The 14th Conference of the Italian Society of Middle East Studies will focus this year on the topic of  “Paths of Resistance in the Middle East and North Africa”. With our panel “Far from the eyes, far from the agenda? Political parties and activism in the MENA: between innovation, resistance and resilience” we seek original papers that elaborates on new, renewed or long-standing parties in the above contexts and that contribute theoretically, empirically and/or methodologically to understand the different trajectories of change and continuity.

14th Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO) PPaths of Resistance in the Middle East and North Africa

Convenors

• Giulia Cimini (Università di Napoli L’Orientale)
• Gaia Gondino (Università di Torino)

Argument

Seven years since the “Arab Uprisings,” declining turnout rates and low levels of trust among ordinary citizens towards political institutions depict a general mistrust regarding formal politics in the MENA region. Although political parties played a marginal role during the upheavals, they nonetheless gained relevance once the ‘transitions’ began and represent key interlocutors in policy-making and as further actors of (re)production of political and social (in)stability.

The panel is interested in investigating how political parties have been transforming – or not – into vehicles of citizen mobilization and representation, as well as in scrutinizing how their willingness and ability to aggregate and put forward bottom-up interests affect the potential for democratic transition, consolidation or even regression.

To what extent political parties or coalitions channel public expectations of political change in a context of democratic transition, backsliding or authoritarian resilience? In what ways old political elites try to re-institutionalize their networks and new ones reshape the political scene? Whose interests do they purport to advance or defend?

Hence, we seek original papers that elaborates on new, renewed or long-standing parties in the above contexts and that contribute theoretically, empirically and/or methodologically to understand the different trajectories of change and continuity. Contributions are invited from different disciplines including Political Science, Anthropology, Sociology, History and Area Studies.

Submission guidelines

To submit a paper proposal, please send an abstract (up to 250 words) in english or in french and a short bio of the proponent/s (up to 50 words) to torino2019@sesamoitalia.it

by October 31st, 2018.

The abstract submission template is available on here

• Full papers are expected by January 5th, 2019.
• University of Turin (Italy): 31 January–2 February 2019 

For further information please write to torino2019@sesamoitalia.it or Dr. Giulia Cimini: gc.giuliacimini@gmail.com ; Gaia Gondino: gaia.gondino@unito.it