Between Two Uprisings

Abstract

While much of the MENA scholarship through the 2000s focused on authoritarianism, a significant and growing literature explores the dynamics of popular protest. Many of the early analyses of the uprisings drew heavily on classical literatures on social movement theory and contentious politics, but within a few years MENA scholars were pushing forward newer and more creative debates that questioned how political scientists studied how ordinary people mobilized. This chapter surveys that literature and then examines three areas in which studies of MENA protests and opposition have advanced broader theoretical knowledge: the political role of routine protests and seeming non-events, the affective (e.g., emotional) dimensions of protests, and the outcomes of protest beyond questions of immediate success and failure. These new approaches helped scholars make better make sense of the 2018–19 uprisings in the region and highlight the contributions of MENA specialists to the wider scholarship on protests.