The Arab Spring

| May 01, 2012 | Comments 0

A refreshing, thoughtful and historical reading of the dramatic changes sweeping the Arab world.’ Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst, Al Jazeera

[amazon_enhanced asin="1780322232" container="div" container_class="bookbox" price="All" background_color="FFFFFF" link_color="000000" text_color="0000FF" /]For well over a year now, the dramatic, revolutionary unfolding of the ‘Arab Spring’ has dominated world events. What does The Arab Spring really mean? What has, and will it achieve?

No one is better place to examine these crucial questions than Hamid Dabashi. Acclaimed scholar, critic and cultural observer, Dabashi has an intimate knowledge of the region, its geopolitics, history and societies, and the interpretive power to see clearly into the face of the revolution.

By examining the causes, actions and outcomes of the Arab Spring in its many different locations, Dabashi predicts that the Arab Spring heralds no less than the end of postcolonialism. He sees the possibility of a new world order, a new international understanding, and a new social and cultural awareness – the true end to the oppressive colonial mindset which has weighed so unrelentingly over post-war international relations.

Dabashi believes that the power and force of the actions and vocabulary of those who have risen up as part of The Arab Spring are new. They are a calling card for change – real change, not just the replacement of one oppressive regime by another. More than that, they are a signifier of a new language of understanding, of expectation, of hope for the marginalised, ‘orientalised’ people of the world – a language of equality.

This, argues Dabashi, is what The Arab Spring will come to mean for us all.

…

‘Dabashi provides a revolutionary, imaginative and open-ended reading of what will turn out to be a founding moment of the twenty-first century.’ Fawwaz Traboulsi, author of A History of Modern Lebanon

‘Embracing the poetic justice of the Arab Spring, Hamid Dabashi seizes upon and expresses the lyrical. He recounts philosophically an open-ended non-linear story, which is still in the making.’ Elia Suleiman, filmmaker

The Arab Spring by Hamid Dabashi is published by Zed Books, priced £12.99/$19.95, ISBN 9781780322230, available from 10th May 2012. For more information or to request a bound proof please contact Ruvani de Silva, Publicity Manager at Zed Books on 020 7837 8466 or [email protected] http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/paperback/

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About the Author: I'm a sociologist at Athabasca University where I coordinate,amongst other things, the introductory sociology courses (Sociology I and Sociology II). FYI I did my dissertation in the political economy of scholarly communication (you can read it if you want). It's not that bad. My current interests lie in the area of scholarly communication and pedagogy, the sociology of spirituality and religion, consciousness research, entheogens, inequality and stratification, and the revolutionary potential of authentic spirituality. The Socjourn is my pet project. It started as the Electronic Journal of Sociology but after watching our social elites systematically dismantle the potential of eJournals to alter the politics and economies of scholarly communication, I decided I'd try something a little different. That something is The Socjourn, a initiative that bends the rules of scholarly communication and pedagogy by disregarding academic ego and smashing down the walls that divide our little Ivory Tower world from the rest of humanity. If you are a sociologist or a sociology student and you have a burning desire to engage in a little institutional demolition by perhaps writing for the Socjourn, contact me. If you are a graduate student and you have some ideas that you think I might find interesting, contact me. I supervise graduate students through Athabasca Universities MAIS program.

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