Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Third World Quarterly on 15/03/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01436597.2017.1294483
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Sovereignty, bare life and the Arab Uprisings
AU - Mabon, Simon Paul
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Third World Quarterly on 15/03/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01436597.2017.1294483
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Five years after people took to the streets in protest at political organisation across the Middle East, the consequences of these actions remain. As the protests gained traction, states began to fragment and regimes sought to retain power, whatever the cost. While a great deal of focus has been upon what happened, very little attention has been paid to the role of agency within the context of the fragmenting sovereignty and political change. This article contributes to these debates by applying the work of Giorgio Agamben to the post-Arab Uprisings Middle East, to understand the relationship between rulers and ruled along with the fragmentation of the sovereign state. The article argues for the need to bring agency back into conceptual debates about sovereignty within the Middle East. It concludes by presenting a framework that offers an approach building upon Agamben’s bare life.
AB - Five years after people took to the streets in protest at political organisation across the Middle East, the consequences of these actions remain. As the protests gained traction, states began to fragment and regimes sought to retain power, whatever the cost. While a great deal of focus has been upon what happened, very little attention has been paid to the role of agency within the context of the fragmenting sovereignty and political change. This article contributes to these debates by applying the work of Giorgio Agamben to the post-Arab Uprisings Middle East, to understand the relationship between rulers and ruled along with the fragmentation of the sovereign state. The article argues for the need to bring agency back into conceptual debates about sovereignty within the Middle East. It concludes by presenting a framework that offers an approach building upon Agamben’s bare life.
KW - Arab Spring
KW - Middle East
KW - state building
KW - sectarianism and communalism
KW - Agamben
U2 - 10.1080/01436597.2017.1294483
DO - 10.1080/01436597.2017.1294483
M3 - Journal article
VL - 38
SP - 1782
EP - 1799
JO - Third World Quarterly
JF - Third World Quarterly
SN - 0143-6597
IS - 8
ER -