Reassessing Activism and Engagement Among Arab Youth
Reassessing Activism and Engagement Among Arab Youth
Contributor(s): Sarah Anne Rennick (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Civil Society, Governance, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Peace; conflict and violence series; Algerian youth; Arab youth; conflict; Lebanese youth; political activism; politics; Syria; Syrian revolutionary youth; Tunisia;
Summary/Abstract: This collective volume contributes to the conceptual understanding of Arab youth and their relationship to politics by making explicit how civic engagement in seemingly ‘apolitical’ fields can be conceived as a form of political activism. In speaking with Algerian, Tunisian, Lebanese, and Syrian youth civic activists who also participated in their country’s uprisings in 2011 or 2019, what is striking is their own insistence on the continuity between direct political protest and their civic engagement. Yet at the same time, these activists almost universally qualify their civic engagement as expressly ‘apolitical’. Such reflections beg two questions: how do youth understand the notion of ‘apolitical’ engagement, and on what premise do they see continuity between political protest and so-called ‘apolitical’ civic engagement? To answer these questions, the studies draw on the analytical tools of practice theory, reconceptualizing ‘youth’ as a generational practice of politics, meaning a ‘competent performance’ of shared knowledge and understandings of what constitutes politics and the political. In conceiving of youth in these terms, this unorthodox collection – representing multidisciplinary and multilinguistic research and blending theoretical and practitioner perspectives – is able to bring to the fore how youth comprehend and indeed dichotomize their collective action with ‘politics’.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-1-80135-118-8
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-1-80135-117-1
- Page Count: 112
- Publication Year: 2022
- Language: English
Introduction: Understanding the Political in Arab Youth Civic Engagement
Introduction: Understanding the Political in Arab Youth Civic Engagement
(Introduction: Understanding the Political in Arab Youth Civic Engagement)
- Author(s):Sarah Anne Rennick
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Civil Society, Governance
- Page Range:1-18
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Understanding; political; Arab youth; civic engagement;
- Summary/Abstract:Among the many outcomes of the Arab uprisings of 2011 was the collective recognition that we had not been paying enough attention to our conceptual understanding of youth or the variety of forms that political activism can take in a region that seemed to have grown morose under its authoritarian yoke. The vibrancy of the social movements that manifested in public spaces across the region in 2011 demonstrated the limitations of analytical frameworks such as ‘waithood,’ ‘bulge,’ and ‘apathy’ for understanding the region’s youth and their relationship to politics. These gaps in knowledge drove forth numerous studies and multilateral research projects that have added significant conceptual depth to the notion of ‘youth’ that move well beyond age-based cohort definitions, as well as critical insight into the indirect or seemingly ‘non-political’ forms of Arab youth political activism. Such works have allowed us to conceive of youth within the frames of Mannheimian generational analysis, and have allowed us to see political participation outside of formal instances such as elections and parties. Yet at the same time, there remain conceptual gaps with regards to the analysis of ‘youth politics’ as well as the various factors that mediate a distinctly youth political behavior.
- Price: 4.50 €
Youth and Politics in Bouteflika’s Algeria: Engagement at a Distance from ‘Politics’
Youth and Politics in Bouteflika’s Algeria: Engagement at a Distance from ‘Politics’
(Youth and Politics in Bouteflika’s Algeria: Engagement at a Distance from ‘Politics’)
- Author(s):Layla Baamara
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Civil Society, Governance
- Page Range:19-36
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Youth and politics; Bouteflika’s Algeria; engagement at a distance; politics;
- Summary/Abstract:As mass popular mobilization emerged in Algeria on 22 February 2019, the reading of the Hirak in both the press and scholarly research were quick to describe the new movement 2019 as ‘the year of awakening of Algerian youth.’ A corollary of this common reading of ongoing events is the existence of a formerly apathetic and depoliticized youth. Prior to 22 February, journalists and observers of political life in Algeria tended to stress youth’s disinterest in politics, a discourse which was echoed in political and associational spheres. In interviews carried out as recently as 2017, for example, a 31-year-old member of a local association in the wilaya (province) of Tlemcen commented that ‘young people couldn’t care less about politics’ while the director of an association for environmental protection in the east of the country said with regret, ‘young people are not sufficiently politicized. There’s a widespread couldn’t-care-less attitude, they are resigned, it’s a pity’ (Anonymous interviews with author, 2017).
- Price: 4.50 €
Hybrid, Culture-Based, and Youthful: The New Political Commitment of Youth in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia
Hybrid, Culture-Based, and Youthful: The New Political Commitment of Youth in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia
(Hybrid, Culture-Based, and Youthful: The New Political Commitment of Youth in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia)
- Author(s):Mounir Saidani
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Civil Society, Governance
- Page Range:37-54
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:Hybrid; culture-based; youthful; new political; commitment; youth in post-revolutionary Tunisia;
- Summary/Abstract:In the last year of Ben Ali’s reign, pre-revolutionary Tunisia was officially proclaimed the ‘Year of Youth,’ with the politicians then in office once again putting forward political slogans focusing on a rapprochement with young people. As part of this endeavor, Ben Ali even went so far as proposing to the UN that ‘2010 be proclaimed as the International Year of Youth’ and that ‘a world youth congress be held [that year] under the aegis of the United Nations’ – an initiative adopted by the General Assembly in its 64th session. These efforts at outreach were being undertaken as young Tunisians were showing increasing signs of disaffection from various official political institutions, as attendance at cultural and youth centers under the auspices of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs (whose meager budget never reached the 1% required by UNESCO) confirmed. Importantly, this alienation was not solely a manifestation of antipathy towards the Ben Ali regime; even after the revolution, in 2014, the number of young people attending youth centers did not exceed 71,627 (47,106 boys and 24,521 girls) (Statistiques Tunisie 2013-2014). Indeed, official statistics show that attendance at the youth venues known as ‘Youth Houses’ (Maisons des Jeunes) and ‘Culture Houses’ (Maisons de Culture) was in fact much lower.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Imagined Community of Lebanese Youth Activists: Political Resistance By Other Means?
The Imagined Community of Lebanese Youth Activists: Political Resistance By Other Means?
(The Imagined Community of Lebanese Youth Activists: Political Resistance By Other Means?)
- Author(s):Khaled Nasser, Sarah Anne Rennick
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Civil Society
- Page Range:55-73
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:Imagined community of Lebanese youth activists; political resistance; political ; imagined community; Lebanese youth activists;
- Summary/Abstract:The last decade of Lebanese youth activism shows a trajectory that seems somewhat incongruous with that of regional neighbors. Having largely sat out the broader revolutionary movements in 2011, youth activism seemed to join the Arab Spring in 2015 with the YouStink movement, which saw grievances move from issue-based claims around the garbage crisis to much broader calls for wide-ranging reform of the sectarian political system. While this movement failed to produce regime change, it nonetheless laid the foundations for the emergence of new generation political forces that challenged outright sectarian political party logic. Yet after some initial electoral success, these new efforts also seemed to fade away. Then in October 2019, revolutionary mobilization arrived in earnest, calling for an overhaul of the entire political class under the collective banner “All Means All,” only to dissipate under the crushing weight of Covid-19. In parallel to these protest waves and various manifestations of direct political contestation has been a plethora of new youth initiatives in various forms of public service within the country’s diverse civil society sector, which aim to either work with the State or indeed fill in gaps where the State is absent.
- Price: 4.50 €
Syrian Revolutionary Youth: The Lost and Found of Political Agency
Syrian Revolutionary Youth: The Lost and Found of Political Agency
(Syrian Revolutionary Youth: The Lost and Found of Political Agency)
- Author(s):Hadia Kawikji
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Civil Society, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:75-88
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Syrian revolutionary Youth; the lost and found of political agency; Syrian; revolutionary youth; political agency; political;
- Summary/Abstract:With the cracking open of the political and civic space in 2011, Syrian youth were afforded the rare opportunity to emerge as direct and legitimately recognized political actors – something which had been denied them under the decades of repression of the Assad regime. First assuming the role of revolutionary vanguard and leading the protest movements calling for the downfall of the regime, the experience of Syrian youth in political representation was further honed through the formation of revolutionary councils. Yet despite this, Syrian youth were quickly sidelined as political actors. The revolutionary councils became isolated by institutions established by traditional elites, while young people themselves began delegating the representation of their demands to those more experienced in political affairs. This loss of representation, along with frustration with the actions (or lack thereof) of the international community, generated disillusionment among Syrian youth who had been passionate about the cause of political change. These dynamics, in turn, pushed youth revolutionaries to re-direct their activism towards local councils.
- Price: 4.50 €
Is There a Youth Politics?
Is There a Youth Politics?
(Is There a Youth Politics?)
- Author(s):Asef Bayat
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Civil Society
- Page Range:89-100
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Youth politics; politics; youthfulness; contemporary; Middle East;
- Summary/Abstract:Is there such a thing as ‘youth politics’ in the way we have gender politics, working class politics, or poor people’s politics; and if there is, what are its attributes and modes of expression? After all, what is the significance of youth politics, if any? Even though some have expressed doubts about ‘youth’ as a meaningful category or considered it as a mere construct, here I would like to propose an analytical lens which may help understanding youth as a useful category with distinct politics. In this sense ‘youth politics’ will be viewed in terms of the conflicts and negotiations over claiming or defending youthfulness; but this is a politics that is mediated by the position of the young in class, gender, racial, sexual and other involved social structures. In brief, the political outlook of a young person may be shaped not just by the exclusive preoccupation with ‘youthfulness’, but also by his/her positionality as citizen, poor, female, or a member of a sexual minority. The propositions advanced here are informed by my observations on young people’s lives in the contemporary Middle East, where the spectacular Arab uprisings brought youth to the forefront of politics.
- Price: 4.50 €
