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| Title | Author(s) | Publishing Date | Keywords | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Historical Mapping of Lebanese Organized Labor: Tracing trends, actors, and dynamics | Rossana Tufaro | November, 2021 |
The paper provides a contextualized and easily accessible history of Lebanese organized labor from the mandate period up to this day. The paper is divided into six main sections, each corresponding to a distinct phase of the historical development of Lebanese organized labor. In each section, the paper identifies the main actors, demands, events, urgencies and constraints shaping the articulation and the trajectories of (de/) mobilization of workers’ collective agency and organization, so as to provide a cumulative and genealogical overview of the changes, continuities and peculiarities characterizing each phase. The paper builds for the most part on the piecemeal and dis-organic body of scholarship currently constituting the bulk of scholarly knowledge on Lebanese labor, in an attempt to provide a synthesis and an index thereof. In so doing, the paper aims at offering a directory and a ready-to-hand compendium for researchers, analyst and practitioners interested in Lebanese labor, and possibly contribute to (re)ignite interest in this still widely under-researched topic. |
Lebanon, Labor Rights & Livelihoods, labour movement, socio-economic demands, Policy Intervention, Activism |
| Possibilities and Challenges: Social Protection and COVID-19 Crisis in Jordan | Abdalhadi Alijla | November, 2021 |
This report describes the different programmes and the mechanisms used to reach the country’s most vulnerable groups. It focuses specifically on informal workers, women, and the youth. The report also shows that Jordan has used its existing social protection systems to reach vulnerable people through emergency cash transfer programmes, either by expanding the already existing programme (Takaful) or creating new ones (Tamkin Iqtisadi, Himaya, Musanid). The Jordanian government’s responsiveness and effectiveness were conditioned and restrictive towards women, informal workers, and refugees. This report analyses the government's response in an attempt to identify gaps in the Jordanian social protection system and how it can be further developed |
Jordan, Social Protection System, Covid-19 in Jordan, Informal Economy in Jordan |
| COVID-19 Vaccines: Is equity between North and South still possible? | Heba Wanis | October, 2021 |
This article explores global vaccination inequity and wether equity in this regard is achievable between North and South. It covers the challenges faced by health systems in the region during the pandemic, issues of equity in access to the vaccine, and the developments and barriers relevant to vaccine production in the South. |
MENA Region, Right To Health, Vaccination Inequity, Social Justice, Crisis Prevention & Recovery |
| Collective Actions Digest Jordan – September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2021 | Rossana Tufaro | October, 2021 |
Despite the lack of media coverage, Jordanian society is currently witnessing a multitude of pervasive and increasing tensions nested in the shadow of the country’s economic downturn and the austerity policies adopted by the state. This digest provides an overview of the collective actions mapped in Jordan between September 1 2018 and August 31 2021, including general trends, demands, mode of action. |
Press Freedom, Repression, Jordan, Collective Action, Socio-Economic |
| Tunisia’s “Al-Ahyaa Al-Sha’Biya”: Socioeconomic Grievances, Mobilisation, and Repression | Stephanie Daher | October, 2021 |
This paper will look into the dynamics of police repression and violence against contentious actors during the latest wave of protests in Tunisia. It will argue that there is a continuity between the grievances of the recent protests and those expressed during the 2011 revolution, including corruption, access to socio-economic rights and individual and collective freedoms. The paper will also highlight the role of the youth, particularly those from marginalised neighbourhoods, in leading the protests, positioning them as the main targets of police violence and arbitrary arrests. Finally, it will shed light on the recent police repression and violation of individual freedoms, showing that despite being considered as one of the main achievements of the Tunisian’s revolution, civil liberties remain under threat. |
Repression, Police Brutality, collective actions, Social Justice, Socio-Economic, socio-economic demands, Tunisia, Economic & Social Rights |
| موجز: الإقتصاد السياسي لإدارة أزمة جائحة كوفيد-١٩ في تونس: هل هي أزمة حُكم أم فشلٌ على مستوى المنظومة الصحّية؟ | Dr. Belgacem Sabri | September, 2021 |
يلخّص هذا الموجز إدراة جائحة كوفيد-١٩ في تونس على الصعيدين السياسي والإقتصادي، طارحًا إشكالية ما إذا كانت هذه الأزمة الصحية ناتجة عن أزمة حكم أو فشل على مستوى المنظومة الصحية. وتعمَّق الموجز أيضًا في دور المجتمع المدني التونسي في الدفاع عن الحقّ في الصحّة وعن مكتسبات النظام الصحّي. هذا الموجز كُتب بناءً على مداخلة د. بلقاسم صابري خلال الندوة الإفتراضية "توفير الحقّ في الصحّة للجميع، وتحقيق المساواة في الحصول على اللقاح في الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا. مقاربة ما بعد الاستعمارية" التي نظمها مركز دعم لبنان في ٢ أيلول/ سبتمبر ٢٠٢١ |
Tunisia, Political Economy, Health, Covid19, Right To Health |
| Unpacking the Dynamics of Contentious Mobilisations in Lebanon: Between Continuity and Evolution | Stephanie Daher | August, 2021 |
This paper will first explore the witnessed recurrent mobilisation cycles since 2019 through the lens of accumulated emerging movements over the last decade. Then, it will highlight the dynamics of collective mobilisations from October 2019 onwards based on the data mappings of collective actions produced by Lebanon Support (Lebanon Support, Mapping of Collective Actions in Lebanon), tracing its own evolution since its start up until today: Are the modes of action adopted by protestors the same since October 17, 2019? Have the advanced causes and grievances evolved? Do we observe any continuity in its decentralised spread and non-sectarian character? The paper will explore the dynamics and characteristics of this social movement such as the main mobilising actors, the modes of action, and the causes and grievances of mobilisations and their evolution across three time-periods from October 2019 until May 2021. The first time-period extends from October 2019 to February 2020, the second starts from the imposed-lockdown measures in March 2020 to October 2020 marking the first-year anniversary of the Uprising, and the third from November 2020 up until May 2021. |
Social Movements, Civil Society, October Protests, Civic Space, Lebanon |
| Crafting the good citizen, streaming the good king: Notes on press freedom, hegemony and social contention in King Abdallah II’s Jordan | Rossana Tufaro | July, 2021 |
During the mandate of King Abdallah II, press freedom in Jordan has undergone a significant contraction. This has progressively endowed the Hashemite monarchy and its organic incumbents with an unprecedented directive control over the circulation and the framing of events in the country – hence over the capacity to strategically filter from above the diffusion of politically sensitive news, silence voices of political challengers, and orient domestic and international opinion. This paper aims to provide a preliminary assessment of the role played by the enforcement and the strategic application of restrictions on media freedom in consolidating King Abdallah II’s rule, by scrutinizing how the cumulative strategic application of press restrictions succeeded or failed to validate King Abdallah II's international reputation of a moderate and progressive leader, and legitimize the neoliberal upgrading of the authoritarian bargain with his domestic constituencies. |
Right to Information, Press Freedom, Civic Space, Jordan, Social Movements |
| المراكز البحثية ودورها في صنع السياسة الخارجية المغربية | Rachid El-Bazzim, Amal El Houasni | April, 2021 |
نسعى في هذه الدراسة إلى بلورة مقارَبة تأخذ بالمنهج الوظيفي من خلال دراسة وظائف المراكز البحثية وأدوارها في صنع السياسة الخارجية المغربية، إضافة إلى قدرات الوصف والتحليل لمعالجة هذا الموضوع، وذلك انطلاقاً من رصد السياقات التي عرفت نشأة المراكز البحثية المذكورة وتكاثرها، مرتكزين على محاور الاقتصاد السياسي للبحث وتحولات الأبحاث في مجال العلوم الاجتماعية |
Research Centers, Think Tanks, Foreign Policy, Knowledge, Scientific Research, Universities |
| Beyond Humanitarian Relief: Social Networks and the Role of Shared Identity in Refugee Belonging and Support in Turkey | Michael Kaplan | August, 2020 |
A considerable body of research explores the ways in which refugees exert agency and establish belonging in exile. This scholarship challenges popular tropes that reduce the varied experiences of displacement to generalized themes of crisis, uprootedness, and suffering. Through exploring refugee involvement in Islamic communities in Turkey, this paper considers the role played by informal social networks and actors in both helping Syrian refugees to secure their basic needs, as well as in fostering subjectivities of belonging. Drawing on secondary research as well as on participant observation and interviews conducted with Syrians living in Turkey, it argues that attention to social networks built upon shared modes of identification, such as being devoutly religious, can offer generative insight into processes of emplacement among refugees. These networks not only make visible some of the problematic aspects of humanitarianism associated with non-governmental organizations, but also present alternative models built upon mutual support and care. At the same time, while recognizing the benefits of informal social networks, this paper also considers the potential for new boundaries and exclusions to emerge where others recede. |
refugees, Humanitarianism, Turkey, Belonging, Syrians, social networks, Anthropology |