Researching Civic a C T I V I S M in the Arab World
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3 0 Research I S I M NEWSLETTER 2 / 9 9 Research approaches SHEILA CARAPICO Researching Civic According to classical Western social theory, the institu- tions, networks, and projects of civil society operate in a pluralistic, continuously contested public civic realm. Distinct from either the government’s coercive bureau- A c t i v i s m cratic functions or profit-seeking private businesses, often conceptualized as a buffer between states and households, civil society represents a third, non-gov- ernmental, non-profit, voluntary sector of modern soci- ety. Viewed differently, the civic realm is a zone where in the Arab World culture interacts with politics and economics. Recent research shows that rates of civic activism Ð of joining, numbers of Arab NGOs, formal organizations expressed in Arabic, with ample references to against allegations by the press prosecutor’s communicating, demonstrating, donating, organizing, that register with the government as non-prof- local, Yemeni, or Islamic tradition. Yet what an office is a drama acted out in the press, the and participating in events and projects that affect com- it fund-raising bodies. Nowhere in the Arab array of ‘traditions’ to choose from Ð a trea- courts, in journalists’ and attorneys’ syndi- munity services, public opinion, and national politics Ð world (if anywhere), however, has the expan- sure-chest of symbols, customs, and sayings cates, and in human rights organizations. vary across countries and across time. The question is sion of civic space been a V-shaped opening, for special occasions. Whereas in an era of One case study of tribesmen building roads whether cultural ‘traditions’ explain why the civic smooth and regular. With the waxing and wan- road-building, ranchers adapted tribal auto- or activists defying censorship is interesting; in sphere is more vibrant in some places and periods than ing of economic fortunes and with greater or taxation mechanisms to hire bulldozers, in the aggregate, such acts can transform materi- o t h e r s . lesser government success in co-opting other times tribes resort to roadblocks to hold al and political conditions. Thirdly, then, the autonomous initiatives, exigencies and outlets the antagonistic state at bay. ‘Declarations of study of political culture requires comparative It is important to distinguish a moral econo- change. My research on twentieth-century public opinion’ issued by conferences and use of ethnography, close reading of first-hand my or ‘primordial civic realm’ from modern Yemen documents three quite distinct periods available on newsstands mix republican, tribal, accounts by anthropologists, development civil society. Historically, Middle Eastern com- of civic animation. In the modern enclave of sharia, Greek, socialist, historical, and interna- consultants, human rights monitors, and other munities provided themselves with collective late-colonial Aden, class-based labour syndi- tionalist phrases and concepts in a real, literal outside ‘participant observers’ as well as water supplies, dispute management, school- cates and merchant’s associations filled expan- contest of public discourses. In lieu of old ‘native’ reports. Mapped geographically and ing, way-stations, market-places, sanitation, sive public spaces both physically and forms of social capital formation, charitable arranged chronologically, case studies help policing and other municipal or community metaphorically Ð the streets, salons, schools, donations are solicited in the name of a ‘new show how and why rates of activism vary from services through mechanisms including waqf, publications, legal loopholes, and access to tradition’, the formalized jamaciyya khayriyya, one place or season to the next. zakat, sadaqah, tacawun, guild, tribal or ad hoc Yemeni and British public opinion. A second or welfare society, as distinctly modern as com- Research in Arabic for publication in Euro- initiatives. Although states forever strove to efflorescence of civic activity, the Yemeni self- mercial Islamic banks. pean languages is partly a translation exercise. centralize legal practice, religious tithes, and help (tacawun) movement, peaked in the Looking at civil society as a series of projects Decisions about what to transliterate or abbre- private bequests, individual and collective pro- 1970s when recycled migrants’ remittances or initiatives rather than a collection of ‘civil viate are crucial: should one render jamaci y y a jects reflecting a mix of Muslim piety, political financed country roads, primary schools, societies’ has methodological implications. khayriyya as such, or as a welfare society, or as competition, and economic rationality were a mechanized water retrieval, and the first elec- First, studying civic activism is at least partly an an NGO? Nowadays there is often the further centripetal force. In the case of Yemen, philan- trical generators in many cities, towns, and vil- archaeological venture of digging around choice of accepting a given English version of thropic and community mechanisms for fund- lages. Activism in the ’90s has been character- architectural sites and unearthing documents. an Arabic name and correcting its spelling or ing and maintaining collective goods, ground- ized, on the one hand, by unprecedentted Who built the mosques, schools, public spaces, wording. In addition to the important question ed in a pre-capitalist social formation, gave overt partisanship, formal political organizing, clinics, and clubs? How are they used? Main- of what to call things, however, is a further towns and regions relative autonomy from publishing, and holding of public events; and, tained? What is the documentation, and how issue of the unit of analysis. It is one thing to imams and sultans. Religious endowments on the other, by significant growth of the char- or where is it published or preserved? What, in research non-governmental organizations and (waqf) supported independent seminaries itable voluntary sector whose projects include other words, is the output of civic activism, quite another to document clusters of activity where scholars and judges were at least some- emergency relief, welfare programmes, health what material traces are left? within spheres such as education, social wel- times free to contradict ‘official’ versions of clinics, informal and parochial education. The Secondly, we can read texts and public dis- fare, legal practice, or publishing that may be sharia by, for instance, writing rationales for sudden, rapid expansion of political space plays. In contemporary Yemen the plethora of nationalized, secularized, privatized, or rein- spending zakat (religious tithes) on local pro- after unification and its constriction after 1994, newspapers, tabloids, and pamphlets reflect a vented depending on national politics and jects (tribal, artisan, and Jewish communities together with deepening economic crisis wide range of opinion and constant competi- economic circumstances. Current conditions in also marshalled a meagre surplus for essential prompted particular responses from various tion between the government, political par- Arab countries are hardly conducive to wide- services). It is also important not to romanti- segments of urban and rural society. Different ties, and others for the hearts and minds of an spread formal political participation, but we cize what was a zone for contestation of the movements have been reactionary or progres- ever-growing reading public. One can fill may nonetheless discover ways in which civil allocation of very scarce resources. sive, resisting or inviting commercial markets weekly calendars with seminars, conferences, society constitutes a buffer against authoritari- Times change, and with them the parame- and/or central political authority. Civic and meetings, or attending court trials and anism and deprivation. ♦ ters for civic projects. Almost everywhere in activism tends, then, to be episodic, oppor- town council sessions Ð all scripted scenes the Middle East, governments have captured tunistic, and contingent, as people act on con- open to observation, participation, and con- endowments, zakat, and education, offering in crete local circumstances. tention. Publications and events document return public-sector sanitation and infrastruc- If culture is a constant, it cannot explain such dominant and dissident discourses, positions, Dr Sheila Carapico, Department of Political Science, ture. Currently there is a veritable explosion in wide discrepancies. Of course activism is and projects. Legal defence of newspapers University of Richmond, USA. The Prince Claus Fund, in addition to the awards, rary art. Piyadasa's art, such as the collage-like Rakshan Bani-Etemad offers funding, produces publications, stimulates 'Malaysian Series', which he has been working on Rakshan Bani-Etemad (1954, Tehran, Iran) was The 1998 world-wide cultural debate, and supports activities since 1980, and his art criticism are his answer to one of the first women to make films after the Iran- and initiatives which emphasize innovation and neo-nationalistic, Islamic, and globalization cur- ian Revolution of 1979. She is now the foremost experimentation. rents in Malaysia, which have threatened to margin- female director in her country, enjoying both P r i n c e The Principal 1998 Prince Claus Award was alize minority groups and alternatives. national and international renown. Bani-Etemad awarded to the Art of African Fashion represented extends the boundaries of officially permitted by three leading