Language: This webinar will be held in English and Arabic. Interpretation will be available.
Registration: The webinar will be hosted on zoom. The link will be sent via email prior to the webinar. Please fill in this form before December 6, 2021: https://bit.ly/3qYKmsZ
Submit your questions to the speakers ahead of the webinar on the same link!
Register here
B- Publications roundup
1- “Possibilities and Challenges: Social Protection and COVID-19 Crisis in Jordan”
Article | Social Protection | Jordan
This article by Dr. Abdalhadi Alijla provides an overview of the repercussions of the pandemic on the Jordanian economy, particularly on informal workers, which are the most vulnerable among at-risk groups. The paper analyses the government's response in an attempt to identify gaps in the Jordanian social protection system and how it can be further developed.
Read the article
2- “COVID-19 Vaccines: Is equity between North and South still possible?”
Article | Social Protection | MENA
Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters stage a protest in Pretoria, South Africa, demanding that vaccines from China and Russia be included in the country’s vaccine rollout program. Image source: https://bit.ly/3Dtnncn
This article, written by Heba Wanis, covers the challenges faced by health systems in the region during the pandemic, issues of equity in access to the vaccine, and the developments and barriers relevant to vaccine production in the South. This article is based on the discussion during our centre's webinar "Decolonising Access to Health, Addressing Vaccine Inequity in MENA" on 2 September 2021.
Read the article
3- “The management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Tunisia on the political and economic levels: is it a crisis of governance or a health system failure”
Digest | Social Protection | Tunisia
Bab Saadoun Square is almost empty due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the Tunisian capital, March 31, 2020 (Yassin Gaidi - Anadolu Agency)
Based on his intervention in our webinar “Decolonising Access to Health, Addressing Vaccine Inequity in MENA”, Dr. Belgacem Sabri explains in the digest how Tunisia managed the pandemic, analysing whether the health crisis was the result of a crisis of governance or a health system failure.
Read the digest
4- “Collective Actions Digest Jordan – September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2021”
Digest | Collective Actions | Jordan
Between September 1 2018 and August 31 2021, 406 collective actions were mapped in Jordan. More than half (54%) of these revolved around the demand for access to socio-economic rights such as labor rights, social security and protection, and basic services. Moreover, the majority of the protests (68%) were mobilised by workers groups. Read this digest, for more on collective actions in Jordan, including general trends, demands, and modes of action.
Read the digest
5- “Tunisia’s “Al-Ahyaa Al-Sha’Biya”: Socioeconomic Grievances, Mobilisation, and Repression”
Article | Collective Actions | Tunisia
Demonstrators face police officers during a demonstration in Tunis, Saturday, Jan.23, 2021. (AP Photo/Hedi Ayari). Image source: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/411236
The latest by our researcher in contentious politics, Stephanie Daher, looks into the dynamics of police repression and violence against contentious actors during the latest wave of protests in Tunisia, and the continuity between the grievances of recent protests and those expressed during the 2011 revolution. These include the denunciation of corruption, demands to access to socio-economic rights, and individual and collective freedoms. The paper also highlights the role of the youth, particularly those from marginalised neighbourhoods, in leading the protests, positioning them as the main targets of police violence and arbitrary arrests.
Read the article
6- “Unpacking the Dynamics of Contentious Mobilisations in Lebanon: Between Continuity and Evolution ”
Article | Collective Actions| Lebanon
Protesters wave Lebanese national flags near a giant sign of a fist with the slogan “revolution” on it in Arabic in Martyrs’ Square, Beirut, during continuing anti-government protests on Nov. 10. 2019. Amir Makar/AFP. Link: https://theintercept.co
Since October 2019, collective actions in Lebanon focused primarily on access to socio-economic rights amid the compounded crises in the country. This paper, by Stephanie Daher, highlights the dynamics of collective mobilisations from October 2019 onwards based on data from our ongoing mapping of collective actions in Lebanon.
Read the article
