The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – at the interlocking levels of politics, economy, and society – have been different across regions, states, and societies. In the case of the Middle East and North Africa, which was already in the throes of intense tumult following the onset of the 2011 Arab Spring, COVID's blows have on the one hand followed the trajectory of some global patterns, while at the same time playing out in regionally specific ways.
Based on empirical country-level analysis, this volume brings together an international team of contributors seeking to untangle how COVID-19 unfolds across the MENA. The analyses are framed through a contextual adaptation of Ulrich Beck's famous concept of “risk society” that pinpointed the negative consequences of modernity and its unbridled capitalism. The book traces how this has come home in full force in the COVID-19 pandemic. The editors, Larbi Sadiki and Layla Saleh, use the term "Arab risk society". They highlight short-term and long-term repercussions across the MENA. These include socio-economic inequality, a revitalized state of authoritarianism challenged by relentless democratic struggles.
But the analyses are attuned to problem-solving research. The "ethnographies of the pandemic" included in this book investigate transformations and coping mechanisms within each country case study. They provide an ethically-informed research praxis that can respond to the manifold crises crashing down upon MENA polities and societies
Author(s): Larbi Sadiki, Layla Saleh
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 313
City: London
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 1: MENA Risk Society and the “Pandemic Condition”
Part I: The Gulf
Chapter 2: Small States of the Arab Gulf: Diplomatic Dimensions of a Pandemic
Chapter 3: Accelerating AI-led Structural Transformation of the GCC Migration Regimes in the Wake of COVID-19 and the Implications for the Labor-Exporting Countries
Chapter 4: Socioeconomic Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the GCC Countries: Threats and Opportunities
Part II: The Maghreb (Western MENA)
Chapter 5: North Africa and the Pandemic
Chapter 6: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Political and Social Frames in Morocco from a Democratic Perspective
Part III: The Mashreq (Eastern MENA)
Chapter 7: Risking Health Security: COVID-19, the WHO, and the Limits of the State in Egypt
Chapter 8: Dual Combat: Resisting COVID-19 and the Israeli Occupation
Chapter 9: Crisis and Ceding of State Sovereignty: The Case of Lebanon and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Part IV: Wider MENA
Chapter 10: Gendering Security: The Impact of COVID-19 on Refugee Women in Turkey
Chapter 11: Risky Pedagogies: Macro- and Micro-Politics of the Virus in the Times of COVID-19 Epidemic
Part V: Regional Perspectives
Chapter 12: EU-MENA Relations amid COVID-19 Pandemic. Between Economic Issues, Migration Challenges and Authoritarian Risk
Chapter 13: The Post-Pandemic Bifurcation: Democratization versus Oligarchy Radicalization in the Arab World
Conclusion
Chapter 14: A Matter of Pandemics, Politics, and Academics: The Conundrums of Researching COVID-19 in MENA
Index
