On 9 December 2021, The Centre for Social Sciences Research and Action hosted the webinar “Unrest in the “kingdoms of reforms”: trajectories of contention in Morocco and Jordan”, the 2nd of a series of webinars the centre is organising on politics and social contention in the MENA region (see more on the 1st session here, and watch it <a watch?v="LH34aPZ0UFM&t=296s''">here). 

The discussion was moderated by Dr. Rossana Tufaro (CeSSRA), with speakers: Dr. Sarah Ababneh (University of Sheffield), Dr. Soraya el-Kahaloui (Ghent University), Dr. Jillian Schwedler (City University of New York), and Dr. Myriam Catusse (Institut Français du Proche Orient).

Dr. Ababneh kicked off the discussion with an intervention rethinking democracy to include economic decision-making, and gave an overview of Jordan activists' economic demands: “ activists critiqued neoliberal politics [...] and institutional corruption associated with privatisation”. Dr. El-Kahlaoui introduced a socio-historical approach on the hirak el cha’bi in Morocco, stressing on the importance of a contextual analysis of social movement actors. In her intervention, Dr. Schwedler notes that although Jordan is not considered as having seen an ""uprising"", “but in fact there were some very  significant protests” with economic grievances central to them, and including open willingness to criticize the king. Lastly, Dr. Catusse questioned the temporality of the cycles of protests, and proposed a counter story of the post-2011 cycles, inscribing mobilisations in a ""social time"", meaning “a historical momentum where the social question is called back in the debate and the historical momentum for the expression of the new social question”.

The webinar is available to watch here: <a watch?v="yZ24ELeZGXQ&t=5713s''">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ24ELeZGXQ&t=5713s