Arab Revolutions and World Transformations

This book takes a critical look at the recent uprisings unleashed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) following the tragic self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in December 2010. The subsequent revolutions and their contested aftermath have profoundly transformed the region, with implications for global politics and the governance of the world order. Arab revolutionaries have shown that it is possible to organize non-hierarchically and effect change without engendering authoritarianism. Their struggles have already inspired others around the world including the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in the US. All this might yet be a new beginning. This forum opens up space to continue the conversation about what has become a powerful, unstoppable force in the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Libya and Yemen. This book offers critical insights into these events. While the changes in the region are not yet consolidated, multiple transformative forces with rich, normative orientations have been unleashed. The shift is ongoing and the end is not yet in sight, but we have already harvested a wealth of insights into these politically and economically "insurrectional movements." Neither a footnote to the West's history, nor an appendix to neoliberal capitalist projects in the new global economy, the people are actively drawing on their power to disrupt domination and oppression. More so, their power is the multiple-worlding act of decolonization. This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.