Life as politics
Subtitle: how ordinary people change the Middle East
By: Asef Bayat
Edition: Second edition.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 374
ISBN-13: 9780804783262; 9780804783279
Subjects: Politics and government; Sozialer Wandel; Soziale Bewegung; Political participation; Social change; Social movements
Description: "Prior to 2011, popular imagination perceived the Muslim Middle East as unchanging and unchangeable, frozen in its own traditions and history. In Life as Politics, Asef Bayat argues that such presumptions fail to recognize the routine, yet important, ways in which ordinary people make meaningful change through everyday actions. First published just months before the Arab Spring swept across the region, this timely and prophetic book sheds light on the ongoing acts of protest, practice, and direct daily action. This second edition includes three new chapters on the Arab Spring and Iran's Gren Movement and is fully updated to reflect recent events. At heart, the book remains a study of agency in times of constraint. In addition to ongoing protests, millions of people across the Middle East are effecting transformation through the discovery and creation of new social spaces within which to make their claims heard. This eye-opening book makes an important contribution to global debates over the meaning of social movements and the dynamics of social change"--Unedited summary from book.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-368) and index.
Table of contents: title: The art of presence; title: The quiet encroachment of the ordinary; title: The poor and the perpetual pursuit of life chances; title: Feminism of everyday life; title: Reclaiming youthfulness; title: The politics of fun; title: Battlefield Tehran; title: Streets of revolution; title: Does radical Islam have an urban ecology?; title: Everyday cosmopolitanism; title: The "Arab street"; title: Is there a future for Islamic revolutions?; title: The post-Islamist refo-lutions; title: The green revolt; title: The coming of a post-Islamist democracy.