Periodic Reporting for period 4 - DREAM (Drafting and Enacting the Revolutions in the Arab Mediterranean.In search of Dignity, from the 1950’s until today)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-06-30
What happened almost ten years ago in the Arab world? If uprisings occurred almost simultaneously in several Maghreb and Middle Eastern countries from 17 December 2010 onwards, does this mean that the same things happened in each of these countries? What has been called the Arab revolutions has been the subject of abundant production, in terms of scientific research, but also and above all in all spheres of political and economic expertise. But few projects have turned to understanding the social history of the region, which has been somewhat neglected since the end of the 1970s, in an attempt to investigate the roots of the revolt in the region, and to answer the two questions posed by the 2011 moment: why now, and how to explain the shared destiny between these parts of the world.
The project sets out the hypothesis that the post-independence period of the different countries in the region (exception of Palestine) has brought about new horizons of emancipation and has put the notion of dignity at their heart. We want to make a history of the political emotion called dignity (Karama) in the Mediterranean Arab world since independence. It seeks to conceive ways of comparing revolutionary projects and episodes in the region, postulating that their matrices and ways of doing things constitute a transnational space of revolt whose base is the quest for dignity, which came to complete the desire for freedom and independence that guided the anti-imperialist movements, to accompany the struggles for autonomy or emancipation of different segments and sectors of society, and even to subsume the whole of social struggles, whatever their political, religious or historical references.
It is not easy to conclude such a project. The situation in the Middle East and North Africa where we see the fading of many of the hopes that we documented throughout the project made it often difficult to handle and meet the deadlines. Some members of the team are in the present moment facing the bombings in Lebanon or have part of their family there; others are facing the worsening of the Asylum situation in Europe and have to fight on a daily basis to guarantee their presence in the countries they ended up living in. These situations are not only side details in the context of a project like this one. Navigating the administration in Germany or France, worrying about your people at home, making sure you don’t get arrested… this has been part of our continuing discussions. This is part of our research on dignity.
Considering all this complicated context, we achieved a lot, and we are still in the process of publishing, making visible our work. This may need a little more time than expected, but we hope to see all this work readable in French, English and Arabic.
The project sets out the hypothesis that the post-independence period of the different countries in the region (exception of Palestine) has brought about new horizons of emancipation and has put the notion of dignity at their heart. We want to make a history of the political emotion called dignity (Karama) in the Mediterranean Arab world since independence. It seeks to conceive ways of comparing revolutionary projects and episodes in the region, postulating that their matrices and ways of doing things constitute a transnational space of revolt whose base is the quest for dignity, which came to complete the desire for freedom and independence that guided the anti-imperialist movements, to accompany the struggles for autonomy or emancipation of different segments and sectors of society, and even to subsume the whole of social struggles, whatever their political, religious or historical references.
It is not easy to conclude such a project. The situation in the Middle East and North Africa where we see the fading of many of the hopes that we documented throughout the project made it often difficult to handle and meet the deadlines. Some members of the team are in the present moment facing the bombings in Lebanon or have part of their family there; others are facing the worsening of the Asylum situation in Europe and have to fight on a daily basis to guarantee their presence in the countries they ended up living in. These situations are not only side details in the context of a project like this one. Navigating the administration in Germany or France, worrying about your people at home, making sure you don’t get arrested… this has been part of our continuing discussions. This is part of our research on dignity.
Considering all this complicated context, we achieved a lot, and we are still in the process of publishing, making visible our work. This may need a little more time than expected, but we hope to see all this work readable in French, English and Arabic.
Throughout the project, significant efforts have been made to establish a comprehensive archival and documentary toolkit aimed at facilitating a transnational and diachronic comparison. A key focus during the last years has been the identification, collection, and description of relevant documentary collections, accompanied by monitoring contemporary events, particularly the recent uprisings in Algeria and Lebanon.
The theoretical advancement of the project focused on formulating cross-cutting questions that document episodes of uprising and revolt. A central theme has been the connection between social and economic crises and revolution, revisited through the lens of the moral economy of the peoples in revolt. Additionally, the role of women in these uprisings has been highlighted as a crucial area of inquiry, revealing underrepresented actors and practices.
The main results of the project can be categorized into four key areas:
Development of Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses: Regular seminars were organized to discuss the concept of dignity in the context of revolt. Some research outputs have already been presented at conferences and workshops, and several articles are in preparation for publication in 2025.
Development of a Specific Methodology: we made use of sensitive cartography to present collected data. We also applied new methodologies while collecting the datas and the archives, methodolies inspired by our reflections on the question of dignity. This led us to a radical change of paradigm in the way we envisioned the relationship to archives and documentation. This has been developed in several publications of the PI and the team (Guilia Fabbiano ed.)
Collection and Interpretation of Archival Data: Despite the limitations imposed by COVID-19, significant collections have been digitized and archived, including the Mehdi Amil collection and interviews with former activists. Some collections are still in the process of being stored and made accessible. These collections serve as the foundation for future research projects and creative expressions (theatre project of Wael Ali).
Overall, the work carried out thus far has laid the groundwork for future research and provided valuable insights into the dynamics of protest and revolt in the region. The upcoming publications and exhibitions will help disseminate the findings to a broader audience and further deepen the discourse on the role of dignity in social movements. Our research has inspired a project which received a Consolidator Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, led by historian Falestin Naili (University of Basel): "Futures Interrupted: social pluralism and political projects beyond coloniality and the nation-state". PI Leyla Dakhli and Falestin Naili have a contract to write a book on the Interrupted futures and dreams of Palestine (Éditions La Découverte, forthcoming 2026).
The theoretical advancement of the project focused on formulating cross-cutting questions that document episodes of uprising and revolt. A central theme has been the connection between social and economic crises and revolution, revisited through the lens of the moral economy of the peoples in revolt. Additionally, the role of women in these uprisings has been highlighted as a crucial area of inquiry, revealing underrepresented actors and practices.
The main results of the project can be categorized into four key areas:
Development of Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses: Regular seminars were organized to discuss the concept of dignity in the context of revolt. Some research outputs have already been presented at conferences and workshops, and several articles are in preparation for publication in 2025.
Development of a Specific Methodology: we made use of sensitive cartography to present collected data. We also applied new methodologies while collecting the datas and the archives, methodolies inspired by our reflections on the question of dignity. This led us to a radical change of paradigm in the way we envisioned the relationship to archives and documentation. This has been developed in several publications of the PI and the team (Guilia Fabbiano ed.)
Collection and Interpretation of Archival Data: Despite the limitations imposed by COVID-19, significant collections have been digitized and archived, including the Mehdi Amil collection and interviews with former activists. Some collections are still in the process of being stored and made accessible. These collections serve as the foundation for future research projects and creative expressions (theatre project of Wael Ali).
Overall, the work carried out thus far has laid the groundwork for future research and provided valuable insights into the dynamics of protest and revolt in the region. The upcoming publications and exhibitions will help disseminate the findings to a broader audience and further deepen the discourse on the role of dignity in social movements. Our research has inspired a project which received a Consolidator Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, led by historian Falestin Naili (University of Basel): "Futures Interrupted: social pluralism and political projects beyond coloniality and the nation-state". PI Leyla Dakhli and Falestin Naili have a contract to write a book on the Interrupted futures and dreams of Palestine (Éditions La Découverte, forthcoming 2026).
These research objectives break with the usual categories of understanding of protest movements in the Arab world by their interdisciplinary nature and by the application of a historian's methodology that focuses on the centrality of the use of the archive and the understanding of the role of the archive in establishing a social science analysis. The other important contribution is the work on the transnational dimension, which we choose to carry out by establishing thematic points of comparison, and by establishing micro-historical objects of study in the different spaces.
This project aims to renew the terms of historiography and discussion in the humanities and social sciences on the revolutionary question by de-centring it from European and North American spaces, but also from analyses inherited from Marxist and anti-imperialist conceptions. It seems fundamental today to resume investigations in the light of what is expressed by the voices of the revolted. It is the bias of this work to listen carefully to "what the subalterns say" in particular moments, those when they are determined to "make themselves heard". What they say, far from being simply a succession of slogans or inaudible cries, appears to us to constitute the framework of a revolutionary worldview that contains lessons about our history and our present.
Our publications accompany the work undertaken, they constitute stages in the intellectual process. Experiments carried out with artists make it possible to unlock questions linked to oral history, to speaking about the contemporary as well as the past, and to elaborate other ways of restoring a history of the sensible dimension of revolt, which is that of facts and gestures, but also of dreams and aspirations.
This project aims to renew the terms of historiography and discussion in the humanities and social sciences on the revolutionary question by de-centring it from European and North American spaces, but also from analyses inherited from Marxist and anti-imperialist conceptions. It seems fundamental today to resume investigations in the light of what is expressed by the voices of the revolted. It is the bias of this work to listen carefully to "what the subalterns say" in particular moments, those when they are determined to "make themselves heard". What they say, far from being simply a succession of slogans or inaudible cries, appears to us to constitute the framework of a revolutionary worldview that contains lessons about our history and our present.
Our publications accompany the work undertaken, they constitute stages in the intellectual process. Experiments carried out with artists make it possible to unlock questions linked to oral history, to speaking about the contemporary as well as the past, and to elaborate other ways of restoring a history of the sensible dimension of revolt, which is that of facts and gestures, but also of dreams and aspirations.