THE ARAB UPRISINGS: CLASS FORMATION AND CLASS DYNAMICS15-16 June 2015
SOAS, University of London London, UK On 15 and 16 June 2015, academics from the Development Studies department at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London) along with the Arab Studies Institute convened a workshop entitled The Arab Uprisings: Class Formation and Class Dynamics. The workshop was bilingual (Arabic and English) and attended by over 30 prominent scholars from the Middle East, Europe and the United States. In lively discussion across two days, paper presentations examined questions such as: to what extent is ‘class’ a useful analytical framework for approaching the ongoing upheaval in the region? What are the specificities of such a class analysis for the Arab world? What are the underlying dynamics characterising the restructuring of labor-capital-state relations since the period of neoliberal reform began in the 1980s? How are questions suchas labour migration, gendered divisions of labour, forms of free/unfree labour, and the massive expansion of informal work best integrated into class analyses of
the region? How have regional structures of capital accumulation changed over the last decade and what does this imply for the nature of capitalism in the Arab world? The workshop was co funded and co-sponsored by ASI as part of the Political Economy Project, and it is planned to produce written and audio material arising from the event in future publications. More Political Economy Project Workshops
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HighlightsOrganizers
Adam Hanieh Bassam Haddad Gilbert Achcar Papers and Presentations Gilbert Achcar, Adam Hanieh, Salwa Ismail Approaching Class and Class Formation in the Region Said Al-Hashmi, Omar Al-Shehabi, Laleh Khalili The Gulf Cooperation Council Helen Lackner Yemen Wa’el Gamal, Rabab El Mahdi, Maha Abdelrahman Egypt Sami Zemni, Hela Yousfi, Habib Ayeb Tunisia Joseph Daher, Bassam Haddad Syria |