Academic literature on the topic 'Boundaries – Social aspects – Middle East'

The environmental and social role of closed oriental balconies (Mashrabiyas) remains a significant vernacular aspect of Middle Eastern architecture. However, nowadays this traditional Islamic window element with its characteristic latticework is used to cover entire buildings as an oriental ornament, providing local identity and a sun-shading device for cooling. In fact, designers have reinvented this vernacular Islamic wooden structure into high-tech responsive daylight systems – often on a massive scale and using computer technology – not only to cover tall buildings as an oriental ornament, but also as a major responsive daylight system.It is possible to use the traditional architectural Islamic elements of the Middle East for problem solving design solutions in present-day architecture. The potential for achieving these solutions lies in the effective combination of the design concepts of the traditional elements with new smart materials and technologies. Hence, modern mashrabiyas could be a major responsive daylight system. Contextual information drawn from relevant theory, ethnography and practice is used to form a methodological framework for the modern mashrabiyas with high-tech responsive daylight systems. The main results set boundaries for the viability of computer technology to produce mashrabiyas and promote a sustainable way of reviving their use within Middle Eastern buildings.

Historians of migration have extensively studied the economic, social, and political impact of migration and the secular changes amongst diasporic communities, but changes in religious faith, practice and institutions remain opaque. Yet, they form part of the most intimate aspect of the lives transformed in movement and were, in fact, the most active fault line in diasporic communities and at home. However, in relation to religion in the Middle East, historians have hardly paid any attention to movement of people and ideas across and beyond the geographical boundaries of the region. This makes our understanding at best incomplete and, in some instances, incorrect in identifying the sources, dynamics and reasons for change in religious institutions and faith. This article attempts to fill these lacunae by looking at an example of how migration inflected religious institutions and how faith and religion shaped the migratory experience.

Middle East Studies for the New Millennium sheds light on the trials and tribulations of Middle East area studies in the highly charged and politi- cized context of American academia and broader US policy. In this respect, it is an important exposition of how American universities produce knowl- edge about different world regions (ix). The study is the outcome of a research project that spanned a period of nearly fifteen years since 2000. The introductory chapter, by book editors Shami and Miller-Idriss and titled “The Many Crises of Middle East Stud- ies” (MES), refers to the contextual status of the field and relates its ‘crises’ to an American setting in which knowledge and power are intrinsically, even if not always clearly, juxtaposed. Shami and Miller-Idriss point out that three main institutional actors define the politics of the field: univer- sities, federal government, and private philanthropic foundations (8). The role of the US federal government in producing knowledge, the relation- ship between knowledge and power, and ways of knowing about ‘other’ cultures and places has long been a source and subject of numerous debates and controversies (1), but the authors problematize it in terms of the “se- curitization of academic knowledge in the name of ‘national interest,’ the challenges arising out of the possibilities of unbounded, transnational fields of scholarship and the future of the university as an institution” (2). The MES also faced an additional crisis as a growing number of social scientists came to perceive it as too focused on in-depth studying of areas instead of seeking to produce knowledge based on universal theories or explanations. MES, thus, increasingly occupied a diminishing space in social sciences in favor of a humanistic turn toward cultural and linguistic approaches (9). This, according to Shami and Miller-Idriss was not simply a matter of intel- lectual skepticism, but rather a reflection of deliberate attempts at siphon- ing social scientists from universities, narrowing knowledge to specific agenda-settings, and limiting space for alternative perspectives. Due to the perceived ‘anti-Americanism’ of MES, in good measure emanating from claims about Edward Said’s “pernicious influence,” the field has increasingly come under siege through federal monitoring, campus watch, scrutiny of scholars exchanges, and funding restrictions (10). Problematizing the context of MES in such terms helps frame the ap- proach of this study around three main themes that comprise the three parts of the book and its eleven chapters. These include the relationship be- tween MES and other social science disciplines, reconfigurations, and new emphases in MES focusing on university restructuring, language training and scholarly trends, and the politics of knowledge as they relate specifical- ly to the many crises in the Middle East (11). Part I, titled “Disciplines and its Boundaries,” comprises four chap- ters, which highlight the interdisciplinary nature of area studies as a sub- field within the entire “problem-solving” structure of social sciences. This tendency distinguished area studies from earlier Orientalist/civilizational scholarly traditions. The four chapters in Part I cover the relationship be- tween area studies and political science (Lisa Wedeen), sociology (Reshat Kasaba), economics (Karen Pfeifer), and geography (Amy Mills and Timur Hammond). Together, they demonstrate how the privileged discipline or “prestige area” for theorizing reflects a different relationship with area studies depending on the discipline’s definition of the “universal” (11). Wedeen challenges positivist/methodological claims about the separation of fact and value, and the unification of liberalism and science in such a fashion as to render the subfield of American studies a standard universal “nonarea”, reflecting American exceptionalism (12). Kasaba examines the historically cyclical relationship between sociology and area studies “as a push-and-pull reaction to particular political imperatives,” related to how social sciences and American foreign policy have been intertwined since WWII (12). Pfeifer focuses on how international financial institutions have shaped much of western economists’ approaches to the Middle East region, entrenching neoclassical economic ideas associated with stabilization, lib- eralization, and privatization (13). Mills and Hammond examine the “spa- tial turn” in area studies, and how spatial methodologies have provided for a means to understand the broad socio-economic and political dynamics that have served to shape the Middle East. They point also to the interdisci- plinary nature of spatial studies that could very well transform area studies by linking the region to its global context (14-15). Part II, titled “Middle East Studies and the University,” comprises four chapters by Jonathan Z. Friedman and Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Elizabeth An- derson Worden and Jeremy M. Browne, Laura Bier, and Charles Kurzman and Carl W. Ernst. These chapters highlight how knowledge about the Middle East are produced through changing institutional structures and architectures, particularly in relation to the rise of “the global” as a major organizational form within American universities. They also focus on the “capacities” needed to produce a new generation of qualified specialists ca- pable of dealing with profound regional changes that would also require dif- ferent policy and educational approaches (15). Friedman and Miller-Idriss look at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU) in order to investigate how area studies centers as well as universities are to transform themselves into global institutions. They point to two separate but coexisting logics of internationalization: that of the specialist with deeper knowledge of the area, and the cosmopolitan who emphasizes breadth in global experience in order to produce the ‘global citizen’ (15-16). Worden and Browne focus on reasons why it was difficult for American institutions to produce proficient Arabic language speakers in significant numbers. They offer an explanation in terms of structural and cultural factors related to time constraints that graduate students face in or- der to learn the language, the relative lower status of language instructors, the devaluation of language learning by some social sciences disciplines, and, for all practical purposes, the difficulty of learning Arabic. Bier ana- lyzes PhD dissertations concerned with the Middle East across six social sciences disciplines (political science, sociology, anthropology, economics, history and MES) during the period 2000-2010, focusing on their themes, topics and methods (253). She points out that neoliberalism and what is termed the ‘Washington Consensus’ have come to dominate political sci- ence, sociology and economics, while issues of identity, gender, colonial- ism, the nation, and Islam dominate in anthropology, history, and MES. Kurzman and Ernst go beyond Bier’s thematic approach to highlight the renewed and significant institutional growth of interest in Islamic studies for national security concerns. They point as well to the encouragement offered by a number of universities to promote cross-regional approaches, not constrained by narrower definitions of distinct regions, although they also raise the problem of lack of adequate federal funding for such purpos- es. Part III, titled “the Politics of Knowledge,” comprises three chapters by Seteney Sami and Marcial Godoy-Anativia, Ussama Makdisi, and Irene Gendzier; and an ‘Afterward’ by Lisa Anderson. These chapters examine not only the production of knowledge but also how knowledge is frequently silenced by forces that “structure and restrict freedom of speech, censor- ship and self-censorship”—the so-called “chilling effects” (19). Sami and Godoy-Anativia examine the themes of campus watch or surveillance and public criticism of MES, especially after the 9/11 events of 2001, and their impact on academia and “institutional architectures” as knowledge is secu- ritized and “privatized” (19). Makdisi and Gendzier question how Ameri- can scholarship about the region has changed over time, yet almost always highly charged and politicized in large measure due to the Arab-Zionist/ Israeli conflict (20-21). Despite moves toward more critical and postna- tionalist approaches, Makdisi emphasizes that overall academic freedom has nevertheless been curtailed. Genzier, in turn, points to how “ignorance has [come to have] strategic value,” as “caricatured images” pass for anal- ysis (21-22). Finally, given the securitization and other intimidating mea- sures undertaken around campuses and universities, Anderson concludes that the state of a “beleaguered” (442) MES is deplorable, describing it as “demoralized, lacking academic freedom and reliable research data, and function in a general climate of repression, neglect and isolation” (22, 442). This important book—with extensive bibliographies in each chapter and its detailed exploration of the state of the field of United States MES in the twenty-first century—stands as a reference source for all interested in Middle East studies. “Infrastructures for Knowledge” could have made for a provocative main title of this work, in reference to the production of knowledge on the Middle East and the reproduction of new generations of Middle Eastern specialists. Its most salient aspect is that it highlights and underscores the formal and informal authoritarian and securitization mea- sures adopted by US federal agencies as well as universities to set effective restrictions on what can or cannot be said and/or taught about MES, both in academic institutions and in the media. In addition to the proliferation of both private and public watchdogs monitoring how MES is being taught on campuses, the establishment since 2003 of twelve Homeland Security Centers of Excellence at six universities (with grants totaling about 100 million dollars) is indicative of the scale of intrusive measures (101). The broader problem is that such infringements do not take place only in US universities. Given that county’s totalizing and vested interests in influenc- ing how knowledge is produced and consumed globally, not least in and about the Middle East, the extent of its hegemonic control in that region can only be surmised. Amr G.E. SabetDepartment of Political ScienceDalarna University, Falun, Sweden

Middle East Studies for the New Millennium sheds light on the trials and tribulations of Middle East area studies in the highly charged and politi- cized context of American academia and broader US policy. In this respect, it is an important exposition of how American universities produce knowl- edge about different world regions (ix). The study is the outcome of a research project that spanned a period of nearly fifteen years since 2000. The introductory chapter, by book editors Shami and Miller-Idriss and titled “The Many Crises of Middle East Stud- ies” (MES), refers to the contextual status of the field and relates its ‘crises’ to an American setting in which knowledge and power are intrinsically, even if not always clearly, juxtaposed. Shami and Miller-Idriss point out that three main institutional actors define the politics of the field: univer- sities, federal government, and private philanthropic foundations (8). The role of the US federal government in producing knowledge, the relation- ship between knowledge and power, and ways of knowing about ‘other’ cultures and places has long been a source and subject of numerous debates and controversies (1), but the authors problematize it in terms of the “se- curitization of academic knowledge in the name of ‘national interest,’ the challenges arising out of the possibilities of unbounded, transnational fields of scholarship and the future of the university as an institution” (2). The MES also faced an additional crisis as a growing number of social scientists came to perceive it as too focused on in-depth studying of areas instead of seeking to produce knowledge based on universal theories or explanations. MES, thus, increasingly occupied a diminishing space in social sciences in favor of a humanistic turn toward cultural and linguistic approaches (9). This, according to Shami and Miller-Idriss was not simply a matter of intel- lectual skepticism, but rather a reflection of deliberate attempts at siphon- ing social scientists from universities, narrowing knowledge to specific agenda-settings, and limiting space for alternative perspectives. Due to the perceived ‘anti-Americanism’ of MES, in good measure emanating from claims about Edward Said’s “pernicious influence,” the field has increasingly come under siege through federal monitoring, campus watch, scrutiny of scholars exchanges, and funding restrictions (10). Problematizing the context of MES in such terms helps frame the ap- proach of this study around three main themes that comprise the three parts of the book and its eleven chapters. These include the relationship be- tween MES and other social science disciplines, reconfigurations, and new emphases in MES focusing on university restructuring, language training and scholarly trends, and the politics of knowledge as they relate specifical- ly to the many crises in the Middle East (11). Part I, titled “Disciplines and its Boundaries,” comprises four chap- ters, which highlight the interdisciplinary nature of area studies as a sub- field within the entire “problem-solving” structure of social sciences. This tendency distinguished area studies from earlier Orientalist/civilizational scholarly traditions. The four chapters in Part I cover the relationship be- tween area studies and political science (Lisa Wedeen), sociology (Reshat Kasaba), economics (Karen Pfeifer), and geography (Amy Mills and Timur Hammond). Together, they demonstrate how the privileged discipline or “prestige area” for theorizing reflects a different relationship with area studies depending on the discipline’s definition of the “universal” (11). Wedeen challenges positivist/methodological claims about the separation of fact and value, and the unification of liberalism and science in such a fashion as to render the subfield of American studies a standard universal “nonarea”, reflecting American exceptionalism (12). Kasaba examines the historically cyclical relationship between sociology and area studies “as a push-and-pull reaction to particular political imperatives,” related to how social sciences and American foreign policy have been intertwined since WWII (12). Pfeifer focuses on how international financial institutions have shaped much of western economists’ approaches to the Middle East region, entrenching neoclassical economic ideas associated with stabilization, lib- eralization, and privatization (13). Mills and Hammond examine the “spa- tial turn” in area studies, and how spatial methodologies have provided for a means to understand the broad socio-economic and political dynamics that have served to shape the Middle East. They point also to the interdisci- plinary nature of spatial studies that could very well transform area studies by linking the region to its global context (14-15). Part II, titled “Middle East Studies and the University,” comprises four chapters by Jonathan Z. Friedman and Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Elizabeth An- derson Worden and Jeremy M. Browne, Laura Bier, and Charles Kurzman and Carl W. Ernst. These chapters highlight how knowledge about the Middle East are produced through changing institutional structures and architectures, particularly in relation to the rise of “the global” as a major organizational form within American universities. They also focus on the “capacities” needed to produce a new generation of qualified specialists ca- pable of dealing with profound regional changes that would also require dif- ferent policy and educational approaches (15). Friedman and Miller-Idriss look at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU) in order to investigate how area studies centers as well as universities are to transform themselves into global institutions. They point to two separate but coexisting logics of internationalization: that of the specialist with deeper knowledge of the area, and the cosmopolitan who emphasizes breadth in global experience in order to produce the ‘global citizen’ (15-16). Worden and Browne focus on reasons why it was difficult for American institutions to produce proficient Arabic language speakers in significant numbers. They offer an explanation in terms of structural and cultural factors related to time constraints that graduate students face in or- der to learn the language, the relative lower status of language instructors, the devaluation of language learning by some social sciences disciplines, and, for all practical purposes, the difficulty of learning Arabic. Bier ana- lyzes PhD dissertations concerned with the Middle East across six social sciences disciplines (political science, sociology, anthropology, economics, history and MES) during the period 2000-2010, focusing on their themes, topics and methods (253). She points out that neoliberalism and what is termed the ‘Washington Consensus’ have come to dominate political sci- ence, sociology and economics, while issues of identity, gender, colonial- ism, the nation, and Islam dominate in anthropology, history, and MES. Kurzman and Ernst go beyond Bier’s thematic approach to highlight the renewed and significant institutional growth of interest in Islamic studies for national security concerns. They point as well to the encouragement offered by a number of universities to promote cross-regional approaches, not constrained by narrower definitions of distinct regions, although they also raise the problem of lack of adequate federal funding for such purpos- es. Part III, titled “the Politics of Knowledge,” comprises three chapters by Seteney Sami and Marcial Godoy-Anativia, Ussama Makdisi, and Irene Gendzier; and an ‘Afterward’ by Lisa Anderson. These chapters examine not only the production of knowledge but also how knowledge is frequently silenced by forces that “structure and restrict freedom of speech, censor- ship and self-censorship”—the so-called “chilling effects” (19). Sami and Godoy-Anativia examine the themes of campus watch or surveillance and public criticism of MES, especially after the 9/11 events of 2001, and their impact on academia and “institutional architectures” as knowledge is secu- ritized and “privatized” (19). Makdisi and Gendzier question how Ameri- can scholarship about the region has changed over time, yet almost always highly charged and politicized in large measure due to the Arab-Zionist/ Israeli conflict (20-21). Despite moves toward more critical and postna- tionalist approaches, Makdisi emphasizes that overall academic freedom has nevertheless been curtailed. Genzier, in turn, points to how “ignorance has [come to have] strategic value,” as “caricatured images” pass for anal- ysis (21-22). Finally, given the securitization and other intimidating mea- sures undertaken around campuses and universities, Anderson concludes that the state of a “beleaguered” (442) MES is deplorable, describing it as “demoralized, lacking academic freedom and reliable research data, and function in a general climate of repression, neglect and isolation” (22, 442). This important book—with extensive bibliographies in each chapter and its detailed exploration of the state of the field of United States MES in the twenty-first century—stands as a reference source for all interested in Middle East studies. “Infrastructures for Knowledge” could have made for a provocative main title of this work, in reference to the production of knowledge on the Middle East and the reproduction of new generations of Middle Eastern specialists. Its most salient aspect is that it highlights and underscores the formal and informal authoritarian and securitization mea- sures adopted by US federal agencies as well as universities to set effective restrictions on what can or cannot be said and/or taught about MES, both in academic institutions and in the media. In addition to the proliferation of both private and public watchdogs monitoring how MES is being taught on campuses, the establishment since 2003 of twelve Homeland Security Centers of Excellence at six universities (with grants totaling about 100 million dollars) is indicative of the scale of intrusive measures (101). The broader problem is that such infringements do not take place only in US universities. Given that county’s totalizing and vested interests in influenc- ing how knowledge is produced and consumed globally, not least in and about the Middle East, the extent of its hegemonic control in that region can only be surmised. Amr G.E. SabetDepartment of Political ScienceDalarna University, Falun, Sweden

Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memahami globalisasi sebagai media pemikiran keagamaanMuhammadiyah dan untuk menggambarkan bentuk pemikiran keagamaan Muhammadiyah. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan ubjek penelitian organisasi persyarikatan Muhammadiyah, menggunakan Intrumen dokumen dan wawancara. Metode analisis data menggunakan pengumpulan data, reduksi data, penyajian, dan penarikan kesimpulan. Berdasarkan hasil analisis data bahwa agama merupakan rahmat dan meliputi seluruh aspek kehidupan dan Globalisasi sebagai realitas sosial semakin berkembang pesat didukung dengan teknologi informasi khususnya internet sehingga batas Negara dan waktu terasa pudar. Masyarakat Indonesia sebagai penduduk muslim mayoritas memiliki peranan sosial yang dalam memberikan pandangan baru terhadap tatanan keislaman dunia. Hal ini dikarenakan keislaman Indonesia menarik yakni moderat, dan demokratis yang diwakili oleh ormas keagamaan Muhammadiyah dan NU. Artikel ini ingin mengkaji konsep internalisasi pemikiran keagamaan Muhammadiyah dengan bersinergi dengan globalisasi sebagai wakil ormas yang moderat, respon terhadap wajah islam dunia mainstream di Timur Tengah. dan peengenalaan keislaman kepada dunia The purpose of this study was aim to understand globalization as a medium of Muhammadiyah religious thought and to describe the form of Muhammadiyah religious thought. This research used descriptive qualitative with subject the Muhammadiyah organization and use instruments were documents and interviews. Data analysis methods used data collection, data reduction, presentation, and drawing conclusions. Based on the results of data analysis, religion is a blessing and covers all aspects of life and globalization as a social reality is growing rapidly, supported by information technology, especially the internet, so that the boundaries of the state and time were felt to be faded. Indonesian society, as the majority Muslim population, indirectly has a social role in providing a new perspective on the world Islamic order. This is because Indonesian Islam is attractive, namely moderate and democratic, represented by the religious mass organizations Muhammadiyah and NU. The writing of this article aims to examine the concept of internalizing Muhammadiyah religious thought by synergizing with globalization as a representative of moderate mass organizations, as a response to the face of Islam in the mainstream world in the Middle East and recognition Islam to the world.Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memahami globalisasi sebagai media pemikiran keagamaanMuhammadiyah dan untuk menggambarkan bentuk pemikiran keagamaan Muhammadiyah. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan ubjek penelitian organisasi persyarikatan Muhammadiyah, menggunakan Intrumen dokumen dan wawancara. Metode analisis data menggunakan pengumpulan data, reduksi data, penyajian, dan penarikan kesimpulan. Berdasarkan hasil analisis data bahwa agama merupakan rahmat dan meliputi seluruh aspek kehidupan dan Globalisasi sebagai realitas sosial semakin berkembang pesat didukung dengan teknologi informasi khususnya internet sehingga batas Negara dan waktu terasa pudar. Masyarakat Indonesia sebagai penduduk muslim mayoritas memiliki peranan sosial yang dalam memberikan pandangan baru terhadap tatanan keislaman dunia. Hal ini dikarenakan keislaman Indonesia menarik yakni moderat, dan demokratis yang diwakili oleh ormas keagamaan Muhammadiyah dan NU. Artikel ini ingin mengkaji konsep internalisasi pemikiran keagamaan Muhammadiyah dengan bersinergi dengan globalisasi sebagai wakil ormas yang moderat, respon terhadap wajah islam dunia mainstream di Timur Tengah. dan peengenalaan keislaman kepada dunia Abstract: The purpose of this study was aim to understand globalization as a medium of Muhammadiyah religious thought and to describe the form of Muhammadiyah religious thought. This research used descriptive qualitative with subject the Muhammadiyah organization and use instruments were documents and interviews. Data analysis methods used data collection, data reduction, presentation, and drawing conclusions. Based on the results of data analysis, religion is a blessing and covers all aspects of life and globalization as a social reality is growing rapidly, supported by information technology, especially the internet, so that the boundaries of the state and time were felt to be faded. Indonesian society, as the majority Muslim population, indirectly has a social role in providing a new perspective on the world Islamic order. This is because Indonesian Islam is attractive, namely moderate and democratic, represented by the religious mass organizations Muhammadiyah and NU. The writing of this article aims to examine the concept of internalizing Muhammadiyah religious thought by synergizing with globalization as a representative of moderate mass organizations, as a response to the face of Islam in the mainstream world in the Middle East and recognition Islam to the world.

The study of the phenomenon of the Louvre Abu Dhabi (the Middle East Louvre Museum) from the historical and cultural points of view is relevant in several aspects. Firstly, the very fact of the creation of this museum is of interest. It operates as a kind of «successor» and «interpreter» of the Western tradition, which determines its Kulturträger activity. The history of the acquisition of the Mesopotamian collection by the Louvre Abu Dhabi serves as a case study. Secondly, based on this material it is possible to trace the main characteristics of modern identity-building strategies and the build-up of «soft power». Moreover, it allows to reveal how alternative cultural-centric versions of social development are elaborated. This alternative reconsiders the thesis of the dominance of the «center» not in favor of the West. The analysis of the original way of presenting the «Western» cultural content within the framework of the «nonwestern» cultural code allows us to raise the question of the probable relapse at a symbolic level of cultural imperialism. It has its reflections in the specifics of the organization of the museum space and the features of the exposition of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The analysis allows to predict more clearly the possible cultural consequences of the museum’s creation. Thirdly, an attempt to model the museum’s cultural practices through appeal to the concepts of «mythology» and «myth» developed by Roland Barthes is of a theoretical value. The modeling comprises culturological interpretation of the museum’s activities through the prism of Roland Barthes’ Mythologies. It allows us to raise the questions regarding the possibilities and boundaries. E.g., whether traditional cultural symbols could be used as elements of «soft power». Furthermore, it becomes possible to describe the limited nature of «soft power» as a means of symbolic authority.

Aspects of space and place shape daily life, social structures, politics, and intimate relations among people. In the late 1980s and 1990s, anthropologists, geographers, and sociologists—influenced by the writings of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre on the meaning of social space—started to highlight the spatial in their analysis of social phenomena. These scholars focused on the production of urban space and asserted that space is dynamic and often shaped by the needs of its users as well as by those who design it. With the exception of Setha Low's work on Latin America, these writings were mostly centered on the United States.

The study of families and their histories opens up a cross-disciplinary dialogueamong anthropologists, historians, and other social scientists, includingarea specialists. The content of Doumani’s edited book, Family Historyin the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender, falls convincinglyinto such disciplines as history, anthropology, Middle East studies,women’s/gender studies, and Islamic studies, since the collection of articlesprovides various indepth case studies drawn both from Islam and frompolitical, economic, legal, and social perspectives.The anthology’s main theme suggests that the family is an entity that,along with the progression of history, evolves continuously. By reconstructingthe family histories of elites and ordinary people in the Middle East fromthe seventeenth to the early twentieth century, the book challenges prevailingassumptions about the monolithic “traditional” Middle Eastern familytype. Instead, it argues cogently that the structure and boundaries of thesefamilies have always been flexible and dynamic.The book is divided into four sections that explore issues concerningthe family from the perspective of politics, economics, and law. In the firstsection, “Family and Household,” Philippe Fargues, Tomoki Okawara, andMary Ann Fay analyze the structure of the nineteenth-century family andhousehold and illustrate how its formation was influenced by changes in the ...

In scholarship on the Middle East, as on other regions of the world, the sort of social history that climaxed from the 1960s through the 1980s, and in Middle East history through the 1990s—that is, studies of categories such as “class” or “peasant”—has been declining for some time. The cultural history that replaced social history has peaked, too. In the 21st century, the trend, set by non-Middle East historians, has been to combine an updated social-historical focus on structure and groups with a cultural–historical focus on meaning making. Defining societyagainstculture and policing their boundaries is out. In is picking a theme—consumption or travel, say—then studying it from distinct yet linked social and cultural or political/economic angles. This trend has spawned new journals likeCultural and Social History, established in 2004, and has been debated in established journals and memoirs by leading historians of the United States and Europe.

This thesis focuses on various aspects of the social and political history of the Yazidi Kurds of Jabal Sinjar ( Iraq)during the British mandate. When relevant to the history of mandatory Sinjarit also deals with the neighbouring Yazidicommunity of Iraqi Shaikhan. Chapters I and II are primarily concerned with the society and economy of Jabal Sinjarin theperiod under consideration with particular emphasis on the socio-economic and political organization of the Yaziditribes settled in the area. They also provide a general historical perspective of the socio-economic development ofthe region. Chapter III discusses the late Ottoman period in detail with a view to defining community-state relations andthe development of Yazidi inter- tribalaf fairs in Jabal Sinjar. Chapters IV and V examine the history of the YazidiMountain in the years of the British mandate when the emerging structures of the Iraqi state had significantrepercussions on Sinjari society, especially on the attitude of a number of Yaziditri al leaders. These developments areanalysed primarily in the context of the policies implemented in the northern Jazirah by the British and Iraqiadministrations and by the French mandatory authorities who controlled its Syrian section. Particular emphasis is placedon the dispute between Great Britain and France concerning the elimination of the Syro- Iraqi border in the Sinjar areawhich affected relations between the Yazidis, the British mandatory administration and the Iraqi authorities ChapterVI gives an account of the Sinjari Yazidis' quest f or autonomy which became increasingly associated with theAssyro-Chaldean autonomist movement in the last years of the mandate.

Defence date: 21 January 2000
Examining board: Jean-Pierre Amalric (supervisor) ; Gérard Delille ; Roebrt Rowland ; Bernard Vincent
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

This thesis seeks to investigate the various forces that have shaped modern Persianate children‘s literature - history, revolution, political climate, government, institutions, writers, education, and so on. The historical origins of tales popular in modern times, and of themes recurrent in stories from past times to present are analyzed, along with other factors which have shaped Persianate children‘s literature. The thesis begins with a historical and theoretical overview relating to change and continuity in Persianate children‘s literature. It examines the influence of ancient texts on modern Persianate children‘s stories. The cultural development reflected in the organizational infrastructure of institutions is also examined, as well as other contemporary influences, both social and political, in order to assess how these have affected modern Persianate children‘s literature. The contents of children‘s books are analyzed from different aspects, including their representation of social values. Concerns of children themselves are shown in examples of their own work; in addition, works of illustrators of children‘s books, and examples from the extended body of Persianate children‘s literature in Tajikistan are analyzed. Modern children‘s literature is the product of a number of influences and while differences can be perceived between historical periods, underlying similarities can also be seen which show a continuity of socio-political purpose, either supporting the status quo or challenging it. The thesis is concerned with this interplay between the recurring uses of children‘s literature; moralistic, didactic, the political agenda of its authors, criticism of the status quo, etc. and the surface changes which attract attention and which create an appearance of change in its underlying purpose. Fashions and styles may change, but children still read, firstly in order to learn to read, and then for information and amusement. The author contends that, in reality a limited number of changes are possible in the purpose of children‘s literature, and the age-old arguments likewise continue about what those are: entertainment or preparation for the harsh realities of life, retreat into fantasy and acceptance of one‘s place or incitement to rebel and change the world.
Information Science
D.Litt. et Phil.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
While the Arab spring succeeded in ousting the long-term dictator led governments from power in many Arab countries, leading the way to a new democratic process to develop in the Arab world, it did not end the old suspicions between Arab Muslims and the West. This research investigates the beginning of the relations between the Arab Muslims and the West as they have developed over time, and then focuses its analysis on perceptions from both sides beginning with 9/11 through the events known as the Arab spring. The framework for analysis is a communication perspective, as embodied in the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). According to CMM, communication can be understood as forms of interactions that both constitute and frame reality. The study posits the analysis that the current Arab Muslim-West divide, is often a conversation that is consistent with what CMM labels as the ethnocentric pattern. This analysis will suggest a new pathway, one that follows the CMM cosmopolitan form, as a more fruitful pattern for the future of Arab Muslim-West relations. This research emphasizes the factors fueling this ethnocentric pattern, in addition to ways of bringing the Islamic world and the West to understand each other with a more cosmopolitan approach, which, among other things, accepts mutual differences while fostering agreements. To reach this core, the study will apply a direct communicative engagement between the Islamic world and the West to foster trusted relations, between the two.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Opposing the culture of différance created through American cultural media, this thesis argues, Arab hip-hop artists revive the politically conscious sub-genre of hip-hop with the purpose of normalising their Arab existence. Appropriating hip-hop for a cultural protest, Arab artists create for themselves a sub-genre of conscious hip-hop – Arab-conscious hip-hop and function as Gramsci’s organic intellectuals, involved in better representation of Arabs in the mainstream. Critiquing power dynamics, Arab hip-hop artists are counter-hegemonic in challenging popular identity constructions of Arabs and revealing to audiences biases in media production and opportunities for progress towards social justice. Their identity (re)constructions maintain difference while avoiding Otherness. The intersection of Arab-consciousness through hip-hop and politics of identity necessitates a needed cultural protest, which in the case of Arabs has been severely limited. This thesis progresses by reviewing literature on politics of identity, Arabs in American cultural media, Gramsci’s organic intellectuals and conscious hip-hop. Employing criticism, this thesis presents an argument for Arab hip-hop group, The Arab Summit, as organic intellectuals involved in mainstream representation of the Arab community.

Video games are inherently transnational by virtue of their industrial, textual and player practices. Until recently, the focus of research on the social and cultural aspects of video games has been on the traditional centers of the video game industry consumption, while the international flows of digital gaming remained largely underexplored. This chapter analyzes the cultural dynamics and technological processes influencing both video game development and the gaming culture in the Middle East. It conceptualizes Middle Eastern video games as imaginary spaces that entangle diverse and contradictory processes: global cultural flows, media policies of nation states, visions and engagements of private entrepreneurs, and migration and appropriation of Western game genres and rule systems. By mapping out dominant trends, the chapter offers the opportunity to think about processes and flows influencing the video game industry in the Middle East during the first fifteen years of its existence

This chapter examines the relationship between ethnic politics and business politics through the lens of trade reform in Jordan. It argues that ethnic boundaries shape the types of protection liberalizing regimes can extend to import-competing industrialists. When pressured to lower trade barriers, ethnic ties between policymakers and import-competing industrialists enable protectionist deals—lax tax and regulatory enforcement, uncompetitive government contracts, insider information—in exchange for liberalizing policies. Lacking the networks and social sanctioning mechanisms to maintain these informal arrangements across ethnic lines, policymakers are more likely to offer more formalized forms of protection, like tariffs to non-coethnic import-competing industrialists. Whether ethnic boundaries blur or reinforce state–capital lines may structure how regimes bargain, accommodate, and ultimately sustain alliances with private sector elites under the strains of economic reform.

Social media creates unique opportunities for sportswomen to create a self-brand through sharing aspects of their lives online. Insofar, the study of this phenomenon has been limited to the context of the Western world. This chapter presents the findings from a digital ethnography of the social media accounts of sportswomen from Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as interviews with these women. In contrast to research findings that show Western sportswomen using social media for self-branding and offering intimate details about their lifestyles, our findings shows that Middle Eastern sportswomen carefully consider what they share and how they share with their audiences, using different strategies to safely and effectively navigate the digital terrain, with the familial and cultural restraints playing a key role in their decision-making processes.

This chapter unpacks the makers and beneficiaries of organized political violence—militaries and militias—which have become extremely prominent in recent decades. Yet the two long have been studied from divergent perspectives, hindering theoretical progress. The chapter shows that the MENA scholarship has inspired a new, more unifying framework to study how violence is produced, one that marries tools from comparative politics with insights from international relations. Comparing national militaries (e.g., the Egyptian army) and nonstate militaries (e.g., ISIS) shows that common questions about institutional leadership, ideological origins, and social organization apply to all producers of organized violence. Variation across these axes helps explain diverse types of conflicts and wars. Finally, the chapter suggests that even the conceptual boundaries between national militaries and nonstate militaries have become blurry, which compels us to reconsider how sovereignty and statehood will function in the coming decades.

This chapter addresses the transformation of geopolitical lines and borders in a globalizing world. In the Middle East, this transformation has been accompanied by severe social inequalities that have been expressed in a number of different ways: increasing limitations placed on the mobility of refugees and migrants, yet decreasing limitations on the cross-border flow of goods; a proliferation of refugee encampments and settlements (formal and informal); human vulnerability and rights violations; and expanded border securitization. In the case of Lebanon, these processes play out in especially stark fashion in big cities and border sites. This chapter focuses on one such site in an area of Lebanon: the Central Bekaa. It is important to start by looking at the context of borders and mobility in the Middle East. This chapter is based on original research that aims to provide an examination of certain aspects of borders and mobility, including the transnational circulation of displaced communities, cross-border networks, and how Syrian refugees in the Middle East—especially in Lebanon—navigate borders and deploy their own social capital in the process.

Abstract CO2 fracturing technique is a kind of ideal waterless stimulation tech. It has the advantages of water free, low reservoir damage, and production increase by improving the reservoir pressure. At the same time, combined with reasonable shut-in control after fracturing, it can be realized integrated development technology of energy storage -fracturing and oil displacement with CO2 waterless stimulation. For low-grade and low-permeability tight reservoirs, through the integration technology of CO2 fracturing and CO2 flooding, fracture-type "artificial permeability" is formed in the formation, and micro-nano pore throat of underground matrix is formed as oil and gas production system, which realizes the development of artificial energy, reduces carbon emissions, effectively improves the productivity of low-permeability and tight reservoirs, thus further improves oil recovery. The technology mainly includes two aspects: vertical wells adopt CO2 fracturing + huff and puff displacement integration technology, horizontal wells adopt water-based fracturing + CO2 displacement technology, and utilize the high efficiency of CO2 penetration in reservoirs and crude oil viscosity reduction, which can greatly improve oil recovery, while achieving large-scale CO2 storage and reducing carbon emissions. It is both realistic and economic, and has great social benefits. The integrated development technology of energy storage -fracturing and oil displacement with CO2 waterless stimulation has been applied for 10 wells in oilfield, which has achieved good results in increasing reservoir volume, increasing formation energy, reducing oil viscosity and enhancing post-pressure recovery. As a result, the production of them has increased by over 100%. With low viscosity and high diffusion coefficient, supercritical CO2 is good for improving fracturing volume. Effective CO2 fracturing technology can improve stimulated reservoir volume, downhole monitoring results show that the cracks formed by CO2 fracturing is 3 times the size of those formed by water-based fracturing.

Since 2015, the authors have studied the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East. The intent of theproject is to not only study the refugee crisis in various spatial and architectural settings and aspectsbut also actively try to help refugees with their problems that they experience in the events fromstarting an escape and to settling in a given host country, city town or neighborhood.In this paper, the authors present three case studies in three different cities in Germany. Refugees areeverywhere in Germany, even in smaller towns and villages. The case study cities are at differentscales with Borken (15,000 people), Kassel, a mid-size city (200,000), and Essen a larger city(600,000) as part of the still larger Ruhr Area Megacity. In these cities we try to understand the life ofrefugees from their original escape country/city to their arrival in their new cities and new countries.Our work focuses on the social-spatial aspects of refugee experiences, and their impact on urbanmorphology and building typology.We also try to understand how refugees manage their new life in partial safety of place, shelter foodand financial support but also in uncertainty and insecurity until officially accepted as refugees.Beyond crisis we are looking at how refugees can and want to integrate into their host countries, citiesand neighborhoods and start a new life. Social activities and physical projects including urbanarchitecture projects for housing and work, that help the process of integration, are part of thispresentation.