Archive for 2017

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[ecrea] cfp - Special Issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism

Fri Oct 13 08:37:47 GMT 2017




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Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication


Special Issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism - previously distributed but **** Extended deadline until Friday 24 November 2017 ****


The question of Arab cosmopolitanism has been a complex and highly shifting one in light of a region that has experienced vast and ongoing socio-cultural transformation over the last century. The decline of the Ottoman Empire, the fall of Western colonial imperialism, the onset of the Palestinian crisis and the ongoing war with Israel, the emergence and widespread popularity of Arab nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism, and the recent rise of different Arab populations against their authoritarian regimes – all have raised vital questions about this region’s relationship to the world.


Problematically, many cosmopolitan analyses of the Arab region have been driven by a tendency to examine this part of the world through an orientalist lens, thus departing from an assumption of /colonial/ dependency (Zubaida, 1999; Meijer 1999), or more recently, a state of /economic/ dependency on the west as befitting a globalised era of western cultural dominance (Gahannam, 2006; Schielke, 2012).

In spite of these shortcomings, the most recent turn towards Arab cosmopolitanism has remained vital in paving the way for a more thoroughly situated and contextualised understanding of the specific mechanisms of Arab everyday life from below, revealing a nuanced reality of power, repression, inequality, but also one of intense cosmopolitan interaction – on both internal and external levels (Bayat, 2010). The 2010-2011 Arab Spring, signalling a new socio-economic and political chapter in contemporary Arab history, has further opened a new conversation whether new possibilities are now available for Arab cosmopolitanism (Leichtman and Schulz, 2012; Webb, 2014).


This Special Issue seeks to take a step back from current events and to develop:

1) a /synchronic/ understanding of how we can formulate new theoretical perspectives and concepts that will allow us to make sense of the present moment in light of the recent episode of Arab socio-cultural and political change, and

2) a more historically contextualised /diachronic/ understanding of how Arab cosmopolitanism has evolved to its current state.


More specifically, we ask: to what extent have the Arab uprisings acted as a catalyst resurrecting new forms of Arab cosmopolitanism and a sense of belonging to the wider world? What are the continuities and differences compared to older forms of cosmopolitanism? In what ways have recent patterns of exile, migration and militant occupation encouraged Arab citizens, governments and organisations to rethink ideas of inside and outside, and to reformulate their relationship to the nation, God and the world in new ways? What specific mechanisms of communication underpin such divergent processes?

We welcome theoretical, historical and empirical contributions around, but not limited to, the following suggested topics:

-The historical development of cosmopolitanism in the Arab region

-Migration/diaspora

-Cosmopolitanism and everyday life in post-uprising Arab countries

-Media and cosmopolitanism

-Activism and a cosmopolitan agenda

-Sate-driven cosmopolitanisms

-Religion and cosmopolitanism

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*Deadline for submission of abstracts: Friday 24 November 2017.*

Please email your abstracts (300 words max) and a short biography to Dr Heba Elsayed and Professor Adam Webb:


Email addresses:

(elsayed.h85 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(elsayed.h85 /at/ gmail.com)>

(awebb13 /at/ jhu.edu) <mailto:(awebb13 /at/ jhu.edu)>

*Deadline for submission of complete manuscripts is Friday 27 April 2018.*

*Please note that submitted manuscripts are not guaranteed automatic acceptance for publication, as the journal follows a strict blind-refereeing process.


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