The new Arab revolutions that shook the world

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Enlarged Phenomenological Perspective

A New Paradigm for Social Movements?

The Demo-Movements (DM)

The Arc of Demo-Movements

Part I. Unexpected Demo-Movements in the Middle East and North Africa and Their Dynamics

1. The Iranian Green Movement

Differences and Similarities between the Arab Revolutions

Precedents of the Green Movement

2. The Tunisian Revolution of Dignity and Freedom

The Historical Precedents

The Gafsa Mineral Field

The 18 October Movement for Rights and Freedoms

The Ben Guerdane Revolt

The Counterintuitive Character of the Tunisian Revolution

The Jasmin Revolution's Symbolic Causes

The Hectic Revolutionary Imaginary

The Revolutionary Drama Unfolds

The Effect of New Communications on the Jasmin Revolution

3. Egypt's Revolution

Historical Precedents

The Kefaya Movement

The April 6 Youth Movement

Khaled Said and His Posthumous Role

The Impact of New Communications on the Egyptian Revolution

4. The Arab Spring through Historical Precedents in Other Countries

The Reactionary Awakening and the Containment of the French Revolution

The Springtime of the People, 1848

Dual Visions of Revolution: 1688 versus 1789

Comparison with Color and Velvet Revolutions in Eastern Europe

Latin American Transition to Democracy as Another Parallel to the Arab Spring

The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon

Part II. The Would-Be Middle Class as the Subjective Foundation of the Arab Spring

5. The "Would-Be Middle Class"

Women and the Sense of Quasi-Equality with Men

Dignity versus Honor

Dignity, Humiliation, Decency, Recognition

The Three Periods and the Fate of Empathy

Perspectives of Civil Society

The Subjective Civil Society

Netizens and the Virtual Agora

Lessons from the Past

Subjectivation as the Self-Realization of the Would-Be Middle Class

The Role of the Economy in the Would-Be Middle Class

Diaspora and the Dream of Joining the Middle Class

The Imaginary Side of the Diaspora

Revisiting Modernization Theories

6. Characteristics of the Demo-Movements

Lack of Explicit Leadership

Avoidance of Violence

Reconsidering Nonviolence in the Arab Autumn

Lack of Explicit Strategy

Lack of Specific Ideology

The Death of Holistic Utopias: Authoritarian Nationalism versus Jihadism

The Lack of an Avant-Garde and the Advent of Intermediary Intellectuals

The Loss of Centrality of Religion: The Post-Islamist Age

The New Pan-Arabism versus the Old

The Historical Precedents

Divisions in the Arab World

The Three Waves of Pan-Arabism

Democracy without Shame

The Gender Issue

The Islamic Puzzle

The Islamist Question: The Taming of the Shrew?

The Evolution of a Revolutionary Group towards Democracy in Morocco

The Student Movement in Iran

7. Obstacles to Democracy

Sectarian, Communal, and Tribal Strife

Bahrain as a Case of Pseudo-Sectarian Strife

Syrian Sectarianism

Egypt's Communal Strife

Yemen's Sectarian and Communal Strife

Libyan Tribal Strife

Violence in the Uprising

The Persecuted Identity

The "Refuseniks" Attitude

The Difficult Task of Overcoming Sectarianism

Part III. The New Social Actors

8. Social and State Actors and New Technologies

Types of Social Movements According to Communication Technology

Technologies of Communication

Authoritarian Governments' Use of the Media

The Internet, Arab Public Opinion, and the New Individual

Soft Mobilization Technologies

9. The New Social Actor and Demographics

Demographic Change

Role of Education

Access to New Communication Technologies

10. Types of Activists, Old and New

Citizen Journalists

Mistreated Journalists in the Post-Revolutionary Era

Human Rights Activists and World Public Opinion as a Moral Witness

Nonpolitical Activists

Child, Adolescent, and Teenage Activists

Political Activists

Professionals

Medics as the New Activists

Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs

Women Activists

Asma Mahfouz

Mona Seif and Gigi Ibrahim

Nawara Najem

Tawakul Karman

Bushra al-Maqtari

Syrian Women Activists

Simple Nurses

Transgression of Blasphemy Rules: The Naked Woman on Facebook

Clerics and Theologians

Muslim Brotherhood Youth

Martyrs for a Cause

Self-immolation: Bouazizi's Paradigm of Martyrdom

Benghazi's Martyr Mehdi Zive

On-the-Spot Journalist Mohammed Nabbous

Al Jazeera Martyr Ali Hassan al-Jaber

Fortuitous Martyr Neda Agha Soltan

Martyrs with or without Premeditation

Collective Tunisian Martyrs and Their Celebration in a Politically Motivated Manner

The Ambiguous Martyr

Heroes

Trade Union Activists

Heavy Metal Activists

The Trans-Sectarian Activist: Fadwa Soliman

Royal Family Members

Ambiguous Actors: The Ex-Jihadist Belhaj

The Cousins al-Zumar, Former Jihadists, Current Peaceful Party Members?

Organizations as Social Actors

The Gaza Youth Movement

The Campaign for One Million Signatures and Iranian Women Activists

Football Clubs and Players

The Free Syrian Army: Defecting Soldiers

The Egyptian Islamic Group Gama'a al-Islamiya: From Jihad to Peaceful Party Politics

11. The Symbolic Dimensions of the Arab Spring

The Revolutionary Slogan "People Demand …"

Cultural Mobilization through Music and Poetry

Symbolic Days

New Functions of Western Languages

Symbolic Topography

Countersymbolic Figures

Desecrating the Dictator

Rationale behind the Jokes

The Symbolic Dimension of Mubarak's Trial

12. The Geopolitical Actors

Before the Arab Spring

The Counterrevolutionary Reaction to the Arab Spring

America's Dilemma

Ambivalent American Policies and Their Unintended Consequences

Iran's Malaise

Arab Governments, Washington, and the Rise of Turkey

The Rise of Qatar

Current Consequences of the Arab Spring

Conclusion

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

About the Author