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Life as Politics Bayat.indd 1 24-12-2009 13:59:53 isim series on contemporary muslim societies The ISIM Series on Contemporary Muslim Societies is a joint initiative of Amsterdam University Press (AUP) and the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM). The Series seeks to present innovative scholarship on Islam and Muslim societies in different parts of the globe. ISIM was established in 1998 by the University of Amsterdam, Leiden University, Radboud University Nijmegen, and Utrecht University. The institute conducts and promotes interdisciplinary research on social, political, cultural, and intellectual trends and movements in contemporary Muslim societies and communities. Editors Annelies Moors, ISIM / University of Amsterdam Mathijs Pelkmans, ISIM / University College Utrecht Abdulkader Tayob, University of Cape Town Editorial Board Nadje al-Ali, University of Exeter Kamran Asdar Ali, University of Texas at Austin John Bowen, Washington University in St. Louis Léon Buskens, Leiden University Shamil Jeppie, University of Cape Town Deniz Kandiyoti, SOAS, University of London Muhammad Khalid Masud, Council of Islamic Ideology, Pakistan Werner Schiffauer, Europa-Universität Viadriana Frankfurt (Oder) Seteney Shami, Social Science Research Council Previously published Lynn Welchman, Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States. A Comparative Overview of Textual Development and Advocacy, 2007 (ISBN 0978 9 5356 974 0) Farish A. Noor, Yoginder Sikand & Martin van Bruinessen (eds.), The Madrasa in Asia. Political Activism and Transnational Linkages, 2008 (ISBN 0978 9 5356 710 4) Bayat.indd 2 24-12-2009 13:59:53 Life as Politics How Ordinary People Change the Middle East Asef Bayat ISIM SERIES ON CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM SOCIETIES A MSTERDAM U NIVERSITY P RESS Bayat.indd 3 24-12-2009 13:59:53 Cover photograph: © Hollandse Hoogte Cover design: De Kreeft, Amsterdam ISBN 978 90 5356 911 5 e-ISBN 978 90 4850 156 4 NUR 741 / 717 © isim / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2010 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copy- right reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording or otherwise) without the written permis- sion of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Bayat.indd 4 24-12-2009 13:59:53 To: Eric Hobsbawm, historian par excellence. —-1 —0 —+1 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd v 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM -1— 0— +1— 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd vvii 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM CONTENTS Preface ix Ac know ledg ments xi 1 Introduction: The Art of Presence 1 2 Transforming the Arab Middle East: Dissecting a Manifesto 27 PART 1 SOCIAL NONMOVEMENTS 3 The Quiet Encroachment of the Ordinary 43 4 The Poor and the Perpetual Pursuit of Life Chances 66 5 Feminism of Everyday Life 96 6 Reclaiming Youthfulness 115 7 The Politics of Fun 137 PART 2 STREET POLITICS AND THE PO LITI CAL STREET 8 A Street Named “Revolution” 161 9 Does Radical Islam Have an Urban Ecol ogy? 171 10 Everyday Cosmopolitanism 185 11 The “Arab Street” 209 —-1 12 Is There a Future for Islamic Revolutions? 221 —0 —+1 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd vviiii 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM viii CONTENTS PART 3 PROSPECTS 13 No Silence, No Violence: Post- Islamist Trajectory 241 Notes 253 Index 297 -1— 0— +1— 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd vviiiiii 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM PREFACE the essays compiled in this volume are about agency and change in the Muslim Middle East, the societies in which religion seems to occupy a prominent position. More specifi cally, they focus on the confi guration of sociopoliti cal transformation brought about by internal social forces, by collectives and individuals. Here I focus on the diverse ways in which the ordinary people, the subaltern—the urban dispossessed, Muslim women, the globalizing youth, and other urban grass roots— strive to aff ect the con- tours of change in their societies, by refusing to exit from the social and po liti cal stage controlled by authoritarian states, moral authority, and neo- liberal economies, discovering and generating new spaces within which they can voice their dissent and assert their presence in pursuit of bettering their lives. The vehicles through which ordinary people change their societ- ies are not simply audible mass protests or revolutions, even though they represent an aspect of pop u lar mobilization; rather, people resort more widely to what I will elaborate as “nonmovements”— the collective endeav- ors of millions of noncollective actors, carried out in the main squares, back streets, court houses, or communities. This book, then, is about the “art of presence,” the story of agency in times of constraints. The essays constitute the core of my refl ections for the past decade or so on the social movements and nonmovements that are seen through the prism of historical specifi city of the Muslim Middle East, yet ones that insist on both critical and con- structive engagement with the prevailing social theory. By so doing my hope has been not only to produce rigorous empirical knowledge about so- —-1 cial change in this complex region, but in the meantime to engage with and —0 ix —+1 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd iixx 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM x PREFACE contribute to social theory in general. My wish is that this book might off er a Middle Eastern contribution, however modest, to scholarly debates on so- cial movements and social change. -1— 0— +1— 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd x 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM AC KNOW LEDG MENTS a volume that has taken about a de cade of research and refl ections must have been written with the assistance and support, whether intellectual or practi- cal, of many people— scholars, students, and colleagues, in the Middle East, the United States, and Eu rope. Understandably, it is diffi cult to pinpoint them in order to record my sincere appreciation. But I do wish to register my deep- est gratitude to them all. Most of the pieces in this volume were produced or fi nalized during my work as the Academic Director of the Dutch- based Inter- national Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), a unique scholarly enterprise that combined rigorous scholarship with constructive social engagement. I am grateful to the colleagues at ISIM, especially staff members and the internationally diverse fellows who enriched the institute by their enthusiasm and their valuable and varied experiences. Some of the ideas in this book developed out of my short contributions to the ISIM Review, and some others from preparing numerous lectures, which I delivered in diff erent parts of the world in the course of these years. I am grateful for the individu- als and organizations who welcomed cooperation. As always, my greatest debt is to my family, Linda, Shiva, and Tara, without whose unfailing love and sup- port none of these endeavors would have materialized in the way they have. —-1 —0 xi —+1 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd xxii 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM -1— 0— +1— 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd xxiiii 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM Life as Politics —-1 —0 —+1 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd xxiiiiii 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM -1— 0— +1— 5544-41003_ch00_4P.indd44-41003_ch00_4P.indd xxiviv 99/1/09/1/09 11:58:58 PPMM 1 INTRODUCTION The Art of Presence there is no shortage of views, whether regional or international, suggesting that the Middle East has fallen into disarray. We continue to read how the personal income of Arabs is among the lowest in the world, despite their mas- sive oil revenues. With declining productivity, poor scientifi c research, de- creasing school enrollment, and high illiteracy, and with health conditions lagging behind comparable nations, Arab countries seem to be “richer than they are developed.”1 The unfortunate state of social development in the re- gion is coupled with poor politi cal governance. Authoritarian regimes rang- ing from Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco to the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf, and chiefl y Saudi Arabia (incidentally, most with close ties to the West), continue to frustrate demands for democracy and the rule of law, prompting (religious) opposition movements that espouse equally undemo- cratic, exclusive, and oft en violent mea sures. Not surprisingly, the current conditions have caused much fear in the West about the international destabi- lizing ramifi cations of this seeming social and po liti cal stagnation. Thus, never before has the region witnessed such a cry for change. The idea that “everywhere the world has changed except for the Middle East” has assumed a renewed prominence, with diff erent domestic and international constituencies expressing diff erent expectations as to how to instigate change in this region. Some circles hope for a revolutionary transformation through a sudden upsurge of pop u lar energy to overturn the unjust structures of power and usher in development and democracy. If the Ira ni an Revolution, not so long ago, could sweep aside a long- standing monarchy in less than two years, —-1 why couldn’t such movement be forged in the region today? This is a diffi cult —0 1 —+1 5544-41003_ch01_4P.indd44-41003_ch01_4P.indd 1 99/1/09/1/09 11:59:59 PPMM 2 INTRODUCTION position to sustain. It is doubtful that revolutions can ever be planned.2 Even though revolutionaries do engage in plotting and preparing, revolutions do not necessarily result from prior schemes.