This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Ira... more This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Iranian reformist governments (1997–2005) sought to utilise gradual reforms to control independent activism, and how citizens responded to such a disciplinary action. While the governments successfully ‘set the field’ of permitted political participation, part of the civil society that took shape was unexpectedly independent. Despite being a minority, independent activists were not marginal: without them, in fact, the Green Movement of 2009 would not have taken shape. Building on in-depth empirical analysis, the author explains how autonomous activism forms and survives in a semi-authoritarian country. The book contributes to the debate about the implications of elite-led reforms for social reproduction, offering an innovative interpretation and an original analysis of social movements from a political science perspective.
Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention, 2018
This book emerges from the observation that much has changed in the field of political Islam foll... more This book emerges from the observation that much has changed in the field of political Islam following the popular uprisings that rocked the authoritarian status quo in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2010-11, nowadays widely referred to as the Arab uprisings or 'Arab Spring'. Prominent instances of such change include the dramatic rise to (and fall from) power of moderate Islamist political parties/groupings in Egypt and Tunisia-forces that had been violently repressed and/or dismantled by pre-uprisings authoritarian regimes-, the pluralisation of the field of Islamist political players, including most notably the formation of Salafi parties and their ascent to political prominence in electoral and institutional politics, the escalation of sectarian conflict between the region's Sunni and Shi'a communities, exacerbated by war in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, as well as the emergence of the jihadi-Salafi organisation al-Dawla al-Islamiyya (Islamic State, IS) which advances formal ruling pretentions over territories in Syria and Iraq, a new quality to such groups. All of these developments suggest that a renewed analysis and approach to the study of Islamist political and social actors are needed. While extant pre-uprisings scholarship had already noted part of these dynamics and devoted efforts to their analysis-such as for instance the case of Salafi participation in electoral politics, or the growing relevance of the sectarian variable in MENA politics-it can hardly account for their development in the new environment that the 'Arab Spring' has brought about. A cursory look at the scholarship available on the subject of political Islam post-2011 seems to suggest, in fact, that the uprisings constitute just one phase in the long history of Islamist political and social forces present in the MENA, a history characterised by periods of political opposition, inclusion and co-option by authoritarian leaders.
What role does political Islam play in the genealogy of protests as an instrument to resist neo-l... more What role does political Islam play in the genealogy of protests as an instrument to resist neo-liberalism and authoritarian rule? How can we account for the internal conflicts among Islamist players after the 2011/2012 Arab uprisings? How can we assess the performance of Islamist parties in power? What geopolitical reconfigurations have the uprisings created, and what opportunities have arisen for Islamists to claim a stronger political role in domestic and regional politics? These questions are addressed in this book, which looks at the dynamics in place during the aftermath of the Arab uprisings in a wide range of countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
The Arab uprisings of 2011 have sparked much scholarly discussion with regards to democratisation... more The Arab uprisings of 2011 have sparked much scholarly discussion with regards to democratisation, the resilience of authoritarian rule, mobilisation patterns, and the relationship between secularism and Islam, all under the assumption that politics has changed for good in North Africa and the Middle East. While acknowledging the post-2011 transformations taking place in the region, this book brings to the forefront an understudied, yet crucial, aspect related to the uprisings, namely the interplay between continuity and change.
Challenging simplified representations built around the positions that either ‘all has changed’ or ‘nothing has changed’, the in-depth case studies in this volume demonstrate how elements both of continuity, and rupture with the past, are present in the post-uprising landscapes of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Public policy, contentious politics, the process of institution making and re-making, and the relations of power connecting national and international economies are at the core of the comparative investigations included in the book. The volume makes an important contribution to the study of North African politics, and to the study of political change and stability, by contrasting the different trajectories of the uprisings, and by offering theoretical reflections on their meaning, consequences and scope. This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.
"L'accento posto sullo sviluppo dei processi di democratizzazione della cosiddetta 'terza ondata'... more "L'accento posto sullo sviluppo dei processi di democratizzazione della cosiddetta 'terza ondata' ha portato alla ribalta il concetto di società civile. Questo è stato utilizzato dai finanziatori internazionali così come dai governi e dalla società stessa con disparati intenti. Il Medio Oriente, un'area dove l'autoritarismo sembra ancora prevalere sulle spinte democratiche, è una regione in cui il richiamo della società civile è sempre più forte. Ma quali sono le dinamiche che si nascondono dietro questo concetto polisemico' Quali le pratiche e quali le retoriche' Il volume propone un percorso di approfondimento in quattro paesi medio orientali (Iran, Libano, Egitto e Marocco) dove la retorica dominante, spesso intenta a promuovere le virtù della società civile, si scontra con la realtà presente sul terreno, caratterizzata, invece, da fenomeni partecipativi 'ad effetto' assai lontani da una libera e consapevole partecipazione dal basso.
Effetto società civile tenta di andare oltre la retorica dominante offrendo chiavi di lettura alternative. I saggi contenuti nel volume, frutto del lavoro sul campo di giovani studiose/i italiani, evidenziano come, nel bene e nel male la società civile con i suoi problemi definitori, con le sue pratiche multiple, con la sua retorica rappresenti, oggi, uno dei nodi centrali per coloro che si occupano di Medio Oriente.
Indice
Iran
La “società civile” in Iran. Appunti su consenso, potere e politica, Paola Rivetti
Libano
Hurriyyat Khassa: individui e libertà private all’ombra del regime comunitario libanese, Massimo Di Ricco
Violenza, luoghi di divertimento e memorie di conflitto negli spazi urbani di Beirut, Francesco Mazzucotelli
Media, società civili e democrazia in Libano. Il caso di UCIP Liban, Rosita Di Peri
Egitto
“Che ci posso fare? Mi piaci!”. Ong egiziane e sponsor internazionali a Boulaq El-Dakrour, Cairo, Elena Piffero Aaronson
Marocco
Partecipazione sul biglietto da visita. La “società civile” in Marocco tra vocazione e professione, Irene Bono
This article contributes to the debate about authoritarian diffusion by examining the case study ... more This article contributes to the debate about authoritarian diffusion by examining the case study of Iranian state propaganda in Italy, with a special attention to anti-feminist and anti-gender ideology initiatives. The article foregrounds historical and contextual factors in the analysis, as well as the development of the relations between Iranian state propagandists and Italian recipients, focusing on far-right and neo-fascist organisations. The article reassesses the strength and success of Iran's diffusion initiatives, demonstrating that authoritarian states try to create and engage an audience in democratic states even when they have a small chance of influencing the national public debate; and that they do so out of past trajectories and contextual, unstable interests. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the context, history and the actors' agency when examining authoritarian diffusion, and emphasises that gender and sexual politics are a fertile ground to analyse the contemporary transformations of political regimes.
In this article, we reconsider the history and politics of Iranian feminism(s) in the light of th... more In this article, we reconsider the history and politics of Iranian feminism(s) in the light of the recent Woman Life Freedom uprising. We take this opportunity to reflect on the potentialities and weaknesses of decade-long engagements with feminism in Iran, highlighting a reluctance to commit to an intersectional analysis able to stream how economic and political hierarchies govern classed and racialised, not only gendered, bodies in different ways; and reflecting on movement-building strategies. To do so, the paper draws attention to two aspects of contemporary political work. First, we examine social media activism and its role in empowering or disempowering a politics of freedom. Second, we draw attention to dispersed forms of activism, based on affective connection between women and "everyday forms of resistance". While we believe that everyday resistance is meaningful, we also emphasise the dangers of becoming content with awareness advancements only, while lacking a strong movement-building strategy. In conclusion, we put Iranian feminism and its intellectual production in dialogue with broader internationalist struggles for liberation and freedom.
The discussion versed on issues such as the potentialities and limitations of bringing religions ... more The discussion versed on issues such as the potentialities and limitations of bringing religions in their diversity and heterogeneity into the discussion of the far-right and anti-gender campaigns, and the need to go beyond analysis focused on the national level and address the transnational networks of disseminating these ideologies. Our guests also stressed the need to bring economic inequality and the destruction of the environment into the discussion and expose the fallacious promises of these ideologies, namely by the more extreme far-right formations in the making, when they propose to overcome neoliberal order and offer new forms of spirituality intertwined in ethno-nativist visions of ‘going back to nature’.
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , 2023
This article examines the reception of the Iranian state's authoritarian discourse by the Italian... more This article examines the reception of the Iranian state's authoritarian discourse by the Italian far right to interrogate the mechanisms of authoritarian diffusion from the point of view of the receiving actors. Coding Iran's state propaganda and searching for overlaps and resonances with the far right's discourse, this article argues that the receiving audience selectively translates the content coming from Iran for the Italian public with the goal of reinforcing its own political discourse. The article contributes to the debate on authoritarian diffusion by providing fresh empirical findings from a rarely studied case study and by shifting the focus to political discourse and narratives. This article also foregrounds the agency of the receiving audience, rather than the authoritarian state's, with the goal of interrogating the resources and infrastructures that enable diffusion, rather than the motivation or the success of the ‘sending’ authoritarian state. This article expands the understanding of complex dynamics of authoritarian diffusion and contributes to examine the establishment of transnational connections between state and non-state illiberal actors in the era of ‘sovranism’ and right-wing populism.
The Palestinian Prisoners Movement, by Julie M. Norman, and Palestinian Women and Popular Resista... more The Palestinian Prisoners Movement, by Julie M. Norman, and Palestinian Women and Popular Resistance, by Liyana Kayali, are important books that contribute innovative empirics and theoretical observations to conversations that take place in the disciplines of sociology and political science, in particular, between scholars who research social movements and contentious politics.
In this intervention, we discuss the ongoing protest movement and the quasi-revolutionary situati... more In this intervention, we discuss the ongoing protest movement and the quasi-revolutionary situation in Iran with the goal of offering contextual as well as background analysis. Our objective is to examine the current wave of revolutionary politics in the frame of a longer history, that is, the one of the “unaccomplished” 1979 revolution. We do not argue that the current movement is in continuity with the so-called Islamic revolution; rather, we ask what afterlives of the 1979 revolution and successive waves of mobilizations reverberate within the current situation. We do so from a political transformative vantage point, which we understand as inherently feminist, in that we refuse to recognize any hierarchy between the struggles, the issues, and the demands as expressed by the protesters. Indeed, we understand liberation as a collective project resulting from the intersection of struggles, demands, and issues. Following this line of reasoning, we interrogate the current moment along three thematic axes: the social composition, the prospects for political convergence, and the genealogy, or the ideational connection, of the current struggle with those of the past.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13530194 2012 709703, 2012
Iran in the 21st Century Iran is an ancient country, an oil-exporting economy and an Islamic Repu... more Iran in the 21st Century Iran is an ancient country, an oil-exporting economy and an Islamic Republic. It experienced two full-scale revolutions in the 20th century, the latter of which had large and important regional and international consequences, including an eight- year ...
International Journal of Middle East Studies , 2020
This paper examines the use of space and time at the Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy De... more This paper examines the use of space and time at the Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defence (MIRHD) in Tehran, dedicated to the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). Its goal is to disentangle the ways the notion of resistance-crucial to the nationalist narrative that underpins the museum as an ideological artifact-is manifested through the organization of space and time within the museum, and how this idea of resistance is altered by visitors and social interactions that occur outside and in the museum. Temporality is important in the museum, because it displaces stories and data from a specific period of Iran's revolutionary history into the current time, assigning to the war a specific political function in the present era. Space is equally important, and the paper will consider the message it carries both inside and outside the museum. The museum proposes "resistance" as a fixed articulation of state ideology. This article proposes, however , that it is refashioned by visitors as an "intimate struggle" through their striving for self-construction. This argument is made by connecting the narrative of the museum to visitors' (mostly young Hezbollah affiliates) perception of it and to their social lives. More specifically, I argue that by memorializing and romanticizing popular mobilization and resistance during the war, the museum unintentionally assists the shift of resistance from a public or collective action that the state controls to an intimate act, one which connects individuals and the state through an individual-centered bond. Exploring this kind of intimate resistance is crucial to understanding the formation of revolutionary subjectivity in the present time as a creative process, not rigidly dependent on politics or religion but instead existing as a conversation between the past and the future self of citizens, which is at the same time dependent on and autonomous from the state.
This article investigates contentious politics in authoritarian contexts by looking at the case-s... more This article investigates contentious politics in authoritarian contexts by looking at the case-study of student activism in the Islamic Republic of Iran. More specifically, the article asks 'how does the Iranian student movement "do" contentious politics?', and argues that a broader approach is needed when examining social movements and mobilizations in authoritarian countries, than one focused on visible mobilizations. In particular, interpersonal relationships, local histories of activism, and what happens 'in-between' episodes of contention should be valued as material carrying analytical gravity. Adopting this approach, the article looks at the continuities and ruptures that have characterized on campus political contention in Iran in the 2000s and 2010s, bringing to the fore the overlooked history of how the student movements have re-organized after major waves of state repression.
While driving on Bakeri Expressway in Tehran in 2016, one of the two authors' friend, A., recalle... more While driving on Bakeri Expressway in Tehran in 2016, one of the two authors' friend, A., recalled a protest during the summer of 2009, when the people of Iran took to the streets, giving form to what has since come to be known as the 'Green Movement'. 1 In June 2009, and for months later, protests took place in several cities across the country against the re-election of Mahmood Ahmadinejad (r.2005-13) as president of the republic, an election that the protesters considered rigged. The 'Green Movement', or the fitna (sedition) as it is called by the forces that countered it, constituted the fiercest challenge to the stability of the Islamic Republic yet. What started as a dispute over the election results spiralled, as the months passed by, into a comprehensive confrontation between the opposition and Ahmadinejad's government, with radical fringes aiming their critique at the regime itself. 2 As A. recalled: We were in Parkway [an important junction in North Tehran where portraits of martyrs from the Iran-Iraq war are at display], and people were shouting "Basiji vaghei Hemmat bodo Bakeri" (the real bassij were Hemmat and Bakeri) against the bassij 3 that had beaten up their brothers and sisters during the protests. The reality is that if Bakeri and Hemmat were alive, they would protest with us to defend the truth and honour of the Islamic Republic, which they created, and to allow people to protest: how do you think the revolution happened? 4 This short excerpt of a longer conversation directly speaks to the relevance of the issue of political participation in the Islamic Republic, whose political system synthetises authoritarian and democratic characteristics and subsumes political participation as a fundamental trait of its history and genealogy, thus offering fertile ground to build arguments in favour of expanding it. According to the constitution, in fact, Iranians can participate in
In post-2009 Iran, not only is space gendered for a variety of reasons ranging from customs to st... more In post-2009 Iran, not only is space gendered for a variety of reasons ranging from customs to state intervention, but also public space has become less accessible and secluded for security purposes. To securitize the state or replace a sense of trust with that of suspicion, states blend the gendering of space with the architecture of seclusion. In the United States, for instance, the separation of males and females in the prison industrial complex includes seclusion of bodies and often subjects gender-nonconforming people, immigrants, and those with HIV to disproportionate levels of physical danger. 1 In Iran, architectural adjustments with the aim of seclusion have significantly increased since the 2009 protests. In Tehran, for instance, shisha shops in the mountains, which used to be common sites of leisure, are randomly raided by security forces. As a result, participating in such spaces means having to hide in the back areas to engage in an activity that not too long ago was legal. It follows that the combination of gendering and seclusion of space disrupts the formation of organic relationships and generates real, falsely stimulated, and contested intimacies. How we approach intimacies in this complicated situation determines in important ways the impact that this new spatial scheme will have on our research agenda, analysis, and perhaps even safety. Scholars have illustrated how states manipulate intimacy at different stages of their formation. Lisa Lowe argues that intimacy develops closeness, which can bring about liberation or domination. She highlights the presence of closeness in moments of explicit violation during the life of a state, such as in the context of legalized slavery, and points out that the " residue " of closeness can be touched through seemingly benign processes such as free trade relationships between states. 2 Similarly, Ann Stoler invites us to think about empire and colonialism not in terms of " legacy " but as " ruins " that people live with, and sometimes within, in order to highlight continued links between intimate encounters and (post)colonialism. 3 Elizabeth Povinelli has illustrated how states control the transformative power of intimacy by connecting it with love, the formation of families, and nationhood. 4 While we do not deny that loving, intimate relations can develop through seclusion or despite it, during research we also encountered ways in which it skews relationships. In what follows, we discuss two experiences where we were manipulated by the intimacy resulting from the architecture of seclusion in gendered spaces. This resulted in our overdetermined focus on some frameworks and categories over others that may have been equally useful. The combination of seclusion and intimacy is a salient feature of the present moment in Iran (and elsewhere), and thus we hope this contribution will be informative for students conducting research in gendered spaces (in the Middle East and beyond) who expect to find solidarity or conflict surrounding rights, gender, and feminist politics. They may find this to be the case. However, we suggest that students also pay
How can scholars conduct fieldwork in an authoritarian environment, engaging 'dangerous' topics s... more How can scholars conduct fieldwork in an authoritarian environment, engaging 'dangerous' topics such as social movements in Iran? How can they overcome the limitations imposed by the authoritarian state and win the trust of activists? This article reflects on the knowledge that scholars produce under such difficult circumstances, arguing that the deployment of non-mainstream research practices and methods can benefit the scholarship, exposing under-studied and overlooked aspects of the topic investigated. More specifically, the article elaborates on how methodological choices inform the knowledge we produce and how they can therefore be used to overcome structural limitations generating innovative and fairer scholarship. This article examines how conducting fieldwork with qualitative research methods that question the binary distinction between the 'researcher' and the 'object of the research' generates findings that may ultimately innovate the study of social movements in authoritarian contexts, generating better and fairer knowledge. This is part of a broader methodological reflection that looks at research methods as an integral part of a research project, not as a mere instrument for gathering evidences, and that have, therefore, a significant impact on the nature of the project itself and the knowledge produced. While mainstream scholarship approaches the study of social movements with theory-led questions or by applying a theoretical model (usually produced in European or North American universities) to activist organisations, this article finds that the involvement of activists and militants is beneficial, and enriches the researcher's perspective. In fact, such an approach not only increases the researchers' awareness of their own positionality in the field but
Pubblichiamo l'analisi di Paola Rivetti tra cinema, librerie e musei, alla vigilia del voto irani... more Pubblichiamo l'analisi di Paola Rivetti tra cinema, librerie e musei, alla vigilia del voto iraniano.
This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Ira... more This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Iranian reformist governments (1997–2005) sought to utilise gradual reforms to control independent activism, and how citizens responded to such a disciplinary action. While the governments successfully ‘set the field’ of permitted political participation, part of the civil society that took shape was unexpectedly independent. Despite being a minority, independent activists were not marginal: without them, in fact, the Green Movement of 2009 would not have taken shape. Building on in-depth empirical analysis, the author explains how autonomous activism forms and survives in a semi-authoritarian country. The book contributes to the debate about the implications of elite-led reforms for social reproduction, offering an innovative interpretation and an original analysis of social movements from a political science perspective.
Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention, 2018
This book emerges from the observation that much has changed in the field of political Islam foll... more This book emerges from the observation that much has changed in the field of political Islam following the popular uprisings that rocked the authoritarian status quo in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2010-11, nowadays widely referred to as the Arab uprisings or 'Arab Spring'. Prominent instances of such change include the dramatic rise to (and fall from) power of moderate Islamist political parties/groupings in Egypt and Tunisia-forces that had been violently repressed and/or dismantled by pre-uprisings authoritarian regimes-, the pluralisation of the field of Islamist political players, including most notably the formation of Salafi parties and their ascent to political prominence in electoral and institutional politics, the escalation of sectarian conflict between the region's Sunni and Shi'a communities, exacerbated by war in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, as well as the emergence of the jihadi-Salafi organisation al-Dawla al-Islamiyya (Islamic State, IS) which advances formal ruling pretentions over territories in Syria and Iraq, a new quality to such groups. All of these developments suggest that a renewed analysis and approach to the study of Islamist political and social actors are needed. While extant pre-uprisings scholarship had already noted part of these dynamics and devoted efforts to their analysis-such as for instance the case of Salafi participation in electoral politics, or the growing relevance of the sectarian variable in MENA politics-it can hardly account for their development in the new environment that the 'Arab Spring' has brought about. A cursory look at the scholarship available on the subject of political Islam post-2011 seems to suggest, in fact, that the uprisings constitute just one phase in the long history of Islamist political and social forces present in the MENA, a history characterised by periods of political opposition, inclusion and co-option by authoritarian leaders.
What role does political Islam play in the genealogy of protests as an instrument to resist neo-l... more What role does political Islam play in the genealogy of protests as an instrument to resist neo-liberalism and authoritarian rule? How can we account for the internal conflicts among Islamist players after the 2011/2012 Arab uprisings? How can we assess the performance of Islamist parties in power? What geopolitical reconfigurations have the uprisings created, and what opportunities have arisen for Islamists to claim a stronger political role in domestic and regional politics? These questions are addressed in this book, which looks at the dynamics in place during the aftermath of the Arab uprisings in a wide range of countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
The Arab uprisings of 2011 have sparked much scholarly discussion with regards to democratisation... more The Arab uprisings of 2011 have sparked much scholarly discussion with regards to democratisation, the resilience of authoritarian rule, mobilisation patterns, and the relationship between secularism and Islam, all under the assumption that politics has changed for good in North Africa and the Middle East. While acknowledging the post-2011 transformations taking place in the region, this book brings to the forefront an understudied, yet crucial, aspect related to the uprisings, namely the interplay between continuity and change.
Challenging simplified representations built around the positions that either ‘all has changed’ or ‘nothing has changed’, the in-depth case studies in this volume demonstrate how elements both of continuity, and rupture with the past, are present in the post-uprising landscapes of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Public policy, contentious politics, the process of institution making and re-making, and the relations of power connecting national and international economies are at the core of the comparative investigations included in the book. The volume makes an important contribution to the study of North African politics, and to the study of political change and stability, by contrasting the different trajectories of the uprisings, and by offering theoretical reflections on their meaning, consequences and scope. This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.
"L'accento posto sullo sviluppo dei processi di democratizzazione della cosiddetta 'terza ondata'... more "L'accento posto sullo sviluppo dei processi di democratizzazione della cosiddetta 'terza ondata' ha portato alla ribalta il concetto di società civile. Questo è stato utilizzato dai finanziatori internazionali così come dai governi e dalla società stessa con disparati intenti. Il Medio Oriente, un'area dove l'autoritarismo sembra ancora prevalere sulle spinte democratiche, è una regione in cui il richiamo della società civile è sempre più forte. Ma quali sono le dinamiche che si nascondono dietro questo concetto polisemico' Quali le pratiche e quali le retoriche' Il volume propone un percorso di approfondimento in quattro paesi medio orientali (Iran, Libano, Egitto e Marocco) dove la retorica dominante, spesso intenta a promuovere le virtù della società civile, si scontra con la realtà presente sul terreno, caratterizzata, invece, da fenomeni partecipativi 'ad effetto' assai lontani da una libera e consapevole partecipazione dal basso.
Effetto società civile tenta di andare oltre la retorica dominante offrendo chiavi di lettura alternative. I saggi contenuti nel volume, frutto del lavoro sul campo di giovani studiose/i italiani, evidenziano come, nel bene e nel male la società civile con i suoi problemi definitori, con le sue pratiche multiple, con la sua retorica rappresenti, oggi, uno dei nodi centrali per coloro che si occupano di Medio Oriente.
Indice
Iran
La “società civile” in Iran. Appunti su consenso, potere e politica, Paola Rivetti
Libano
Hurriyyat Khassa: individui e libertà private all’ombra del regime comunitario libanese, Massimo Di Ricco
Violenza, luoghi di divertimento e memorie di conflitto negli spazi urbani di Beirut, Francesco Mazzucotelli
Media, società civili e democrazia in Libano. Il caso di UCIP Liban, Rosita Di Peri
Egitto
“Che ci posso fare? Mi piaci!”. Ong egiziane e sponsor internazionali a Boulaq El-Dakrour, Cairo, Elena Piffero Aaronson
Marocco
Partecipazione sul biglietto da visita. La “società civile” in Marocco tra vocazione e professione, Irene Bono
This article contributes to the debate about authoritarian diffusion by examining the case study ... more This article contributes to the debate about authoritarian diffusion by examining the case study of Iranian state propaganda in Italy, with a special attention to anti-feminist and anti-gender ideology initiatives. The article foregrounds historical and contextual factors in the analysis, as well as the development of the relations between Iranian state propagandists and Italian recipients, focusing on far-right and neo-fascist organisations. The article reassesses the strength and success of Iran's diffusion initiatives, demonstrating that authoritarian states try to create and engage an audience in democratic states even when they have a small chance of influencing the national public debate; and that they do so out of past trajectories and contextual, unstable interests. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the context, history and the actors' agency when examining authoritarian diffusion, and emphasises that gender and sexual politics are a fertile ground to analyse the contemporary transformations of political regimes.
In this article, we reconsider the history and politics of Iranian feminism(s) in the light of th... more In this article, we reconsider the history and politics of Iranian feminism(s) in the light of the recent Woman Life Freedom uprising. We take this opportunity to reflect on the potentialities and weaknesses of decade-long engagements with feminism in Iran, highlighting a reluctance to commit to an intersectional analysis able to stream how economic and political hierarchies govern classed and racialised, not only gendered, bodies in different ways; and reflecting on movement-building strategies. To do so, the paper draws attention to two aspects of contemporary political work. First, we examine social media activism and its role in empowering or disempowering a politics of freedom. Second, we draw attention to dispersed forms of activism, based on affective connection between women and "everyday forms of resistance". While we believe that everyday resistance is meaningful, we also emphasise the dangers of becoming content with awareness advancements only, while lacking a strong movement-building strategy. In conclusion, we put Iranian feminism and its intellectual production in dialogue with broader internationalist struggles for liberation and freedom.
The discussion versed on issues such as the potentialities and limitations of bringing religions ... more The discussion versed on issues such as the potentialities and limitations of bringing religions in their diversity and heterogeneity into the discussion of the far-right and anti-gender campaigns, and the need to go beyond analysis focused on the national level and address the transnational networks of disseminating these ideologies. Our guests also stressed the need to bring economic inequality and the destruction of the environment into the discussion and expose the fallacious promises of these ideologies, namely by the more extreme far-right formations in the making, when they propose to overcome neoliberal order and offer new forms of spirituality intertwined in ethno-nativist visions of ‘going back to nature’.
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , 2023
This article examines the reception of the Iranian state's authoritarian discourse by the Italian... more This article examines the reception of the Iranian state's authoritarian discourse by the Italian far right to interrogate the mechanisms of authoritarian diffusion from the point of view of the receiving actors. Coding Iran's state propaganda and searching for overlaps and resonances with the far right's discourse, this article argues that the receiving audience selectively translates the content coming from Iran for the Italian public with the goal of reinforcing its own political discourse. The article contributes to the debate on authoritarian diffusion by providing fresh empirical findings from a rarely studied case study and by shifting the focus to political discourse and narratives. This article also foregrounds the agency of the receiving audience, rather than the authoritarian state's, with the goal of interrogating the resources and infrastructures that enable diffusion, rather than the motivation or the success of the ‘sending’ authoritarian state. This article expands the understanding of complex dynamics of authoritarian diffusion and contributes to examine the establishment of transnational connections between state and non-state illiberal actors in the era of ‘sovranism’ and right-wing populism.
The Palestinian Prisoners Movement, by Julie M. Norman, and Palestinian Women and Popular Resista... more The Palestinian Prisoners Movement, by Julie M. Norman, and Palestinian Women and Popular Resistance, by Liyana Kayali, are important books that contribute innovative empirics and theoretical observations to conversations that take place in the disciplines of sociology and political science, in particular, between scholars who research social movements and contentious politics.
In this intervention, we discuss the ongoing protest movement and the quasi-revolutionary situati... more In this intervention, we discuss the ongoing protest movement and the quasi-revolutionary situation in Iran with the goal of offering contextual as well as background analysis. Our objective is to examine the current wave of revolutionary politics in the frame of a longer history, that is, the one of the “unaccomplished” 1979 revolution. We do not argue that the current movement is in continuity with the so-called Islamic revolution; rather, we ask what afterlives of the 1979 revolution and successive waves of mobilizations reverberate within the current situation. We do so from a political transformative vantage point, which we understand as inherently feminist, in that we refuse to recognize any hierarchy between the struggles, the issues, and the demands as expressed by the protesters. Indeed, we understand liberation as a collective project resulting from the intersection of struggles, demands, and issues. Following this line of reasoning, we interrogate the current moment along three thematic axes: the social composition, the prospects for political convergence, and the genealogy, or the ideational connection, of the current struggle with those of the past.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13530194 2012 709703, 2012
Iran in the 21st Century Iran is an ancient country, an oil-exporting economy and an Islamic Repu... more Iran in the 21st Century Iran is an ancient country, an oil-exporting economy and an Islamic Republic. It experienced two full-scale revolutions in the 20th century, the latter of which had large and important regional and international consequences, including an eight- year ...
International Journal of Middle East Studies , 2020
This paper examines the use of space and time at the Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy De... more This paper examines the use of space and time at the Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Holy Defence (MIRHD) in Tehran, dedicated to the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). Its goal is to disentangle the ways the notion of resistance-crucial to the nationalist narrative that underpins the museum as an ideological artifact-is manifested through the organization of space and time within the museum, and how this idea of resistance is altered by visitors and social interactions that occur outside and in the museum. Temporality is important in the museum, because it displaces stories and data from a specific period of Iran's revolutionary history into the current time, assigning to the war a specific political function in the present era. Space is equally important, and the paper will consider the message it carries both inside and outside the museum. The museum proposes "resistance" as a fixed articulation of state ideology. This article proposes, however , that it is refashioned by visitors as an "intimate struggle" through their striving for self-construction. This argument is made by connecting the narrative of the museum to visitors' (mostly young Hezbollah affiliates) perception of it and to their social lives. More specifically, I argue that by memorializing and romanticizing popular mobilization and resistance during the war, the museum unintentionally assists the shift of resistance from a public or collective action that the state controls to an intimate act, one which connects individuals and the state through an individual-centered bond. Exploring this kind of intimate resistance is crucial to understanding the formation of revolutionary subjectivity in the present time as a creative process, not rigidly dependent on politics or religion but instead existing as a conversation between the past and the future self of citizens, which is at the same time dependent on and autonomous from the state.
This article investigates contentious politics in authoritarian contexts by looking at the case-s... more This article investigates contentious politics in authoritarian contexts by looking at the case-study of student activism in the Islamic Republic of Iran. More specifically, the article asks 'how does the Iranian student movement "do" contentious politics?', and argues that a broader approach is needed when examining social movements and mobilizations in authoritarian countries, than one focused on visible mobilizations. In particular, interpersonal relationships, local histories of activism, and what happens 'in-between' episodes of contention should be valued as material carrying analytical gravity. Adopting this approach, the article looks at the continuities and ruptures that have characterized on campus political contention in Iran in the 2000s and 2010s, bringing to the fore the overlooked history of how the student movements have re-organized after major waves of state repression.
While driving on Bakeri Expressway in Tehran in 2016, one of the two authors' friend, A., recalle... more While driving on Bakeri Expressway in Tehran in 2016, one of the two authors' friend, A., recalled a protest during the summer of 2009, when the people of Iran took to the streets, giving form to what has since come to be known as the 'Green Movement'. 1 In June 2009, and for months later, protests took place in several cities across the country against the re-election of Mahmood Ahmadinejad (r.2005-13) as president of the republic, an election that the protesters considered rigged. The 'Green Movement', or the fitna (sedition) as it is called by the forces that countered it, constituted the fiercest challenge to the stability of the Islamic Republic yet. What started as a dispute over the election results spiralled, as the months passed by, into a comprehensive confrontation between the opposition and Ahmadinejad's government, with radical fringes aiming their critique at the regime itself. 2 As A. recalled: We were in Parkway [an important junction in North Tehran where portraits of martyrs from the Iran-Iraq war are at display], and people were shouting "Basiji vaghei Hemmat bodo Bakeri" (the real bassij were Hemmat and Bakeri) against the bassij 3 that had beaten up their brothers and sisters during the protests. The reality is that if Bakeri and Hemmat were alive, they would protest with us to defend the truth and honour of the Islamic Republic, which they created, and to allow people to protest: how do you think the revolution happened? 4 This short excerpt of a longer conversation directly speaks to the relevance of the issue of political participation in the Islamic Republic, whose political system synthetises authoritarian and democratic characteristics and subsumes political participation as a fundamental trait of its history and genealogy, thus offering fertile ground to build arguments in favour of expanding it. According to the constitution, in fact, Iranians can participate in
In post-2009 Iran, not only is space gendered for a variety of reasons ranging from customs to st... more In post-2009 Iran, not only is space gendered for a variety of reasons ranging from customs to state intervention, but also public space has become less accessible and secluded for security purposes. To securitize the state or replace a sense of trust with that of suspicion, states blend the gendering of space with the architecture of seclusion. In the United States, for instance, the separation of males and females in the prison industrial complex includes seclusion of bodies and often subjects gender-nonconforming people, immigrants, and those with HIV to disproportionate levels of physical danger. 1 In Iran, architectural adjustments with the aim of seclusion have significantly increased since the 2009 protests. In Tehran, for instance, shisha shops in the mountains, which used to be common sites of leisure, are randomly raided by security forces. As a result, participating in such spaces means having to hide in the back areas to engage in an activity that not too long ago was legal. It follows that the combination of gendering and seclusion of space disrupts the formation of organic relationships and generates real, falsely stimulated, and contested intimacies. How we approach intimacies in this complicated situation determines in important ways the impact that this new spatial scheme will have on our research agenda, analysis, and perhaps even safety. Scholars have illustrated how states manipulate intimacy at different stages of their formation. Lisa Lowe argues that intimacy develops closeness, which can bring about liberation or domination. She highlights the presence of closeness in moments of explicit violation during the life of a state, such as in the context of legalized slavery, and points out that the " residue " of closeness can be touched through seemingly benign processes such as free trade relationships between states. 2 Similarly, Ann Stoler invites us to think about empire and colonialism not in terms of " legacy " but as " ruins " that people live with, and sometimes within, in order to highlight continued links between intimate encounters and (post)colonialism. 3 Elizabeth Povinelli has illustrated how states control the transformative power of intimacy by connecting it with love, the formation of families, and nationhood. 4 While we do not deny that loving, intimate relations can develop through seclusion or despite it, during research we also encountered ways in which it skews relationships. In what follows, we discuss two experiences where we were manipulated by the intimacy resulting from the architecture of seclusion in gendered spaces. This resulted in our overdetermined focus on some frameworks and categories over others that may have been equally useful. The combination of seclusion and intimacy is a salient feature of the present moment in Iran (and elsewhere), and thus we hope this contribution will be informative for students conducting research in gendered spaces (in the Middle East and beyond) who expect to find solidarity or conflict surrounding rights, gender, and feminist politics. They may find this to be the case. However, we suggest that students also pay
How can scholars conduct fieldwork in an authoritarian environment, engaging 'dangerous' topics s... more How can scholars conduct fieldwork in an authoritarian environment, engaging 'dangerous' topics such as social movements in Iran? How can they overcome the limitations imposed by the authoritarian state and win the trust of activists? This article reflects on the knowledge that scholars produce under such difficult circumstances, arguing that the deployment of non-mainstream research practices and methods can benefit the scholarship, exposing under-studied and overlooked aspects of the topic investigated. More specifically, the article elaborates on how methodological choices inform the knowledge we produce and how they can therefore be used to overcome structural limitations generating innovative and fairer scholarship. This article examines how conducting fieldwork with qualitative research methods that question the binary distinction between the 'researcher' and the 'object of the research' generates findings that may ultimately innovate the study of social movements in authoritarian contexts, generating better and fairer knowledge. This is part of a broader methodological reflection that looks at research methods as an integral part of a research project, not as a mere instrument for gathering evidences, and that have, therefore, a significant impact on the nature of the project itself and the knowledge produced. While mainstream scholarship approaches the study of social movements with theory-led questions or by applying a theoretical model (usually produced in European or North American universities) to activist organisations, this article finds that the involvement of activists and militants is beneficial, and enriches the researcher's perspective. In fact, such an approach not only increases the researchers' awareness of their own positionality in the field but
Pubblichiamo l'analisi di Paola Rivetti tra cinema, librerie e musei, alla vigilia del voto irani... more Pubblichiamo l'analisi di Paola Rivetti tra cinema, librerie e musei, alla vigilia del voto iraniano.
Rivoluzioni violate è il risultato di uno sforzo collettivo che riflette sullo stato delle rivolu... more Rivoluzioni violate è il risultato di uno sforzo collettivo che riflette sullo stato delle rivoluzioni nordafricane e mediorientali a cinque anni dalle stesse, mettendo in luce come le forze della contro-rivoluzione abbiano avuto successo nell'eliminare, addomesticare, reprimere coloro che, dal basso, si sono agitati in Nord Africa e Medio Oriente chiedendo giustizia sociale, dignità e libertà. In questo senso, le rivoluzioni sono state violate sebbene, gli autori e le autrici mettono in chiaro, nulla sia più come prima.
Building on theoretical critiques of the sharp distinction between authoritarian and democratic s... more Building on theoretical critiques of the sharp distinction between authoritarian and democratic structures of government as well as policy-making (Carothers 2002), this special issue shifts the focus of analysis to governance dynamics with the objective of problematizing precisely such distinction. We follow the recent scholarship of Area Studies/Middle East Studies (Dabène, Geisser, Massardier 2008; Camau, Massardier 2009; Cavatorta 2010; Teti, Mura 2013) that has called for a comparative engagement with governance systems across the world, highlighting how similar governance dynamics might characterize nominally different political regimes. The common thread of the special issue is the hypothesis that what we call the convergence of governance waters down the theoretically distinctive traits of authoritarian and democratic systems. Specifically the contributors to this special issue examine in detail how this convergence might occur and why.
This paper examines the ‘making of invisible borders’ as it shows in the case of Iranian asylum-s... more This paper examines the ‘making of invisible borders’ as it shows in the case of Iranian asylum-seekers’ process of identity construction and subjection. This process is analysed by considering how IOs and NGOs ‘force’ asylum-seekers into pre-established roles, de facto ‘enclosing’ their identity.
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This paper examines the ‘making of invisible borders’ as it shows in the case of Iranian asylum-seekers' process
of identity construction and subjection. This process is analysed by highlighting how international organisations and politics, personal networks, and civil society organisations in receiving countries (Italy and Turkey) 'force' asylum-seekers into pre-established roles, de facto 'enclosing' their identity. In this case-study, the central aspects of asylum-seekers' identity are political activism and its performative power. These are
considered to be a resource because Iran is a subject of great interest for a number of human rights organisations (NGOs but also organisations such as Open Society Foundation) as well as American semigovernmental organisations and media (VOA, just to name one). Peers and NGOs' pressure builds an invisible
border to asylum-seekers’ autonomous self-determination, governing their selves and obliging them to follow the ‘script of refugeeness’ in order to fit pre-established categories such as the one of ‘human rights defenders’-- which secures assistance by NGOs and ‘benevolence’ by international organisations. The result of this multi-sited pressure is the production of invisible borders, as identity is deployed as a mean of differential
inclusion and as a device to govern and classify migrant populations, whereby some asylum-seekers perform
or fit ‘refugeeness’ better than others. This paper is based on fieldwork in Turkey in the cities of Van, Hakkari, Agri, Eskisehir, Kaiseri and Nidge, carried out since 2010; and in Italy, where I have collaborated with a number of organisations assisting asylum-seekers in 2010 and 2011.
This paper examines the techniques of control enacted towards universities and student activism i... more This paper examines the techniques of control enacted towards universities and student activism in Iran. From a theoretical point of view, the paper elaborates on the literature focusing on the social control of dissent. This focus allows the overcoming of the studies on the ‘policing of protests’ for two reasons. First, it focuses on the control that the society as a whole enacts (and not only on the repressive apparatus) to include the techniques of power as theorised by Foucault through the notion of gouvernmentalité. In particular, the paper targets those dynamics of control that are interiorised and produce self-discipline. Second, building on Starr, Fernandez and Scholl (2011) focusing on the social control of dissent allows a broader perspective on those who would dissent but are discouraged to do so by the devices of control that this paper takes into examination and by the society at large. The ‘policing of protest’ studies indeed focus on repression as carried out by the police, the army or other para/military corpse during the protests, whereas the concern here is how dissent is contained and discouraged before, during and after the protests. Scholars have already argued that violent repression is only one means for controlling domestic dissent and dissenters, and that that social control is enacted in subtle ways by all members of a society (Bank and Richter 2010). What is the impact of those dynamics of control on the larger society? How the larger society impacts on potential dissenters?
The Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at Dublin City University ... more The Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at Dublin City University is looking for 4 PhD researchers in the framework of the project “Around the Caspian: a doctoral training for future experts in development and cooperation with focus on the Caspian region” (CASPIAN 2015-19).
Description
A 36-month, full-time PhD researcher position (subject to a positive mid-term evaluation); a salary in accordance with Marie Curie payment scales and a sufficient research and travel budget; start of assignment not later than 1 September 2015. The selected PhD students will respectively work on the research projects, and complete a PhD thesis, on:
1. Resilient authoritarianism in Central Asia: between international dynamics and domestic constraints
2. Weak or absent opposition parties, electoral processes and sources of power around the Caspian region
3. Women and Parliament in Autocratic states: competing for access to political positions in the Caspian region
4. Civil society actors and political participation in Central Asia and Iran: dynamics of democratization and political co-option
These planned research projects focus on the societal impact and the effect on identities, social organization and the daily economies of rapid economic change in specific provinces and urban areas in the Caspian region, using mixed research methodologies.
MIGRANTS: COMMUNITIES, BORDERS, MEMORIES, CONFLICTS
Call for panels
The 2016 SeSaMO conference ... more MIGRANTS: COMMUNITIES, BORDERS, MEMORIES, CONFLICTS
Call for panels
The 2016 SeSaMO conference on 17-19 March, 2016, puts the spotlight on migration meant as a general phenomenon that has affected Muslim-majority societies across history and can be approached from different disciplinary perspectives. Scholars are invited to present a panel. Interdisciplinary proposals are welcome as well as proposals focusing on distinct areas of interest in the field of Middle Eastern studies. With the aim of encouraging scientific interaction with the international scholarly community, the conference will host keynote speakers who will lecture on topics of interest for the Society and who will have the opportunity to listen to paper presentations. Panels in Italian, English or French are welcome. Each panel proposal should include two workshop directors who ought to come from different institutions and must reach Dr. Paola Rivetti (paola.rivetti@dcu.ie) by August 30, 2015. The full call for panels is available at http://www.sesamoitalia.it/
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Books by paola rivetti
Challenging simplified representations built around the positions that either ‘all has changed’ or ‘nothing has changed’, the in-depth case studies in this volume demonstrate how elements both of continuity, and rupture with the past, are present in the post-uprising landscapes of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Public policy, contentious politics, the process of institution making and re-making, and the relations of power connecting national and international economies are at the core of the comparative investigations included in the book. The volume makes an important contribution to the study of North African politics, and to the study of political change and stability, by contrasting the different trajectories of the uprisings, and by offering theoretical reflections on their meaning, consequences and scope. This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.
Effetto società civile tenta di andare oltre la retorica dominante offrendo chiavi di lettura alternative. I saggi contenuti nel volume, frutto del lavoro sul campo di giovani studiose/i italiani, evidenziano come, nel bene e nel male la società civile con i suoi problemi definitori, con le sue pratiche multiple, con la sua retorica rappresenti, oggi, uno dei nodi centrali per coloro che si occupano di Medio Oriente.
Indice
Iran
La “società civile” in Iran. Appunti su consenso, potere e politica, Paola Rivetti
Libano
Hurriyyat Khassa: individui e libertà private all’ombra del regime comunitario libanese, Massimo Di Ricco
Violenza, luoghi di divertimento e memorie di conflitto negli spazi urbani di Beirut, Francesco Mazzucotelli
Media, società civili e democrazia in Libano. Il caso di UCIP Liban, Rosita Di Peri
Egitto
“Che ci posso fare? Mi piaci!”. Ong egiziane e sponsor internazionali a Boulaq El-Dakrour, Cairo, Elena Piffero Aaronson
Marocco
Partecipazione sul biglietto da visita. La “società civile” in Marocco tra vocazione e professione, Irene Bono
Bibliografia ragionata"
Papers by paola rivetti
Challenging simplified representations built around the positions that either ‘all has changed’ or ‘nothing has changed’, the in-depth case studies in this volume demonstrate how elements both of continuity, and rupture with the past, are present in the post-uprising landscapes of Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Public policy, contentious politics, the process of institution making and re-making, and the relations of power connecting national and international economies are at the core of the comparative investigations included in the book. The volume makes an important contribution to the study of North African politics, and to the study of political change and stability, by contrasting the different trajectories of the uprisings, and by offering theoretical reflections on their meaning, consequences and scope. This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.
Effetto società civile tenta di andare oltre la retorica dominante offrendo chiavi di lettura alternative. I saggi contenuti nel volume, frutto del lavoro sul campo di giovani studiose/i italiani, evidenziano come, nel bene e nel male la società civile con i suoi problemi definitori, con le sue pratiche multiple, con la sua retorica rappresenti, oggi, uno dei nodi centrali per coloro che si occupano di Medio Oriente.
Indice
Iran
La “società civile” in Iran. Appunti su consenso, potere e politica, Paola Rivetti
Libano
Hurriyyat Khassa: individui e libertà private all’ombra del regime comunitario libanese, Massimo Di Ricco
Violenza, luoghi di divertimento e memorie di conflitto negli spazi urbani di Beirut, Francesco Mazzucotelli
Media, società civili e democrazia in Libano. Il caso di UCIP Liban, Rosita Di Peri
Egitto
“Che ci posso fare? Mi piaci!”. Ong egiziane e sponsor internazionali a Boulaq El-Dakrour, Cairo, Elena Piffero Aaronson
Marocco
Partecipazione sul biglietto da visita. La “società civile” in Marocco tra vocazione e professione, Irene Bono
Bibliografia ragionata"
---------------------------------------
This paper examines the ‘making of invisible borders’ as it shows in the case of Iranian asylum-seekers' process
of identity construction and subjection. This process is analysed by highlighting how international organisations and politics, personal networks, and civil society organisations in receiving countries (Italy and Turkey) 'force' asylum-seekers into pre-established roles, de facto 'enclosing' their identity. In this case-study, the central aspects of asylum-seekers' identity are political activism and its performative power. These are
considered to be a resource because Iran is a subject of great interest for a number of human rights organisations (NGOs but also organisations such as Open Society Foundation) as well as American semigovernmental organisations and media (VOA, just to name one). Peers and NGOs' pressure builds an invisible
border to asylum-seekers’ autonomous self-determination, governing their selves and obliging them to follow the ‘script of refugeeness’ in order to fit pre-established categories such as the one of ‘human rights defenders’-- which secures assistance by NGOs and ‘benevolence’ by international organisations. The result of this multi-sited pressure is the production of invisible borders, as identity is deployed as a mean of differential
inclusion and as a device to govern and classify migrant populations, whereby some asylum-seekers perform
or fit ‘refugeeness’ better than others. This paper is based on fieldwork in Turkey in the cities of Van, Hakkari, Agri, Eskisehir, Kaiseri and Nidge, carried out since 2010; and in Italy, where I have collaborated with a number of organisations assisting asylum-seekers in 2010 and 2011.
Description
A 36-month, full-time PhD researcher position (subject to a positive mid-term evaluation); a salary in accordance with Marie Curie payment scales and a sufficient research and travel budget; start of assignment not later than 1 September 2015. The selected PhD students will respectively work on the research projects, and complete a PhD thesis, on:
1. Resilient authoritarianism in Central Asia: between international dynamics and domestic constraints
2. Weak or absent opposition parties, electoral processes and sources of power around the Caspian region
3. Women and Parliament in Autocratic states: competing for access to political positions in the Caspian region
4. Civil society actors and political participation in Central Asia and Iran: dynamics of democratization and political co-option
These planned research projects focus on the societal impact and the effect on identities, social organization and the daily economies of rapid economic change in specific provinces and urban areas in the Caspian region, using mixed research methodologies.
Candidates should apply by e-mail to Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin, Director of Research to donnacha.obeachain@dcu.ie (mention ‘CASPIAN application’ in heading/subject space), before Tuesday, 31 March 2015, 17:00 GMT.
For more info: http://www.dcu.ie/iicrr/Caspian_PhD_application.shtml
Call for panels
The 2016 SeSaMO conference on 17-19 March, 2016, puts the spotlight on migration meant as a general phenomenon that has affected Muslim-majority societies across history and can be approached from different disciplinary perspectives. Scholars are invited to present a panel. Interdisciplinary proposals are welcome as well as proposals focusing on distinct areas of interest in the field of Middle Eastern studies. With the aim of encouraging scientific interaction with the international scholarly community, the conference will host keynote speakers who will lecture on topics of interest for the Society and who will have the opportunity to listen to paper presentations. Panels in Italian, English or French are welcome. Each panel proposal should include two workshop directors who ought to come from different institutions and must reach Dr. Paola Rivetti (paola.rivetti@dcu.ie) by August 30, 2015. The full call for panels is available at http://www.sesamoitalia.it/