Tunisian Revolutions : reflections on seas, coasts, and interiors /

"In December 2010 an out-of-work Tunisian merchant, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire and precipitated the Arab Spring. Popular interpretations of Bouazizi's self-immolation viewed economic and political despair as the root of the Tunisian revolution, but as Julia Clancy-Smith points o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clancy-Smith, Julia Ann (Author)
Corporate Author: Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: [Washington, D.C.] : Georgetown University Press, [2014]
Subjects:
Description
Summary:"In December 2010 an out-of-work Tunisian merchant, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire and precipitated the Arab Spring. Popular interpretations of Bouazizi's self-immolation viewed economic and political despair as the root of the Tunisian revolution, but as Julia Clancy-Smith points out, Tunisia's long history of revolutions and protest movements presents a far more complicated set of causes. Proposing a conceptual framework of "coastalization" v. "interiorization, " Clancy-Smith examines Tunisia's last two centuries and demonstrates how geographical and environmental and social factors also lie behind that country's volatile history. Within this framework Clancy-Smith explores how Tunisia's coast became a Mediterranean playground for transnational elites, a mecca of tourism, while its interior agrarian regions suffered increasing neglect and marginalization. This distinction has had a profound impact on the fate of Tunisia, and has manifested itself in divisive debates over politics and religion and gender that have lead to a series of mass civic actions that continue to this day. Clancy-Smith proposes a fresh historical lens through which to view the relationship between spacial displacements, regionalization, and transnationalism."--Provided by publisher
"In December 2010 an out-of-work Tunisian merchant, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire and precipitated the Arab Spring. Popular interpretations of Bouazizi's self-immolation viewed economic and political despair as the root of the Tunisian revolution, but as Julia Clancy-Smith points out, Tunisia's long history of revolutions and protest movements presents a far more complicated set of causes. Proposing a conceptual framework of "coastalization" v. "interiorization," Clancy-Smith examines Tunisia's last two centuries and demonstrates how geographical and environmental and social factors also lie behind that country's volatile history. Within this framework Clancy-Smith explores how Tunisia's coast became a Mediterranean playground for transnational elites, a mecca of tourism, while its interior agrarian regions suffered increasing neglect and marginalization. This distinction has had a profound impact on the fate of Tunisia, and has manifested itself in divisive debates over politics and religion and gender that have lead to a series of mass civic actions that continue to this day. Clancy-Smith proposes a fresh historical lens through which to view the relationship between spacial displacements, regionalization, and transnationalism."--Provided by publisher
Physical Description:1 online resource (vi, 46 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color)
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-45)
ISBN:1626162131
9781626162136