Routledge Handbook of Middle East Politics

<p>Drawing on various perspectives and analysis, the <em>Handbook</em> problematizes Middle East politics through an interdisciplinary prism, seeking a melioristic account of the field. Thematically organized, the chapters address political, social, and historical questions by showcasing both theoretical and empirical insights, all of which are represented in a style that ease readers into sophisticated induction in the Middle East.</p><p>It positions the didactic at the centre of inquiry. Contributions by forty-four scholars, both veterans and newcomers, rethink knowledge frames, conceptual categories, and fieldwork praxis. Substantive themes include secularity and religion, gender, democracy, authoritarianism, and new "borderline" politics of the Middle East. Like any field of knowledge, the Middle East is constituted by texts, authors, and readers, but also by the cultural, spatial, and temporal contexts within which diverse intellectual inflections help construct (write–speak) academic meaning, knowing, and practice. By denaturalizing notions of singularity of authorship or scholarship, the <em>Handbook</em> plants a dialogic interplay animated by multi-vocality, multi-modality, and multi-disciplinarity.</p><p>Targeting graduate students and young scholars of political and social sciences, the <em>Handbook</em> is significant for understanding how the Middle East is written and re-written, read and re-read (epistemology, methodology), and for how it comes to exist (ontology).</p> <p>1. Introduction<strong><em> </em></strong>Middle East Politics: A Field in Transit <em>Larbi Sadiki </em><strong>I. Knowledge Frames and Horizons </strong>2. Middle of Where? East of What? Simulated Postcoloniality’s Assemblages, Rhizomes and Simulacra <em>Larbi Sadiki </em>3. Traveling the Middle East without a Map: Three Main Debates <em>Bahgat Korany </em>4. Literature in the Arab Postcolony <em>Miriam Cooke </em>5. The Primacy of Fieldwork: Inductive Explorations of the MENA State <em>Laurie A. Brand </em>6. Nationalism in the Arab Middle East: Resolving Some Problems <em>James Gelvin </em>7. Studying the International Relations of the Arabian Peninsula/Persian Gulf: A Personal Account and a Theoretical Overview <em>F. Gregory Gause III </em>8. Committed History: Sticking to Facts and Adhering to Principles <em>Ilan Pappe </em>9. Reimagining the Middle East and Its Place in the World <em>Robert Bianchi </em><strong>II. Towards Re-conceptualizations of the Democratic and the Authoritarian </strong>10. Survey Research and the Study of Politics in the Arab World <em>Mark Tessler</em> 11. Authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa: the trajectories of the MENA republics <em>Raymond Hinnebusch</em> 12. <strong>‘</strong>Economic Reform’ Since the 1980s: The Political Corollaries of a Political Project <em>Eberhard Kienle</em> 13. Overcoming Exceptionalism-Party Politics and Voting Behavior in the Middle East and North Africa <em>Francesco Cavatorta </em>14. Elections in authoritarian contexts: The case of Algeria <em>Youcef Bouandel </em><strong>III. The Secular and the Religious: Questions and Contests </strong>15. The Challenges of Researching Political Islam <em>Beverly Milton-Edwards </em>16. The Other Side of Middle Eastern Studies: On Democracy, Violence and Islam <em>Abdelwahab El-Affendi </em>17. Sectarian fault lines in the Middle East: sources of conflicts or communal bonds? <em>Keiko Sakai and Kota Suechika </em>18. The Unseen in the Islamic Awakening: Walking with the Muslim Jesus <em>Raymond William Baker </em>19. Re-thinking Shi¿i political theology <em>Naser Ghobadzadeh</em> 20. Patronage in Reverse and the Secular State in Egypt <em>Mohammed Moussa </em><strong>IV. Gendered Relations and Realities: Critical Interpretations </strong>21. Gender and Politics in the Middle East <em>Nicola Pratt </em>22. Islam and Resistance in the Middle East: A Methodology of Muslim Struggle and the Impact on Women <em>Maria Holt </em>23. Gender, Religion, and Politics in Jewish and Muslim Contexts: The Case of Israel <em>Lihi Ben Shitrit</em> 24. Gender: Still a Useful Category to Analyze Middle East History? A View from Egypt (1919-2019) <em>Lucia Sorbera </em><strong>V. Borderline Politics: Claims and Counter-claims </strong>25. Social Movements and the Middle East <em>Anne Marie Baylouny </em>26. Sports and politics: The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer <em>James M. Dorsey </em>27. Various Faces of Violent Radicalisation in the Syrian Crisis: the Case of Tripoli <em>Marie Kortam </em>28. Non-state actors and ‘the international’: counterinsurgency and empire in the Middle East<em> Marina Calculli </em>29. Start with the Art: New Ways of Understanding the Political in the Middle East <em>Kirsten Scheid </em>30. Truth to Power: On Digital Scene-Making <em>Tarek El-Ariss </em>31. Bread and its Subsidy: Some Reflections <em>Jose Ciro Martinez </em><strong>VI. Conceptual Categories: Reflexive Notes </strong>32. Distributive Politics in the Middle East <em>Lisa Blaydes </em>33. The Rule of Law in the Contemporary Arab Middle East <em>David Mednicoff </em>34. The Politics of Identity in the Middle East: Rereading Arab Nationalism <em>Youssef M. Choueiri </em>35. On the Intertwinement of the Political and the Intellectual in Modern Arab History <em>Elizabeth Kassab </em>36. Studying the Middle East Security Sector: A Conceptual Framework <em>Oren Barak</em> 37. Reflections on Doing Digital Humanities in the Context of the Middle East <em>Minoo Moallem </em>38. The Theoretical and Methodological Traps in Studying Sectarianism in the Middle East: Neo-Primordialism and ‘Clichéd Constructivism’ <em>Rima Majed </em>39. Tentative Notes on Syria’s Uprising: Researching Protest Politics in the Diaspora <em>Layla Saleh </em><strong>VII. Navigating The Field: Notes And Outlooks </strong>40. Researching Iranian history and politics: a guide for the perplexed <em>Ali M. Ansari</em> 41. Investigating Tribalism and Civil Society in Qatar <em>Ali A. Hadi Alshawi </em>42. Yemen: The Case of Politics, Tribes and Instability <em>Bakeel Alzandani </em>43. Is Sustainable Development Possible Under Occupation?<strong><em> </em></strong>The Case of Palestine <em>Basem Ezbidi </em>44. Palestinian Politics in One Century, from Sykes-Picot to Post Oslo Agreement - A Time for a Re-Evaluation <em>As’ad Ghanem </em>45. Concluding Remarks: Quandaries of Researching Middle East Politics <em>Sheila Carapico</em></p>