[ecrea] cfp - Special Issue on Arab Cosmopolitanism

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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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