meta 35
Today’s youth have been cast in a con- dition of liminal drift, with no way of It’s Time to Talk about Youth knowing whether it is transitory or per- in the Middle East as The Precariat1 manent. (Bauman 76). In 2011, the year of the Arab uprisings, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class by Guy Standing hit the bookstands. Standing, a labour economist and Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), gives a name and policy context to a new global class of people who labor in circumstances of extreme structural insecurity, whose lives are “fleeting and flexible, opportunistic rather than pro- gressively constructed” (Standing, The Precariat 223). Like Standing, the late sociologist Zygmunt Bauman was weary of the destructive effects of globalized modernity on the world’s youth. He wrote Linda Herrera about youth as being cast into an ocean of “liminal drift” (Bauman 76), a metaphor In 2011, the year of the Arab uprisings, Youth and the Prospects for Human which unfortunately has taken on a literal The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class Development in a Changing Reality. meaning as growing numbers of young by Guy Standing hit the bookstands. The This paper argues that any meaningful people risk perilous journeys across seas concept precariat describes the condi- conceptualization of youth in North Africa and land in search of a tenable and digni- tion of life and labour among educated and West Asia going forward should fied life. urbanized youth in the twenty-first cen- incorporate the notion of precariat and tury more lucidly and persuasively than the condition of precariousness. Drawing on decades of work at the the key policy literature on the region, International Labour Organization (ILO), as exemplified in The Arab Human Keywords: Youth; Precarity; Arab Standing identifies the precariat as a Development Report (AHDR) 2016: Uprisings; Policy; Dignity growing global class who suffer from “the
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 36
4 A’s—anger, anomie, anxiety and alien- and generations in NAWA going forward (Oxford English Dictionary). In the post- ation” (The Precariat 33). He recognizes should incorporate the notion of precariat 9/11 period in the United States, the term that precarity is a condition that afflicts and the condition of precariousness. entered critical social theory, most notably women and men across generations, but with Judith Butler’s work, Precarious Life: emphasizes its particular toll on youth Precarious—an Evolution The Powers of Mourning and Violence. (“Why the precariat”; The Corruption). We The word precarious has undergone a sig- Butler looks at how the 9/11 terrorist event should stress that Standing’s ideas particu- nificant shift in meaning and usage since unleashed a transnational chain of precar- larly pertain to educated, credentialed it first entered the English lexicon in the ity for victims and perpetrators of violence. and to some degree, urbanized youth. 17th century (Gilliver). Precarious derives In 2011, Guy Standing brought the term This demographic cohort often gets sub- from the Latin word prex or prec (prayer). into the realms of social policy, political sumed under the title of millennials, born In its early usage in the 1640s, precarius economy, sociology and labor economics. roughly between 1982 to 2002. We might [sic] referred to something “obtained Over the course of three decades, very well call emerging generations, the through prayer or supplication,” such as Standing has observed the gradual clos- precariats or the precarious generation. A the right to occupy land or hold a position. ing of the commons, the disenfranchise- large swath of these under-35s have These favors were “given ‘at the pleasure ment of workers and demise of citizen played by the rules of supposed merito- of’ another person, who might simply rights and due process. These changes cratic systems of education, often at great choose to take it back at any time” (Gilliver). have occurred in a global context in which cost and sacrifice to themselves and their In this sense, people who were neither unions and other forms of organizing have families. Yet at the end of long, expensive protected by laws, nor afforded rights of faced growing assaults. He has watched and laborious educational journeys, they citizenship and due process, had to turn to the nature of work fundamentally change “are not offered a reasonable bargain” God and the propertied and positioned with the spectacular spread of digital (Standing, The Precariat 112). class to secure some degree of security. technologies and automation. Taking all By 1680 the word evolved to mean “depen- these transformations into consideration, Standing, while by no means a specialist dent on the will of another.” This element Standing merged the words precarious, on the Middle East region, what I prefer to of dependency carried an inherent asso- the overwhelming feature of work in the designate as North Africa and West Asia ciation with a “risky, dangerous, uncertain” 21st century, with proletariat, a class desig- (NAWA), describes the condition of life situation (Online Etymology Dictionary). nation, into the precariat. That term was and labor among educated urbanized From the 20th century, the meaning of pre- evidently coined a decade earlier in Italian youth in the twenty-first century more carious shifted away from human relations as il precariato following the 2001 anti-G8 lucidly and persuasively than the key pol- of dependency and whim, to refer to inse- protests in Genoa (Breman), but Standing icy experts on the region. The main argu- curity resulting from physical danger. For substantiated it with reams of economic ment here is that any meaningful concep- instance, precarity would result from an data and political and historical context. tualization of, and engagement with, youth “unsound, unsafe, rickety” structure
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 37
Standing’s critics have taken issue with his native” (TINA) to the market. In the past ered in a more explicit security orientation notion that the precariat might constitute three decades since the fall of the Berlin towards Muslim youth, particularly in the an emerging global class. They argue that Wall, the language and logic of markets Muslim majority countries of the Middle he misunderstands the nature of class and has seeped into all forms of social and East and West Asia. Young people became that he is too Eurocentric since he draws economic policy, crowding out other ways matters of containment and security, in considerably—though not exclusively—on of imagining and organizing the world. addition to retaining their positions as data from the Global North (Breman; States, civil society, Islamist movements, consumers, individuals and workers in a Munck). Theses critiques have some valid- non-governmental organizations, global globalized economy (Bayat and Herrera; ity, but they tend to miss the point. finance organizations, United Nations Sukarieh and Tannock). In the ensuing Standing is not talking about class in a tra- bodies and even youth activists, have all years, it was common to read about young ditional Marxian sense. Rather, he pro- more or less reinforced policies that steer people as the Generation in Waiting vides a language to make visible a wide- children and youth into a neoliberal global (Dhillon and Yousef).2 The logic was that spread pattern of insecurity and anxiety order. They support policies of consumer- while young people were waiting for jobs connected to changing structures of work ism, marketing, and economic growth and opportunities, they were in need of and rights. As more people recognize pre- over more sustainable and fairer alterna- interventions to offset the potential lure of carity as a common condition, as they tives. In areas of citizenship and democ- extremism and radicalization. Ironically, understand the structures, policies and racy, they advocate the individual’s right to there was little acknowledgement of the norms that perpetuate it, they can poten- express herself and to self-identify with effects of western-led wars, arms sales, tially build movements and tools to col- discreet gender and ethnic categories as and foreign occupations on the lives, emo- lectively confront and change it. Standing a sort of substitute to building public cul- tional development, political orientation insists that the precariat “is a classinthe ture, deliberating across lines of differ- and opportunities for young people. making, is the first mass class in history ence and organizing for political and Instead, a spate of policies from the inter- that has systematically been losing rights social change. In other words, a range of national community and NGO sectors built up for citizens” (Standing, “Why the actors support the fragmentation of the insisted on programs for democracy pro- precariat”). His observations and argu- polity into micro sub-groups and the nor- motion, volunteerism and entrepreneur- ments are especially germane to the study malization of market-oriented neoliberal ship, which were connected in various of youth in the 21st century. subjectivities. ways to youth lifestyles and consumerism.3
Youth and Precarity In the MENA region, two major events Second, and apparently without warning, The first reason for the need for a recon- have generated tensions within a market in 2011, millions of people poured into ceptualization of youth to include the pre- and individualized discourse and policy streets across the Arab states demanding cariat has to do with ideology and the on youth. First, the terrorist attacks on the “bread, freedom and social justice.” Young ubiquity of the idea that “there is no alter- United States on September 11, 2001, ush- people led the calls against their auto-
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 38
cratic rulers. Together with other seg- Arab Human Development Reports every to the 1990s. A passage from the introduc- ments of the population—factory workers, five years since 2002. These reports, tory chapter reads: members of professional associations, authored by groups of experts from and women, the elderly, children, the retired— on the region, are designed to build part- Like its predecessors, this sixth AHDR they demanded justice, the rule of law, nerships with local stakeholders and to is grounded in a concept of human the right to live with dignity and to secure serve as the “instruments for measuring development that embraces human livelihoods. The western media and schol- human progress and triggering action for freedom as a core value. […] A cen- arly community initially celebrated the change.” They specifically provide guide- tral cross-cutting concept in the AHDR Arab Spring and rebranded young peo- lines for “region-specific approaches to 2016 is youth empowerment […] Key ple in the region as “non-violent champi- human rights, poverty, education, eco- to this concept is a sense of agency, ons of democracy” and the tech savvy and nomic reform, HIV/AIDS, and globaliza- whereby Youth themselves become re- liberal “Facebook youth.”4 However, as tion” (UNDP). solute actors in the process of change. counter-revolution set in in Egypt and sev- The concept is embedded in self-reli- eral states spiraled into war, with Syria, The 2016 AHDR report on youth, released ance and based on the realization that Yemen, and Libya becoming sites of proxy roughly six years after the start of the Arab young people can take charge of their wars, unbridled violence and failed states, uprisings, was an opportune moment for own lives and become effective agents the initial enthusiasm for the uprisings development scholars and policy experts of change. (25). abated. The old paradigms for youth con- to reflect on the seismic shifts occurring in tainment and development quickly made societies across the region. The uprisings By borrowing the market language of a comeback. were a clarion call from millions of people, choice and individual agency, this defini- and especially young people, that busi- tion obscures the notion of power, the Business as Usual: The 2016 Arab Human ness as usual can no longer be an option. very core of the word empowerment. In Development Report on Youth Unfortunately, the opportunity was missed, fact, it excises politics and power relations The international community continued its and the AHDR 2016 instead put forward from the act of empowerment. Instead, the development agenda as if the uprisings, the old prescriptive model of develop- report places the individual at front and the most momentous grassroots political ment, amidst overwhelming evidence of center, relegating the collective, the social, event in the region in over a half century, its decay and failure. the community, to the shadows. The had not even occurred. The Arab Human authors further obfuscate the potentials of Development Report (AHDR) 2016: Youth The concepts, participation, empower- youth collective struggle by using the and the Prospects for Human Development ment and youth agency, frame the policy terms youth and young people inter- in a Changing Reality, stands as a case in conversation on youth. These concepts changeably. The term young people point. The United Nations Development derive from a human development and denotes human beings of a particular age Programme (UNDP) has produced The human capabilities approach which dates with no especial relation to history. Youth,
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 39
on the other hand, signifies a social col- concerned after long passages of their representatives, and 21 members of a lectivity similar to a social class or an eth- chapter on young women were removed youth consultative group. This collection nic group. A group by definition harbors a from the report without explanation, of people reflects a diversity of opinions, consciousness of itself as sharing certain thereby altering the meaning and spirit of ideological positions and disciplinary dif- features and interests, and thereby occu- the chapter. They explain: ferences and priorities. pies a distinct place in the power structure and the historical process. Large sections of our text had been Despite the din of so many voices, one can excised, including one in which we distill the big ideas that underpin the The message to young people is that they gave examples of ways in which young major policy priorities around youth. The should pull themselves together, become women transgress norms surround- first pertains to the persistent security con- more self-reliant and take charge of their ing marriage and heteronormativity; cerns, translated to the idea that youth individual lives. In other words, they another dedicated to young women should be the peacebuilders and peace- should become effective agents of change as producers of culture; and a further makers. The second big idea relates to irrespective of structural impediments, section about online activism. …[O]ur education and its connection to markets lack of support by governments or other chapter ended up in an obscure edi- and economic growth. The third big ideas institutions, and without turning to politics torial process that lacked any proper pertains to youth entrepreneurship, the and organizing. This skewed framing of consultation or transparency. …It is seeming panacea for all forms of eco- empowerment advances a model of our understanding that several Arab nomic, social and political reform. development in which young people are ambassadors were involved in the pro- nudged to break their collective bonds cess of reviewing the report. (Al-Ali, Ali Wars and Repression are not Compatible with each other in exchange for facing the and Marler). with Youth Peacemaking future as competing individuals. The 2016 youth report grew out of the These authors draw attention to the poli- August 2015 UN Global Forum on Youth Who, we might ask, are the experts who tics and hierarchies of knowledge produc- Peace and Security in Amman, Jordan. are perpetuating and reproducing these tion in a multilateral institution. They also Following this event the United Nations ideas? The production and editorial pro- help to clarify why a reader of the report Security Council unanimously adopted cesses of these reports are murky at best. encounters contradictory positions and Resolution 2250 of 9 December 2015, After the 2016 youth report was released, perspectives. In total, 74 people are listed which urges “Member States to consider three of the authors of Chapter 4, “The as contributing or advising on the report ways to give youth a greater voice in deci- new dynamics in the inclusion and in some capacity, broken down as follows: sion-making at the local, national, regional empowerment of young women,” wrote 14 members of the core team, 18 back- and international levels.” The resolution an essay expressing their misgivings ground paper authors, 8 members of a highlights, “the threat to stability and about the editorial process. They were readers group, 13 UNDP regional bureau development posed by the rise of radical-
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 40
ization among young people,” and calls arrested, disappeared and tortured for as the ways in which research and policy for more youth representation as peace little as retweeting a comment, standing in have narrowly reduced educational insti- builders (UN Resolution 2250). a public space to protest an injustice, post- tutions to supposed sites of job prepara- ing a political joke on Facebook, or danc- tion and markets. The AHDR 2016 follows Policies that position youth as so called ing in public?5 On a different but related a pattern of un-problematically correlat- “empowered peace makers” without note, how can young people find a real ing education with jobs and the demands addressing massive arms sales, the prolif- place at the table of peace negotiations of the labor market. The authors of the eration of militias and weaponry across and peace-building during times of report reveal ways in which they are driven the region, contexts of extreme insecurity, extreme destabilization and militarism, as by an ideology of markets and accoun- the repressive policies of government in Syria, Palestine, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, tancy principles of inputs and outputs, and occupying regimes, disregard reality Somalia and Sudan, to name just some of rather than respect for the dignity of chil- in favor of decontextualized ideology. The the countries being decimated by warfare, dren, youth and concern for the well- section of the Security Council Resolution conflict and extreme forms of surveillance being of their communities and societies. 2250 that deals with prevention of youth and repression? In the absence of any real They write: violence is a case in point. The resolution recognition of geopolitics and pressure stresses: on the actors who are creating the situa- Overcoming education system failu- tion of violence and repression, the idea re must be a priority for policymakers the importance of creating policies for of youth empowerment and youth peace- and educators, who should strive to youth that would positively contribu- making rings hollow. achieve a good fit between the output te to peacebuilding efforts, including of educational institutions and the de- social and economic development, Education is Not About Markets mands of the labor market. This would supporting projects designed to grow For decades, the mainstream interna- involve a survey of the distribution of local economies, and provide youth tional policy community has been relegat- enrolments across subjects, skills and employment opportunities and voca- ing education and formalized learning to disciplines, upgrades in technical edu- tional training, fostering their educa- a domain of the market. It has focused cation and a review of curricula to pro- tion, and promoting youth entrepre- obsessively on educational outputs, test- mote problem-solving skills, entrepre- neurship and constructive political ing, privatization and related goals such neurial and management capacity and engagement (Article 11). as youth entrepreneurship. In this concep- the value of self-employment (UNDP tualization, young lives become them- 184). What, for instance, does “constructive selves market commodities and a survival- political engagement” mean in states of-the-fittest mentality reigns (Giroux). For Putting aside the reductive understanding where young citizens lead exceedingly critical and engaged educators, it has of education illustrated in this passage, we politically precarious lives; where they get been a matter of great dismay to witness must begin by asking, “What are the
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 41
demands of the labor market to which and reinforce precarity. Educational insti- ernmental organizations joined forces on schools and universities must answer?” tutions should certainly play roles in pre- a massive scale to promote microfinance Currently, the market favors flexible, short- paring young people for adult roles in to alleviate poverty. After more than three term, disposable and cheap labor. In other work and society. However, the propo- decades of experimentation and data col- words, corporations and global capital nents of market-oriented education poli- lection, the evidence overwhelmingly needs an unlimited supply of young ener- cies display a callous disregard for the points to that fact that microfinance does getic people who are willing to intern, vol- ways in which schools and universities not cure poverty, and indeed has been a unteer, work long hours, work remotely, can strengthen social solidarity and nur- debt trap and a disaster for many. work with weak or no contracts, continu- ture a diverse array of human talents and Economists who have traced the adverse ously retrain, and not make demands for abilities. They do not regard educational effects of microfinance have argued that unions, benefits or job security. This grow- institutions as places for young people to in actuality, according to the evidence, ing class, the precariat, are people who develop bonds and understanding microfinance are across lines of difference, where they can think and work together to find creative constitutes a powerful institutional and living through unstable and insecure solutions to the enormous challenges of political barrier to sustainable econo- labor, in and out of jobs, without an contemporary life. Instead, as the main- mic and social development, and so occupational identity, financially on the stream policy community focuses obses- also to poverty reduction. […] [C]on- edge and losing rights. (Standing, The sively on outputs, testing and short-term tinued support for microfinance in in- Corruption xiii). rewards, it proselytizes its big idea, youth ternational development policy circles entrepreneurship. cannot be divorced from its supreme Regrettably, the authors of the AHDR serviceability to the neoliberal/globali- seem to have no problem advocating Entrepreneurship is Not the Solution sation agenda (Bateman and Chang 13). even more than before on outputs, test- North Africa and West Asia is a region with ing and market style approaches to edu- a disproportionately high percentage of Small-scale, temporary-income-generat- cation. They disregard, indeed implicitly young people, a situation known as a ing activities should not be conceived as support exploitative and unstable work youth bulge. It is not clear what percent- a substitute for stable work, social protec- conditions for young people that ulti- age of the one hundred million 15-29-year- tions and due process of the law. Likewise, mately contribute to personal insecurity olds in the predominantly Arab countries, evidence is mounting that youth entrepre- and politically and socially destabilizing a third of the population, are supposed to neurship, while it can certainly benefit societies. become self-employed entrepreneurs. some people in the short term, is more Such a push is reminiscent of the late likely to lead the young to a debt trap, pre- Schools and universities should decid- 1980s and 1990s, when UN agencies, carity, and/or a cycle of failures. The debt edly not be institutions that normalize global finance institutions, and non-gov- trap is already in clear evidence with the
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 42
Linda Herrera student loan epidemic in which growing and scholars, as members of international numbers of students carry debilitating development and policy communities is a professor in the department of debt (Kamenetz). who want to sincerely advance security, Education Policy, Organization and dignity, livelihoods and democracy, we Leadership at the University of Illinois While youthful drive and ambition are must acknowledge those misguided poli- at Urbana-Champaign and director positive qualities to be nurtured and cies that have contributed to the current of the Global Studies in Education encouraged, it is unfair and disingenuous detrimental state of affairs. We collectively program. A social anthropologist with to propagate the myth that anyone with an face the daunting task of forging an alter- regional specialization in North Africa idea, grit and determination can be a suc- native future. and West Asia, her research is at the cessful entrepreneur. Economist Mariana intersection of critical education, youth Mazzucato has written extensively on how If we listen to, respect and take seriously and media studies. Her books include companies in the new economy, such as the voices of youth that rang out during Cultures of Arab Schooling (with C.A. Apple and Google the 2011 uprisings, we will hear that these Torres), Being Young and Muslim (with old ideas that have informed education, A. Bayat), Revolution in the Age of Social that like to portray themselves as the employment and youth policies are not Media and Wired Citizenship. She has heart of US ‘entrepreneurship’, have working. Those of us working in the NAWA a monthly column in openDemocracy, very successfully surfed the wave of US region, in youth studies, and education “Critical Voices in Critical Times.” government-funded investments. and social policy need more than the tools email: [email protected] of critique to move forward. We need to The Internet, GPS, touchscreen displays reclaim research and scholarship as a col- and Siri are among the startups that ben- lective means to better understand the efitted from steep US government fund- current realities and challenges. Our work ing. If Arab governments and businesses should aid in understanding the structures in the NAWA region are serious about of precarity and the responses to them. youth entrepreneurship, they should pro- Standing posits that since youth “make up vide resources and support organizations the core of the Precariat” they are the ones to guide and support young talent, not that “will have to take the lead in forging a lead them down a road of borrowing and viable future for it” (The Precariat 113). A debilitating debt. more rigorous and engaged scholarship can guide the young towards a road of Conclusion: Youth Studies and Precarity opportunity, security and dignity, rather Change is happening faster than ideas than push them further along a perilous and policies to deal with it. As students path of precarity.
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 43
Notes Works Cited Breman, Jan. “A Bogus Global Voices. N.d., https:// Munck, Ronaldo. “The Concept?”. New Left Review, globalvoices.org/-/world/ precariat: A view from 1 Earlier versions of this paper Al-Ali, Nadje, Zahra Ali, and vol. 84, 2013, pp.130-138. middle-east-north-africa. the South”. Third World were published in MadaMasr Isabel Marler. “Reflections on Accessed 3 October 2017. Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 5, 2013, (Herrera, “Precarity of Youth”) Authoring the Chapter on Butler, Judith. Precarious Life. pp. 747-762. and in The Middle East in Young Women for the 2016 The Powers of Mourning and Herrera, Linda. Revolution in London Magazine (Herrera, Arab Human Development Violence. New York: Verso, the age of social media: The “Precarious”. Online “Middle East Youth”). Report”. Jadaliyya, 9 Dec. 2006. Egyptian popular insurrection Etymology Dictionary. 2017, 2016, http://palestine. and the internet. New York: http://www.etymonline.com/ 2 The concept “generation in jadaliyya.com/pages/ Cote, James E. Generation Verso, 2014. index.php?term=precarious. waiting” shares features with index/25627/reflections-on- on Hold: Coming of Age in Accessed 1 March 2017. an older concept in youth authoring-the-chapter-on- the Late Twentieth Century. ---. “The Precarity of Youth: studies, “generation on hold” young-wome. Accessed 6 New York: NYU Press, 1995. Entrepreneurship is Not the Standing, Guy. The Precariat: (Cote). May 2017. Solution.” MadaMasr, 11 Feb. The New Dangerous Class. Dhillon, Navtej and Tarik 2017. http://www.madamasr. London: Bloomsbury, 2011. 3 For an example of Bateman, Milford and Ha- M. Yousef. Generation in com/en/2017/02/11/opinion/ democracy promotion Joon Chang. “Microfinance Waiting: The Unfulfilled society/the-precarity-of- ---. “Why the Precariat is programs that combined and the Illusion of Promise of Young People in youth-entrepreneurship-is- Not a ‘Bogus Concept’”. youth lifestyles and Development: From Hubris the Middle East. Brookings not-the-solution/. Accessed openDemocracy, 4 Mar. 2014, consumerism with forms of To Nemesis in Thirty Years.” Institution Press, 2009. 20 October 2017. https://www.opendemocracy. youth political engagement World Economic Review, 26 net/guy-standing/ “Cyberdissident Diplomacy,” Jan. 2012, https://ssrn.com/ Ghonim, Wael. Revolution ---. “Middle East Youth as why-precariat-is-not- chapter 2 in Herrera’s abstract=2385482. Accessed 2.0: The Power of People is “The Precariat”?” The Middle %E2%80%9Cbogus- Revolution in the Age of 4 February 2017. Greater than the People in East in London Magazine, concept%E2%80%9D. Social Media. Power. A Memoir. New York: 2017. Accessed 25 August 2017. Bauman, Zygmunt. Wasted Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 4 For examples, see the cover Lives: Modernity and its 2012. Kamenetz, Anya. Generation ---. The Corruption of story of Time Magazine, “The Outcasts. Oxford: Wiley, 2004 Debt: Why Now is a Terrible Capitalism: Why Rentiers Generation Changing the Gilliver, Peter. “Precarious.” Time to be Young. New York: Thrive and Work Does World” and Wael Ghonim’s Bayat, Asef and Linda Oxford English Dictionary, Riverhead Books, 2006. not Pay. London: Biteback Revolution 2.0. Herrera. “Being young and 2016, http://public.oed.com/ Publishing Ltd., 2016. Muslim in neoliberal times.” aspects-of-english/word- Mazzucato, Mariana. 5 See the Middle East and Being young and Muslim: stories/precarious/. Accessed “Taxpayers Helped Apple, Sukarieh, Mayssoun and North Africa section of the New cultural politics in the 3 January 2017. but Apple Won’t Help Them.” Stuart Tannock. Youth Rising? online platform, Global global south and north, Harvard Business Review, The Politics of Youth in the Voices, for reporting on edited by Linda Herrera and Giroux, Henry. Youth in a 8 Mar. 2013, https://hbr. Global Economy. New York: a wide range of issues Asef Bayat. New York: Oxford Suspect Society: Democracy org/2013/03/taxpayers- Routledge, 2015. pertaining to censorship, UP, 2010, pp. 3-24. or Disposability? New York: helped-apple-but-app. arrests and intimidation of Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Accessed 4 January 2017. ––› youth activists and social media users.
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017 meta 44
––› Time Magazine. “The Generation Changing the World.” 28 Feb. 2011.
United Nations Security Council. United Nations, 9 Dec. 2015, https://www. un.org/press/en/2015/ sc12149.doc.htm. Accessed 2 May 2017.
United Nations Development Programme. “About the Human Development Reports.” United Nations, n.d., http://www.arab-hdr.org/ about/intro.aspx. Accessed 2 April 2017.
ISSN: 2196-629X http://dx.doi.org/10.17192/ meta.2017.9.7061
Middle East – Topics & Arguments #09–2017