المنتدى

This panel invites participants to explore the role of sociology in post-uprising (the Arab Spring) transformations in the Arab World. Panelists should not emphasize the question of the influence of societal transformations on sociology as it is relatively well researched and is not the focus of this panel. Aiming to fill this void, we suggest the Cultural Political Economy (CPE) as the starting point, with a view to focus on how sociologies (re)create social, political, and economic imaginaries and thus formulate a particular conception of society. As hypotheses we posit the importance of two factors: how much sociology is autonomous as field and the how robust the role played in each Arab Society. This approach was tested in the forthcoming edited book Sociologies in Post-Socialist Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe (Borut Rončević and Tamara Besednjak Valič; Springer 2024).

In case studies the participants may deal with the impact of sociology on different levels, focusing on its emergent level, thereby understanding sociology as a science, profession, and specific expertise, or individual level, implying the impact of individual sociologists/anthropologists through their different roles as academics, educators, public intellectuals, experts, politicians, or civil society activists. As a timeframe, we are interested initially post Arab Spring from 2011till now but for some Arabic countries participants may feel the need to go earlier to capture their own specific geo-political, economic, political and environmental challenges. When necessary, a brief excursion to how sociology was exercised before 2011 is also encouraged.

Session Organizers:

Sari HANAFI, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, sh41@aub.edu.lb
Borut RONCEVIC, School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, borut.roncevic@fuds.si

To submit your abstract: https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2025/rc/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=19211

Deadline for submissions: October 15, 2024