Tunisian Revolutions – Julia Clancy-Smith (Paperback / Soft Cover)

Reflections on Seas, Coasts, and Interiors

In December 2010 an out-of-work Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire and precipitated the Arab Spring. Popular interpretations of Bouazizi’s self-immolation presented economic and political oppression by the Ben Ali regimes as the root causes of widespread social despair that triggered the Tunisian revolution. Yet as Julia Clancy-Smith points out, Tunisia’s long history of organized political activism and protest movements suggests a far more complicated set of processes. Proposing a conceptual framework of”coastalization”vs.”interiorization,”Clancy-Smith examines Tunisia’s last two centuries and demonstrates how geographical and environmental and social factors also lie behind that country’s modern political history. Within this framework Clancy-Smith explores how Tunisia’s coast became a Mediterranean playground for transnational elites, a mecca of tourism, while its interior agrarian regions suffered increasing neglect and marginalization. This distinction has had a profound impact on the fate of Tunisia and has manifested itself in divisive debates over politics, the state, and religion as well as women’s socio-legal status that have led to a series of mass civic actions culminating in revolution. Clancy-Smith proposes a fresh historical lens through which to view the relationship between spacial displacements, regionalization, and transnationalism. Georgetown Shorts-longer than an article, shorter than a book-deliver timely works of peer-reviewed scholarship in a fast-paced, agile environment. They present new ideas and original texts that are easily and widely available to students, scholars, libraries, and general readers.

Author: Julia Clancy-Smith
Format: Paperback / Soft Cover
Pages: 52
Size: Not Specified
Weight: Not Specified