Lebanon Support is pleased to launch its webinar series for 2021-2022
Beyond Winter and Spring: politics and social contention in the MENA region after 20
Date: Thursday October 21st at 11am (Beirut time).
Session 1: What mobilises MENA? Identifying the trends and trajectories of regional contentious politics after the first wave of uprisings
As part of Lebanon Support’s research programme on social movements, this introductory webinar aims at providing an overview of the main trends and trajectories which shaped contentious politics in the MENA region after 2011.
In the aftermath of the first wave of Arab uprisings (2010-2011), the notion of “Arab Winter” to indicate the violent (Syria, Yemen, Libya) or authoritarian (Egypt, Bahrein) outcomes which involved most of the polities where the mass mobilizations of 2010-2011 took place earned a growing popularity among analysts and observers of the MENA region. This notion was grounded into a dominant understanding of the uprisings as circumscribed, eventful democratisation processes (whether achieved or attempted) addressed to replace the existing authoritarian regimes with fully-fledged liberal systems, along the same false-lines as the (post-)Soviet “Springs” in 1989. This institutionalist, democratization approach informed also the understanding of Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan as successful “Arab Spring” models, by virtue of the alleged capacity of the three polities to engage in a way or another processes of institutional transition or reform speaking the language of liberal democracy. In both cases, the main outcome of the Winter-Spring dichotomy has been to consolidate a mainstream perception of the post-uprising regional developments as a return to a status quo ante.
In 2019, the new wave of anti-systemic popular uprisings which shook Algeria, Sudan, Iraq and Lebanon, has offered a tangible example of the transformative power that the quest for “bread, dignity and social justice” is still able to exert in the region. At the same time, the reiteration of thight neoliberal agendas and cosmetic democratic reforms in those countries where “Spring” allegedly came, such as Tunisia or Jordan, has continued to trigger the emergence of sustained contentious cycles and molecular mobilizations.
With speakers:
Prof. Andrea Teti (University of Aberdeen)
Dr. Daniel Tavana (Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), Université Toulouse 1 Capitole)
Dr. Stephanie Daher (Lebanon Support)
Dr. Rossana Tufaro (Lebanon Support)
The session will be moderated by
Dr. Michele Scala (Sciences Po Lyon, Lebanon Support)
Date and time: Thursday October 21st at 11am (Beirut time).
Language: This webinar will be held in English. Interpretation will be available.
Registration: 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 October 19, 2021: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wppH8n_kQK-_WoCuzZ1rFQ
Submit your questions to the speakers ahead of the webinar on the same link!
