Tunisian Revolutions : Reflections on Seas, Coasts, and Interiors / Julia Clancy-Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clancy-Smith, Julia, author.

Georgetown University. Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, author.

Contributor:

Georgetown University. Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coasts--Tunisia.

Coasts.

Mediterranean Coast (Tunisia).

Tunisia--Population.

Tunisia.

Tunisia--Politics and government.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (53 p.)

Place of Publication:

[Washington, District of Columbia] : Georgetown University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

A note on transliteration

Introduction

Preludes and postscripts : of baguettes and social protest

Coastalization : agriculture, colonialism, and the granary of Rome

Coastalization and globalization : tourism, profane and sacred

Mediterranean women, politics, and Islam

Mediterranean games, politics, and dissent

From Sidi Bou Saʻid to Sidi Bouzid : targets and symbols

Conclusion.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Issued by Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-45).

ISBN:

9781626162136

1626162131

OCLC:

897377310