Social Change and Contentious Politics in the Middle East

21 Oct 2021

pittadmin

*Promoted by the University of Pittsburgh*

The Middle East has a longstanding reputation as a place of contention, where ethnic groups and global powers alike have struggled over land, trade routes and, more recently, valuable resources such as oil. The Arab Spring of the early 2010s added a new dimension to the region’s contentious politics, as internal tensions between rulers and populaces erupted into a series of revolts, which have since inspired similar protests around the world. A decade later, two leading thinkers on the impact of the Arab Spring, Joel Beinin and Rashid Khalidi, assess the prospects for the region going forward. They will discuss the likelihood of democratic change, the factors that inhibit social transformation, the historical context of the current era of contentious politics, the often overlooked actors at the urban and regional peripheries, how patterns of political activism have changed over time – and the enduring relevance of these movements to popular struggles for dignity, justice, and bread the world over.

Event Date: 
Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 4:00pm
Institution(s): 
Sponsored By: 
Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania
Location: 
Online