Narrative Account of the Arab Spring: Translations of Aljazeera and RT of the Egyptian and Syrian Uprisings as Case Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 819
Author(s):  
Haitham A. Aldreabi
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Reality Construction ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Arab Spring

the events of the Arab Spring attracted the attention of many scholars from various disciplines. However, the general trend of existing literature seems to ignore the different cultural representations within the Arab world leading for assumptions that the uprisings share similar outcomes and/or motivations. This article attempts to deconstruct the terms Arab Spring and Arab world through shedding light on two of the most influential uprisings that brought about social, economic, and political changes. To do so, it combines CDA and narrative theory to address the subject of the thematic nature of the subsequent media messages during the Egyptian and Syrian uprisings to investigate the process of meaning-making and the role of language in social reality construction. The purpose is to motivate researchers to address the largely ignored issue of the different representations in media and narratives.

Palestinian youth and the Arab Spring. Learning to think critically: a case study

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Naser-Najjab
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

The subject of this paper is a case study based on evidence gathered informally through delivery of a course at Birzeit University entitled ‘Modern and Contemporary European Civilization’ and from end-of-semester evaluations that asked students to reflect on the impact of the course on their lives. The author is, naturally, aware of the limitation of the methodology used in this study, and does not claim that its findings can be generalized authoritatively to a wider group of people in the Arab world. What is clear, however, if one considers reviews of internet blogs and media programme debates, is that extrapolations from this evidence have wider reference, revealing commonalities and similarities between Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and Arab youth involved in the Arab Spring on the subject of political reform. The discussions engaged in by my students actually parallel the debates generated by traditionalists and secularists in post-revolution Egypt and Tunisia. These debates revolve around what it means to live in a civil, democratic state that grants social justice and freedoms, and crucially, at present led by scholars and politicians, address the possibility of reconciling the concept of modernity with Islam and the legislative framework of Islamic law (sharīʿah). It could be argued that the data collected are specific to this one case study, since Palestinians living under Israeli occupation form a unique group in the Arab world and probably are more concerned with basic issues of daily life and more sensitive to Western concepts of modernity. The significance of this data is, however, that gathered during the Arab Spring, they were based on reactions to material covered in a class which related to issues raised by the Arab revolutions, such as democracy, liberalism and revolution. Furthermore, these tentative findings suggest that more research is needed into issues such as the role of education, gender, tolerance and the reconciliation of Islam with modernity – areas of interest which are of particular importance at a time when Islamic groups are winning elections and debates on concepts of authority, democracy and liberalism occupy the foreground of media programmes in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.

«Arab Spring»: Transformation of Political Paradigm in Context of International Relations

2012 ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
L. Fituni
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship

The author presents his own original conception of the 2011 Arab upheavals. First, he tries to find parallels between the Arab Spring and the 19th century European Spring of Peoples. Second, he dwells on the idea of three types of transition in the Arab World: economic, demographic, and ideological. Third, he reflects on the issues of democracy and autocracy in the Arab countries emphasizing the role of youth. Fourth, he puts forward some new ideas as regards the relationship between Europe and the Arab World, offering such terms as “democratic internationalism” and “young democratic safety belt” in the Mediterranean region.

scholarly journals Nasheeds as a part of the jihadi culture. The role of music in the Islamic State’s propaganda

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Marta Stempień
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Major Objective ◽  
Systemic Analysis ◽  
Empirical Research Methods ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The 19Th Century

Nasheeds outpace the era of Internet and Youtube. Jihadist poetry in the Islamist hymns can be seen as an extension of the 19th-century anticolonial style of poetry called qaseeda. Presented article shows that nasheeds were not always a significant element in the jihadi culture. The increase of their role was observed quite recently, after the outbreak of the “Arab Spring”. This article is a case study. It attempts to fill a gap in research on the IS’s propaganda materials. The major objective of this article is to investigate the phenomenon of jihadist naseeds, including their role in the ‘jihadi culture’. The author seeks to answer to the question whether the presented facts may indicate the increase in their role occurred with the transfer of IS’ activities to cyberspace and whether it will be intensified in the future. The article takes into account historical conditions, briefly describing the genesis of the naseeds and their proliferation after the events of the “Arab Spring”. Then, using systemic analysis, the author presents their role in the activities of the Islamic State. In addition, theoretical and empirical research methods, such as: scientific literature analysis, case analysis, content analysis, classification, generalization were taken to solve the research problem.

scholarly journals The situation of Syrian Christians in the context of the Arab Spring events

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-383
Author(s):  
Sergei Leonidovich Medvedko
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Syrian Population ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article is based on the information published in foreign and Russian sources and media, as well as on the basis of the authors own research and interviews carried out in Syria. The aim of the work is to study the situation of Syrian Christians after the events of the Arab Spring-2011. This is the scientific novelty of the topic. The article is devoted to the problems that not only touched, but most dramatically affected the life of Christians in Syria, who traditionally presented at least 12% of its population (and much more in the past). They are representatives of the most indigenous religion in the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR). The work also traces the role of Christians in the history and socio-political life of Syria, analyzes their current situation, evaluates the events of recent years and draws appropriate conclusions. In particular, the author believes that the Arab Spring led not only to huge human and economic losses, but also to serious ethno-confessional structural changes in the society of the SAR. With the possible disappearance of this native part of the Syrian population, who lived here and represented almost all the inhabitants of that region before the Islam, the republic may lose not only 12 percent of the most educated and active part of its population, but also its tourist attractiveness in the eyes of the whole world. Although Syria has always been considered the cradle of Christianity it could lose its reputation as one of the most tolerant countries of the Arab world.

scholarly journals “Arab Spring” in the Context of Contemporary Transformation Process in the Near and Middle East

2016 ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
V. Shved
Keyword(s):  
Model Transformation ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Country ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Revolutionary Period

The article analyses the role of the “Arab Spring” as the beginning of long time process of deep transformation changes in the Arab World. Special attention is paid to understanding of particularities of contemporary stage of the above-mentioned post-revolutionary period. The article also studies such actual problems as internal and external aspects of defeat of the first wave of the contemporary Arab revolutions, content and direction of contemporary change of format of the Arab Spring and results of acute sharpening of the Sunni-Shiite confrontation. It also studies reasons and purposes of the direct Russian intervention in the Syrian conflict. The analysis values of the Tunisian development model transformation prospects for democratic renewal of Arab society and identified the reasons why after the "Arab Spring" Tunisia became virtually the only Arab country which has been extended and deepened the democratic process.

scholarly journals The similarities between the Arab spring and the 2013 protests in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (86) ◽  
pp. 10-27
Author(s):  
Mohamed Arafa ◽  
Lucas Reis da Silva ◽  
Rafael Moreno de Santiago Santos
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Bibliographic Analysis ◽  
Research Instrument ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Arab Spring

The study to be done in the courseof this article aims to analyze the influence of the Arab Spring on the manifestations that occurred in Brazil in 2013, culminating in the impeachment of the then President of the Republic. As a result, there is still the scope to identify the correlation between the attitudes adopted by protesters in the Arab world and in Brazil. Methodologically, the research is classified as inductive, of scientific and explicative character, with aqualitative approach and is characterized as an observational case study. The research instrument was only bibliographic analysis.

The Role of Web 2.0 in the Arab Spring

2012 ◽  
pp. 76-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Cropf ◽  
Mamoun Benmamoun ◽  
Morris Kalliny
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Collaborative Tools ◽  
Dependency Model ◽  
Douglass North ◽  
The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring seemed to give a renewed sense of promise to proponents of Web 2.0 as a force for democratization. However, a year on, throughout the Arab world the prospects for democracy are still far from certain. Our conclusion, based on an examination of the events in four countries—Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, and Libya—is that Web 2.0 collaborative tools are without parallel in their ability to mobilize vast numbers of the public. Unknown, however, is whether Web 2.0 can also assist in institutionalizing democracy throughout the Arab world. In this study, the authors adapt the path dependency model of Douglass North and others to explain why, despite the huge popularity of Web 2.0 in the region, the growth of Arab e-democracy will be slow and uncertain. Path dependency suggests that in order for e-democracy to eventually take root and thrive in the region, certain preconditions must be met.

scholarly journals Wheat: a powerful crop in US-American culture: Between politics and plant agency

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-242
Author(s):  
Kirsten Twelbeck
Keyword(s):  
Human Population ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
American Art ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Environmental Humanities ◽  
Norms And Values

Intertwined in processes of ideological meaning-making, wheat has been particularly successful in pairing its genetic assets with a powerful symbolic charge in US-American culture. The sense of agency that US culture attaches to wheat is subsumed under paradigms of organized personhood such as the nation and the corporation. Artists and writers have merged the idea of “wheat power” with the fears and hopes of their specific historical moment.Wheat is not only genetically complex but has also been exceptionally culturally defined. Interestingly, some cultural representations of wheat emphasize what may be referred to as plant agency. This is particularly striking in North American art and literature. There is often a certain wildness, independence, and power to wheat that are lacking in other cultivated crops. Focusing on the 19th and early 20th centuries, this article examines the active role of wheat in shaping US-American history and society. Starting from the assumption that cultural artefacts help societies to understand and negotiate their norms and values, I take a look at a painting (Emanuel Leutze’s Mrs. Schuyler Burning Her Wheat Fields on the Approach of the British from 1852) and a novel (Frank Norris’s The Octopus from 1901) to analyze their representation of the human-wheat relationship. Using a historicizing, philological approach, this case study contributes to a debate in the environmental humanities that seeks to redefine the human-crop relationship in times of climate change, diminishing biodiversity, and human population growth. Can the American legacy of wheat help us to reframe the human-wheat relationship? Are there potential pitfalls of crop agency as it is depicted in American representations of wheat?

scholarly journals The United States in the Middle East (2001–2014): from intervention to retrenchment/Os EUA no Oriente Médio (2001–2014): da intervenção ao cerceamento

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-475
Author(s):  
Peter R. Demant ◽  
Ariel Finguerut
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the paradoxical consequences the so-called “Arab Spring”, from 2011 to 2014/15, which has led in various countries of the Arab world and beyond to different outcomes, but nowhere to stable democracy. We intend to discuss the outcomes of those political mobilizations and revolts, paying special attention to (a) the role of Islamist movements and (b) U.S reactions to the recent Mideast upheavals. We start with a general analysis and go to a few case studies (e.g. Egypt, Syria, and Turkey). In discussing the impact of Islamism, we attempt a classification of currents along two coordinates, one parameter contrasting Sunni and Shiite movements, the other laying out the continuum from pacific-modernist to violent jihadist. We defend that the dynamics of intra-Islamist tensions (such as Sunni jihadist against the Shiite Hizbullah-Syria-Iran axis) are no less crucial than the religious-secularist divide for understanding recent developments. Regarding US policies, we emphasize the dilemmas and contradictions within U.S government. We investigate the hypothesis that the US was caught largely unaware by the Arab Spring, and that its reactions suffered from the amorphousness of prior positions of the Obama administration, combined with leftovers from the Bush period. Internal contradictions of Obama’s Middle East doctrine coupled with a general isolationist trend have precluded the US from assuming more forceful policies, creating frustrations on all sides, and enflaming rather than dousing the fires of anti-Westernism in the Islamic world.Keywords: Arab Spring ; U.S policies ; Syria; jihadist.  Resumo: O principal objetivo deste artigo é discutir as consequências paradoxais da chamada "Primavera Árabe", que a partir de 2011 aos nossos dias produziu em vários países do mundo árabe diferentes resultados, mas em nenhum lugar chegou-se à democracia estável. Temos a intenção de discutir os resultados dessas mobilizações políticas e revoltas, com especial atenção para (a) o papel dos movimentos islâmicos e (b) as reações e posturas dos EUA ante os recentes levantes no Oriente Médio. De uma análise geral partiremos para estudos de caso (como Egito, Síria e Turquia). Ao discutir o impacto do islamismo, tentamos uma classificação das correntes ao longo de duas coordenadas, um deles contrastando movimentos sunitas e xiitas, e outro que define o continuum de pacifista - modernista para jihadista –violento. Postulamos que a dinâmica das tensões intra- islâmicos (como a de jihadistas sunitas contra o eixo Hezbollah -Síria- Irã xiita) não são menos importantes do que a divisão religiosa - secular para compreender os desdobramentos recentes. No que diz respeito aos EUA, destacamos os dilemas e contradições dentro do governo dos EUA. Nós investigamos a hipótese de que os EUA foi pego de surpresa em grande parte pela Primavera Árabe, e que as reações do governo Obama traduzem mais um recolhimento do que um novo engajamento.Palavras-chave: Primavera Árabe; Políticas dos EUA; Síria; jihadismo.   DOI: 10.20424/2237-7743/bjir.v4n3p442-475

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