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While the Arab people took center stage in the Arab Spring protests, academic studies have focused more on structural factors to understand the limitations of these popular uprisings. This book analyzes the role and complexities of popular agency in the Arab Spring through the framework of contentious politics and social movement theory.

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´The collection is impressive for the sheer breadth and diversity of its coverage, and also for the depth of empirical research and analysis which characterize many of the essays. The essays in the volume will be of real interest to a wide range of readers, given the on going political upheaval in the Middle East.´ John Sidel, Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

´This book is a refreshing antidote to the na‹ve celebrations of the ´Arab spring´, to be replaced by the cynicism generated by its reversals, in favour of original studies of the diversity of political action and agency in specific locations and contexts, enriched by historical and comparative perspectives, and theoretical literacy.´ Sami Zubaida, Professor Emeritus of Politics and Sociology, University of London, UK

´From football fans in Egypt to foreign fighters in Syria, from Copts in Egypt, Amazigh in North Africa and Kurds in Turkey, this book explores how social identities coalesce and movements emerge and evolve in circumstances of uncertainty and contestation. A valuable volume, it brings the fresh and inventive approaches and equally provocative insights of a new generation of scholars to some of the most vexed and challenging questions in the Middle East today.´ Lisa Anderson, President of the American University in Cairo, Egypt

´The subjects featured in this book build on what we already know but also fill in many of the gaps in our current understanding of what is really happening in the region. Particularly impressive is how this collection anticipates the next areas of change. For example, Kuwait, Jordan, and Lebanon face enormous challenges, yet are often overlooked in current studies and in the media because those challenges have not yet erupted. The Middle East is changing so much and so fast that, at times, it can be difficult to keep up. With an editor of Fawaz Gerges´s standing, you know you can trust the quality of the scholarship in this book.´ ME McMillan, author of From the First World War to the Arab Spring: What´s Really Going On in the Middle East?

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