Manuel Almeida, Raiman Al-Hamdani, Austin J. Knuppe
{"title":"Understanding community resilience in Yemen: how parallel institutions meet essential needs in the absence of the state","authors":"Manuel Almeida, Raiman Al-Hamdani, Austin J. Knuppe","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2023.2265843","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2023.2265843","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTHow do Yemeni communities build and sustain resilience in wartime when state institutions are weak or absent? Based on original research across 14 communities in Yemen, this paper compares international and Yemeni conceptions of community resilience, explores how local residents assess threats to their communities, and identifies the actors, institutions, and norms that enhance community resilience. We show that parallel institutions—non-state socio-political, cultural, religious and economic networks and practices used to fill governance gaps or bypass state institutions—bolster community resilience through the provision of material, social, and existential resources. Data from the field demonstrate that patronage, kinship and brokerage are three categories of parallel institutions which, alongside civil society organisations (CSOs), play a particularly salient role in sustaining community resilience in Yemen. However, the downsides of parallel institutions—including nepotism, favouritism and further weakening of state legitimacy—pose complex challenges for the donor community and local stakeholders. The further weakening of state institutions will likely lead parallel institutions to play an increasingly salient role, while increasing the burden of providing essential services. AcknowledgmentsThe authors thank Erica DeBruin, Joey Huddleston, Chris Gelpi, Gabby Levy, Teri Murphy, Cameron Macaskill, Stacey Philbrick-Yadav, Natalie Romeri-Lewis, and Steve Sharp for their helpful comments.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ‘Human Development Report 2014: Sustaining Human. Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience’, 2014, https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/1789hdr14-report-en-1.pdf.2 Iona Craig, ‘On the ground: Done with dictatorship?’ Index on Censorship 42, no. 3 (2013): 114–116.3 Stephen W. Day, Regionalism and Rebellion in Yemen: A Troubled National Unity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).4 Helen Lackner, Yemen in Crisis: Road to War (London: Verso Books, 2019); Becky Carter, “Social Capital in Yemen”. Institute of Development Studies, 23 June 2017, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5975f1b0e5274a2897000012/138-Social-capital-in-Yemen.pdf.5 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ‘Humanitarian Response Plan. Yemen’, 25 January 2023, https://reliefweb.int/attachments/d9eed03e-0cab-4010-bb48- 618a2b0ae1aa/Ye_HRP_2023_Final.pdf.6 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ‘Yemen Country Factsheet 2022’, Jan.-Dec. 2022. https://reporting.unhcr.org/index.php/document/4387.7 It is unclear at the time of writing if the newly formed eight-man Presidential Council announced in April 2022. (requiring President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to step down) will be able to provide solutions to the fragmentation of political authority.8 ʿAqīls are locally-","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135820358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social classes and political Islam: a comparative ecological approach of post-Arab Spring elections in Northern Africa (2011- 2014)","authors":"Gilles Van hamme, Alia Gana","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2022.2079116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2079116","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Starting from the debate on the sociology of political Islam, opposing interpretations centred on identity and on specific class alliances, the paper proposes a comparative analysis of the socio-geographies of mainstream Islamist parties in the post-Arab spring period in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. The paper shows that socio-geographies of political Islam are very pronounced, making unlikely an interpretation of Islamist parties as having a purely non class-based identity. These results challenge the conception of political Islam as a hegemonic ideology among Arab populations, as such an ideology would be built on their cultural heritage, repressed both by colonialism and by post-colonial elites. This conception denies the complexity of modern Arab societies, the importance of minorities, the diversity of social trajectories and the capacity of other movements to penetrate into some deprived rural or urban areas. This analysis neither validates conclusions that political Islam is an alliance between the deprived urban classes and the traditional bourgeoisie politically excluded from the ruling post-colonial classes. Rather, one finding is that the social grounds of Islamists are very dependent on the national contexts.","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139315976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding the Jihadi Salafi threat in Jordan in 2011-2017","authors":"Mohammad Abu Rumman, Moamen Gouda, N. Bondokji","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2022.2080642","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2080642","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The number of Jordanian foreign fighters that joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq since 2011 has drawn attention to the Jihadi Salafi scene in Jordan. This article examines the profiles of 780 Jihadi Salafis who were prosecuted in 2011–2017 on terrorism-related charges by the State Security Court in Jordan. The study attributes the rise of Jihadi Salafism in Jordan to socio-economic relative deprivation. The dissatisfaction of the employed and/or educated with their status explains relative deprivation, which is also an urban central phenomenon in Jordan. However, relative deprivation does not turn into radicalization unless experienced within a closely knit social network. The article concludes that Jihadi Salafism is a middle-class urban and central phenomenon in Jordan, which is likely to continue due to unaddressed frustrations, unmet identity needs, and the social network of radicals.","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139316102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Blasphemy and apostasy in Islam: debates in Shi’a jurisprudence","authors":"Masoumeh Rad Goudarzi","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2022.2080403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2080403","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139316106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vicegerency in Islamic Thought and Scripture: Towards a Qur’anic Theory of Human Existential Function <b>Vicegerency in Islamic Thought and Scripture: Towards a Qur’anic Theory of Human Existential Function</b> , by Chauki Lazhar, London, Routledge, 2023, 284 pp., £90.00 (hardback) £35.09 eBook, ISBN: 9781032372211, eBook ISBN: 9781003335948","authors":"Putri Nurjayana Muin, None Nurmawan","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2023.2268437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2023.2268437","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135616454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The PLO’s political communication arena; Arafat and the struggle for media legitimacy","authors":"Dina Matar","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2022.2087598","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2087598","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Palestine Liberation Organization has been extensively studied and researched in a variety of disciplines and perspectives. However, little attention has been paid to its media and/or political communication strategies that went hand in hand with its political evolution and aims from 1969 to 1982, a period marked by flux and political uncertainty as well intensive PLO state-building processes. This paper seeks to partially fill the gap by addressing political communication not only as a fundamental political practice and strategy but also as an arena in which political elites compete to achieve media legitimacy and ensure support for their objectives and ideologies. Drawing on archival research of the PLO mass media platforms during the period under review, primary sources and interviews with former PLO media personnel, the paper begins with an overview of the PLO’s investment in mass media institutions and other cultural genres before discussing its political communication strategy and its aims in the period from 1969 to 1982. The paper then addresses how the late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat actively competed in the political communication arena to achieve media legitimacy and secure public consent for the PLO’s ideologies and aims. In doing so, the paper does not suggest Arafat achieved total domination of the political communication space nor that other guerrilla leaders, Arab and other actors did not compete in this arena. Rather, the approach emphasizes the relationship between political agency and structure during moments of flux and change, thus complementing dominant approaches in political communication research that focus on framing and discourse.","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139316200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Crusade of 1456 Texts and Documentation in Translation <b>The Crusade of 1456 Texts and Documentation in Translation</b> , Mixson James D, Boston, University of Toronto Press, 2022, 324 pp., $94.53 (hardback), ISBN: 978-148750 5769","authors":"Hülya Taflı Düzgün, Haydar Akçadağ","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2023.2266653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2023.2266653","url":null,"abstract":"\"The Crusade of 1456 Texts and Documentation in Translation.\" British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135883864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Classless Politics. Islamist movements, the left, and authoritarian legacies in Egypt <b>Classless Politics. Islamist movements, the left, and authoritarian legacies in Egypt</b> , by Hesham Sallam, New York, United States of America, Columbia University Press, 2022, ix-xviii+454 pp., $35 .00 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-231-203258","authors":"Francesco Cavatorta","doi":"10.1080/13530194.2023.2266651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2023.2266651","url":null,"abstract":"\"Classless Politics. Islamist movements, the left, and authoritarian legacies in Egypt.\" British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2","PeriodicalId":46267,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135645704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}