Description
Book SynopsisFrom late 2010 to the present day, the Arab world has been shot through with insurrection and revolt. As a result, Tunisia is now seen as the unlikely birthplace and exemplar of the process of democratisation long overdue in the Arab world.
Mixing political, historical, economic, social and cultural analyses and approaches, these essays reflect on the local, regional and transnational dynamics together with the long and short term factors that, when combined, set in motion the Tunisian revolution and the Arab uprisings. Above all, the book maps the intertwined genealogies of cultural dissent that have contributed to the mobilisation of protesters and to the sustenance of protests between 17 December 2010 and 14 January 2011, and beyond.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Collaborative Revolutionism; Part I: Contexts: Roots of Discontent; 1. Under the Emperor's Neo-liberal Clothes! Why the International Financial Institutions Got it Wrong in Tunisia; 2. Playing the Islamic Card: The Use and Abuse of Religion in Tunisian Politics; 3. United States Policy towards Tunisia since 1956: What New Engagement after an Expendable Friendship?; 4. 'Friends of Tunisia': French Economic and Diplomatic Support of Tunisian Authoritarianism; Part II: Architects: Routes of Dissent; 5. From Socio-Economic Protest to National Revolt: Mapping the Workers Origins of the Tunisian Revolution; 6. The Powers of Social Media; 7. Rethinking the Role of the Media in the Tunisian Uprising; 8. Visions of Dissent, Voices of Discontent: Postcolonial Tunisian Film and Song; Part III: The Postrevolutionary Moment; 9. Reclaiming Public Space: Surprise and Non Sequitur in Tunisia; 10. From Resistance to Governance: The category of Civility in the Political Theory of Tunisian Islamists; 11. The Uses and Abuses of Women's Rights in Tunisian Politics; 12. The Rise of Salafism and the Future of Democratization; Bibliography; Index; Abstracts.
