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A rich interdisciplinary study of the relationships between space, both physical and virtual, and social and political participation
Where do people meet, form relations of trust, and begin debating social and political issues? Where do social movements start? In this fascinating collection, scholars and activists from a wealth of disciplinary backgrounds, including sociology, anthropology, history, and political science, take a fresh look at these questions and the factors leading to political and social change in the Arab world from a spatial perspective. Based on original field work in Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, and Palestine, Spaces of Participation connects and reconnects social, cultural, and political participation with urban space. It explores timely themes such as formal and informal spaces of participation, alternative spaces of cultural production, space reclamation, and cultural activism, and the reconfiguring of space through different types of contestation. It also covers a range of spaces that include sports clubs, arts centers, and sites of protest and resistance, as well as virtual spaces such as social media platforms, in the process of examining the relationships and tensions between physical and virtual space.
Spaces of Participation underlines the temporal and transformative quality of participatory spaces and how they are shaped by their respective political contexts, highlighting different forms of access, control, and contestation.
Contributors:Randa Aboubakr, Cairo University, Egypt
Hicham Ait-Mansour, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco
Fadma Aït Mous, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco
Mouloud Amghar, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco
Yazid Anani, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine
Mai Ayyad, Cairo University, Egypt
Youness Benmouro, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco
Yasmine Berriane, Centre Maurice Halbwachs (CNRS), Paris, France
Mokhtar El Harras, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco
Ulrike Freitag, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany
Sarah Jurkiewicz, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany
Mona Khalil, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Azzurra Sarnataro, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Renad Shqeirat, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine
Dorota Woroniecka-Krzyżanowska, German Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland
“From art spaces to sports clubs to community gardens to digital realms—the contributors draw our attention to how different groups across the Middle East ascribe social and political meaning to the multiple heterotopic landscapes they inhabit, contest, (re)claim, and indeed produce through participatory practices. The editors have done a wonderful job of bringing together what might seem to be quite different and unrelated case studies (from Cairo to Kuwait to Rabat to the West Bank) in an integrated, innovative, interdisciplinary, and highly readable collection.”—Farah Al-Nakib, California Polytechnic State University
"An engaged and engaging volume, showcasing firsthand ethnographic and interdisciplinary research on the intersection between space and participatory practices across the Arab world. Through varied and empirically rich case studies this collection of essays shows how space (both physical and virtual) is made operational through lived action, and how activism and academia can be combined subtly and fruitfully."—Nelida Fuccaro, New York University Abu Dhabi
Sarah Jurkiewicz and Ulrike Freitag reside in Berlin, Germany.
Hicham Ait-Mansour resides in Rabat, Morocco.
Introduction
Randa Aboubakr, Sarah Jurkiewicz, Hicham Ait-Mansour, and Ulrike Freitag
- Part I Rethinking Participation in Formal and Informal Spaces
- Protests as a Space for Contentious Politics and Political Learning among Youth in Morocco: The Case of Mohamed V Avenue in Rabat
Hicham Ait-Mansour - The Concept of Participation in Cairo’s Unplanned Areas
Azzurra Sarnataro - Citizen Collectives in Post-2011 Egypt: Contestation Mechanisms
Mona Khalil - Interstitial Spaces and Controlled Participation: The Youth Center of Hay Mohammadi during the Years of Lead in Morocco
Yasmine Berriane - Participation in Spaces of Exile: The Making of Change in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in the West Bank
Dorota Woroniecka-Krzyżanowska
Part II Reconfiguring Space through Contestation
- The Challenge of Reconstructing Public Space: The Case of Mohamed V Avenue Mokhtar El Harras and Youness Benmouro
- The Muslim Brotherhood and the Creation of Spectacles in Nasr City Mai Ayyad
- Topographies of the Discourse of Resistance in the Public Sphere: A Case Study of the Activists of the February 20 Movement
Mouloud Amghar
Part III Alternative Spaces of Cultural Production
- Mock Translation as Sociopolitical Commentary in the Egyptian Digital Sphere Randa Aboubakr
- Spaces of Culture in Casablanca: Isles of Creativity in an Often-hostile Ocean
Fadma Aït Mous
Part IV Space Reclamation and Cultural Activism
- Cultural Heterotopias and the Making of the Political Yazid Anani
- Genius Loci: The Spirit of the Place Renad Shqeirat
- Culturepreneurship and Reclaiming Urban Space in Kuwait City Sarah Jurkiewicz