Session 1 - Current state of social science research on democratization processes in the Maghreb and the Middle East : new contributions, renewed approaches

Moderated by : Claire Talon

Abstract

• Arab revolutions: what lessons for the social sciences (and vice versa)? (Stéphane Lacroix)
• Beyond authoritarianism and transition: rethinking the paradigm of political transformation in the Arab world (Mohamed-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou)
• In search of a model Arab-Muslim political regime? The role of socio-political and socio-historical heritage in the Arab revolutions (Jalila Sbaï)

This first round-table examines the production of knowledge on the collective dynamics at work in the Arab world, from the "springs" of 2011 to the uprisings in Algeria and Sudan.

How have the Arab springs impacted research (sociology, political science, history?)? How do the changes at work in the Mashreq and Maghreb imply the emergence of new democratic political practices likely to renew the dominant approaches in the field of democracy and social movement studies?

What is the role of new actors (activists, etc.) and Arab intellectuals in the production of knowledge?

What is the place of "local knowledge" (documentation projects, archiving, surveys in Arabic, etc.) in transitional processes and theories of democratization?

Claire Talon (moderator)

Claire Talon holds a doctorate in political science from Sciences Po Paris (Middle East-Mediterranean Chair), a master's degree in modern literature from Paris-Diderot University and a bachelor's degree in contemporary Arabic studies from the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco). She is the author of Al Jazeera, Liberté d'expression et pétromonarchie (PUF, 2011). Between 2011 and 2013, she was Le Monde 's correspondent in Egypt, also contributing to several media, including Mediapart, Le Monde diplomatique and Orient XXI. She then held the position of Director of the Maghreb-Middle East office of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) in Paris before joining the Arab Reform Initiative Research Center, where she held the position of Senior Researcher. She is currently Senior Researcher at CAREP Paris.

Stéphane Lacroix

Stéphane Lacroix obtained a doctorate in political science in 2007 after studying Arabic at Inalco and mathematics at Paris-VI. In 2008, he was awarded the Prix de thèse by the Association française de sciences sociales des religions.

He was a post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University (Abbassi Program in Islamic Studies/Department of Political Science) in 2008-2009, then a visiting researcher at the Centre d'études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales in Cairo between 2010 and 2013. He is currently Associate Professor at Sciences Po's School of International Affairs (PSIA).

Mohamed-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou

Mohamed-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is Professor of International History and Head of the Department of International History at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, as well as Visiting Professor at the doctoral school of Sciences Po Paris. Previously Associate Director of the Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research Program at Harvard University, Cambridge, he is the author of a trilogy on the post-September 11 era: Contre-croisade: Le 11 septembre et le retournement du monde (2004), Understanding Al Qaeda: Changing War and Global Politics (2011) and A Theory of ISIS: Political Violence and the Transformation of the Global Order (2018); Iraq and the Second Gulf War: State-Building and Regime Security (2002); as well as co-editor (with Timothy Sisk) of Democratization in the 21st century: Reviving Transitology (2016).

Jalila Sbaï

Historian, research associate at the Contemporary History of the Arab World Chair at the Collège de France and lecturer at the University of Le Havre, Jalila Sbaï is a specialist in French Muslim politics. She has taught at Sciences-Po Rabat, Rabat International University. She has also taught the history of the Arab East at Inalco. She is the author of La politique musulmane de la France. Un projet chrétien pour l'islam? 1911-1954 (CNRS Éditions, 2018), grand prix des journées d'histoire du monde arabe, Institut du monde arabe à Paris, 2019.