Book author discusses his work on role of popular politics in the Middle East

The Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science John Chalcraft presented on May 27, 2017 a lecture on the subject of his book “Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East” in a lecture organized by Ibrahim Abu Lughod Institute of International Studies at Birzeit the university.

Chalcraft looked at how unorganized groups and citizens have long mobilized in defiance of authorities and forges a new narrative of change over time.

From the uprising in Ottoman Egypt against the French occupation to the Arab uprisings of 2011, Chalcraft talked about a wide variety of mobilizing projects, which have brought into being new collective actors and thereby weighed heavily in the region's political dynamics and settlements.

According to Chalcraft, one should look at the pressures that societies face, such as unemployment, government neglect and economic deterioration, in order to explain how popular revolutions emerge.

The author Chalcraft said that the book is based on an original conceptual framework that challenges both socioeconomic determinism and power-lite theories of contentious politics.