The Making of the Tunisian Revolution: Contexts, Architects, Prospects - Softcover

Nouri Gana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0748691049 ISBN 13: 9780748691043

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2013

Synopsis

This is a full history of the Tunisian revolution, from its roots decades ago to the ongoing process of becoming a democracy. From late 2010 to the present day, the Arab world has been shot through with insurrection and revolt. As a result, Tunisia is now seen as the unlikely birthplace and exemplar of the process of democratisation long overdue in the Arab world. Mixing political, historical, economic, social and cultural analyses and approaches, these essays reflection the local, regional and transnational dynamics together with the long- and short-term factors that, when combined, set in motion the Tunisian revolution and the Arab uprisings. Above all, the book maps the intertwined genealogies of cultural dissent that contributed to the mobilisation of protesters and sustained the protests between 17th December 2010 and 14th January 2011, and beyond. It features 13 essays by an international and interdisciplinary set of experienced and emerging scholars who are active in researching and writing about the Tunisian and Arab Spring revolutions.It maps the origins of the Tunisian revolution, seeing it as an event that was years in the making after decades of 'collaborative revolutionism' across spaces, places and generations. It explores the various traditions of dissent under Bourguiba and Ben Ali. It includes important reflections on the major debates that dominated the post-revolutionary scene and continue to inform the transition to democracy.

About this title

Review

The Making of the Tunisian Revolution offers an early and impressive appraisal of the roots and results of a revolution that came to alter the political landscape of the Arab world for good. --Asef Bayat, Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, University of Illinois

This is a readable, strong book whose authors individually and collectively narrate and contextualise Tunisia's revolution masterfully. No other text on the Arab World's first revolution matches this book in terms of substance, evidence, intelligence and clarity of purpose and direction. Nouri Gana and his co-authors must be applauded for finally giving readers a book the chief distinction of which is rich food for thought for all types of readers - the specialist and the lay. This is a work that reveals under-studied dimensions and new angles, presenting the revolutionary foundation in greater depth and detail than any book I have read so far in English and French on the Tunisian political tsunami of 2011. It is a definite must. --Larbi Sadiki, specialist on Arab democratisation, University of Exeter, Qatar University, Al Jazeera English columnist

The seismic event surrounding Tunisia s Arab Spring has reverberated throughout the world creating in its wake a multitude of observational accounts seeking to explain the Tunisian phenomenon. Yet few have been able to provide the kind of contextual richness and analytical sharpness as the authors of this edited volume. Conceptualized within a historically defined pathway, The Making of the Tunisian Revolution creatively intersects contexts, architects, and prospects to provide a compelling narrative within which to understand the multilayered character of the Tunisian revolutionary experience. Meticulously researched by authors with direct experience in the country, this multi-disciplinary and highly readable book should find a wide audience within academic and policy circles as it constitutes the most authoritative, fair-minded, and deeply informed account of the Tunisian revolution yet published. --John P. Entelis, Professor of Political Science at Fordham University

About the Author

Nouri Gana is Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA. He is author of Signifying Loss: Toward a Poetics of Narrative Mourning (Bucknell University Press, 2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0748691049
• ISBN 13: 9780748691043
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Nouri Gana