CFP: The Arab Revolts: Change or Continuity?

The Making Democracy network, hosted by Research in Ethics and Globalisation (REG) at the University of Groningen and its international partners, invite the submission of abstracts for the above-mentioned panel.  This panel will be part of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE)’s conference on Riot, Revolt and Revolution at the University of Brighton.

The general theme of the conference is the relation between social, political and economic change and forms of resistance.  It investigates to what extent specific forms of resistance are necessary to inaugurate social and political change.  It particularly examines those moments of historical change when existing orders are put into question.  

This panel seeks to engage the broader theme of the conference with specific reference to the Arab revolts that have spread through the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region during 2011 and are still continuing.  These revolts – also often labeled the ‘Arab Spring’ – particularly challenged the dominant status quo as people took to the streets to demand dignity, freedom and social justice.  They also challenged the Western perception of the region as an area of exception – as an area where the only option was either a (stable?) dictatorial ruler or radical islamists.  Yet the Arab revolts have also unleashed many questions about the nature of revolt, the process of democratic and economic transition as well as prospects of change in the region, and it is those questions that this panel seeks to critically engage with through both empirical and theoretical expositions.

Hence, focusing on Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, but not forgetting the protest movements in Iran and Saudi Arabia, this panel invites papers that address questions such as the following:

• Will the political, social and economic situation in the affected countries actually change? Or will the status quo remain intact?
• Can and should the revolutionary demands be incorporated in institutional political channels? What will the effects of this be on the revolutionary demands?
• What is the relation between external foreign policy (including external democracy promotion and military intervention) and internal uprisings?
• Will the living conditions improve or deteriorate for the people living in these countries? What are the right social, political and economic policies?
• Do the Arab revolts challenge established conceptions of citizenship, modernity, and democracy? What will be the effect on political practice and theory?
• Are regimes really transformed or do they more or less remain the same? How it the transitional process handled in the region? What are the forms of transitional justice we see emerging?

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 27 April 2012.  Abstracts should be sent to [email protected]. 

The conference fee is £210. This includes refreshments; lunch on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; and a buffet dinner on the Thursday evening. There are a limited number of places available for graduate students and for people who have no institutional affiliation at the reduced price of £105. Please indicate if you wish to be considered for one of these places when sending your abstract. More information on the Making Democracy network and this CFP can be found here: