{"id":2146,"date":"2010-12-06T15:23:04","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T20:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/citings\/?p=2146"},"modified":"2010-12-03T07:00:52","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T12:00:52","slug":"living-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2010\/12\/06\/living-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vietnam-83\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Arab News<\/a> recently covered the two books that sociologist Asef Bayat published this year.\u00a0 In them, he uses social movement theory to explain how everyday actions create change in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

While many believe radical Islam expresses the interests of the poor, Bayat has observed that the urban poor are generally reluctant to support any kind of political movement. The poor cannot afford to be ideological, but they are interested in organizations and associations that can help them and answer their needs. Their political opinion is not linked to political Islam, but in a poor people\u2019s \u201cnonmovement,\u201d which is the main form of activism in the Muslim Middle East.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead of organized politics, everyday life turns into \u201cstreet politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concept of \u201cstreet politics\u201d is closely tied to the economic situation prevalent in the Middle East. Bayat rightly points out that the streets of Cairo, Tehran or Jakarta are jam-packed with people \u201ccompelled by the poverty or dispossession\u201d to work, socialize and spend their day in the public spaces. Streets allow people to come into contact with each other and share their problems and this can turn a small manifestation into a massive demonstration. Revolutions and protest movements originate on the streets. Therefore, authorities are often weary of the potential danger of street politics, which often reflect the feelings and opinions of a nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The organizations and associations that work to meet the needs of the poor people\u2019s \u201cnonmovement\u201d are also covered by Bayat.<\/p>\n

Bayat rightfully highlights the positive role played by Muslim movements who provided health care, education and financial aid. This is the case of the Rifah Party in Turkey, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria and how Hezbollah filled the vacuum triggered by the total absence of the state in Lebanon. The growing number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) confirms the vital role they play especially in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Sudan. Social Islam and NGOization \u201cdespite their flaws, appear to have become the dominant forms of activism that now contribute to improving some aspects of people\u2019s lives in Middle Eastern countries,\u201d writes Bayat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arab News recently covered the two books that sociologist Asef Bayat published this year.\u00a0 In them, he uses social movement theory to explain how everyday actions create change in the Middle East. While many believe radical Islam expresses the interests of the poor, Bayat has observed that the urban poor are generally reluctant to support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[29,1270,294,175],"class_list":["post-2146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-class","tag-social-change","tag-social-movement","tag-sociology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions\/2170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}