reflection short writting for Prof. Mintella

CHAPTER 2: MUSLIM YOUTH AND THE CLAIM OF YOUTHFULNESS

Asef Bayat

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What is youth politics about?

How can youth movements be theorized?

Are youth movements potential sources of democratization and social change?

LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING LITERATURE

Studies on youth activism do not center on the concept of “youth”

Distinction between the terms ‘young’ and ‘youth’

THEORIZING YOUTH MOVEMENTS

Youth Movements are about “claiming youthfulness”

 What is youthfulness? (see p.28).

MAIN ARGUMENT

Increased control by moral and political authorities over the expression of youthfulness  democratizing and transformative potential of youth

Defining Youth Movement

“Youth movement embodies a collective challenge which consists of defending and extending the youth habitus.”

YOUTH IS A MODERN PHENOMENON

Urbanization

Globalization

Cities

Schools

Shopping Malls

Youth Centers

YOUTH MOVEMENT EXPRESSED THROUGH ‘PASSIVE NETWORKS’

A collective identity is formed by “mutual recognition of the commonalities young people have with one another” in public spaces and through media.

FOCUS OF YOUTH MOVEMENTS

Cultural Production and Lifestyles

No required leadership or structured organization

Collective Being and Collective Presence

CASE EXAMPLE: IRANIAN YOUTH

Youth movement in Iran was a reaction to government-led cultural revolution

The prominent role of the moral police

CRACKDOWN BY MORAL POLICE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBoI2oKGwk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb1ServMSAw

COLLECTIVE EXPRESSIONS OF IRANIAN YOUTH: “DESPERATE CULTURAL POLITICS”

•Refusal to take religious courses

•Deep mistrust of the state by Iranian youth as documented in surveys

•Emergence of youth subcultures which challenged moral and political authorities

•Distantiated dating and premarital sex

•Attention to physical appearance and plastic surgery

SUBVERSIVE ACCOMMODATION

When prevailing norms and institutions are used to serve one’s claims of “youthfulness”

POLITICS OF PRESENCE

“Young’s everyday cultural struggles and normative subversion” p.40

IMPACT OF IRANIAN YOUTH MOVEMENT

Popularity of music subcultures forced “reformist ministry of culture” to organize the first pop music concert in Iran in 1999.

Idea of temporary marriage

Deepened conflict between reformists and conservatives in the government

Increase in nongovernmental youth organizations

FACEBOOK ACTIVISM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNdwFftpndM

CASE EXAMPLE: EGYPT

Differences based on class and gender were more marked

 “male perceptions of women threatened their identity as youths’ shared habitus.” (41).

Lack of youth political mobilization

Egyptian youth not subject to similar levels of social and moral control seen in Iran.

SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES

Using abandoned buildings to socialize and dance

Growth of raving

Pre-marital sex

Dating at benches of metro stations

Changing structure of the household  Home could be used as a space for dating

Combining religion and partying

LIMINALITY AND INNOVATIVE ACCOMODATION

“creative in-betweenness which illustrates how the young attempted to redefine and reimagine their Islam to accommodate their youthful desires for individuality, change, fun and sin within the existing moral order” (45).

CONCLUSION

A marker of Muslim youth habitus is the constant negotiation between youthfulness and one’s muslimness.

“ YOU N G E GY P T IA N S’ QU E S T F OR

J OB A N D J U S T I C E”

Linda Herrera

2010

Policymakers tend to create a distinction between the categories of unemployed and workless poor.

“To be unemployed in an official sense means not only to lack employment but to be able and willing to work, to be of an age that is officially designated as ‘working age’ and to be actively engaged in the search for employment” (75).

WHAT IS UNEMPLOYMENT?

UNDEREMPLOYMENT

Underemployment: Individuals are employed; however, they are employed in areas in which their qualifications substantially exceed job qualifications.

In 2010, only 62 percent of U.S. college graduates had a job that required a college degree (Washington Post 2013).

Sociologists suggest that it is hard to get a job without credentials; however, having credentials does not guarantee one a job.

FACTS – UNEMPLOYMENT IN EGYPT

Youth constitute 80% of the unemployed population.

Women form the higher portion of the unemployed.

Most of the unemployed have university education – 95%

“The theory [of youth bulge] contends that societies with rapidly growing young populations often end up with rampant unemployment and large pools of disaffected youths who are more susceptible to recruitment into rebel or terrorist groups.”

Countries with weak political institutions are most vulnerable to youth- bulge-related violence and social unrest” (Beehner 2007).

Beehner, Lionel. 2007. “The Effects of ‘Youth Bulge’ on Civil Conflicts.” Council on Foreign Relations. http://www.cfr.org/world/effects- youth-bulge-civil-conflicts/p13093).

YOUTH BULGE

CONCERNS ABOUT YOUTH BULGE

Youth bulge can contribute to:

 Socio-Economic Development

 Extremism

Internal and External Concerns about Youth Bulge and Unemployment:

 Increased Dependency and Frustration

 Security Challenge

 “Youth themselves are rarely consulted about their struggles for a lifestyle and livelihood or about the type of citizens they aspire to be. They have been allowed little scope to question, reject, or offer alternative visions …. And arrangement for societal change and economic and social justice” (127).

LIMITATIONS

BEYOND THE TWO OUTCOMES

It is unclear whether youth bulge is a source of noticeable developmental advantage or disadvantage.

The interviews discussed in this chapter reflect “youth cultural politics” as an area highlighting the potential of Egyptian youth (128) .

 Offers “new forms of communication and collectivist activism” (128).

 A space to explore potential roots of societal change.

YOUTH AS “FUTURE POTENTIAL HUMAN BECOMINGS”

The author views this perspective as problematic:

 Undermines present struggles experienced by youth groups and their individual perspectives.

 Fails to ask the question, what are their lives like now?

 Generalizing

LIFE HISTORY METHOD: LIVES IN CONTEXT

• “youth-centered research based on voices and lives of youth” which then becomes a means of understanding “larger social collectivities and conditions” (129).

• Focusing on the individual as a unit of analysis through interviews can be an effective way to reach an understanding of wider socio-cultural and political conditions surrounding communities.

LIFE HISTORY INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS: KARIM AND DINA

Common political context characterized by Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

A comparison between the two life histories reveals that social class matters.

KARIM

Herrera describes him as “youth-in-waiting”:



 Signifiers of adulthood (educational degrees, marriage and living independently) are expensive.

POINTS TO CONSIDER

How does the phrase “youth-in-waiting” challenge the conventional understanding we have of youth as pioneers of the future?

How does social class impact experiences with educational institutions discussed in this chapter?

What does the author mean when she suggests that patriarchy can disadvantage men?

How do institutions fail youth?

How does Karim’s case challenge the assumption that extremism and radicalism are inevitable outcomes of youth bulge in the Muslim majority states?

 “Karim is a 22 year old man and seasonal laborer who is waiting for an opportunity that will allow him to ‘begin’ his life. He is what can be called a youth-in-waiting and has the classic profile of a potential extremist youth” (131).

DINA

In contrast with Karim, Dina has access to freedom and rights in the sphere of the home.

Despite a more positive experience with educational institutions (good grades and educational success), she is still able to identify similar systemic flaws as Karim:

YOUTH RESPONSES TO INJUSTICE AND INEQUALITY

Communication Technology and Internet as a tool of resistance and political protest:

 Enables the seeking of information from alternative news outlets, is a source of “socialization, academic research and information about current affairs” (140).

 Rights-based discourse

* “Arguably the two greatest impediments facing youth in the

Arab states are not the spread of Islamist movement or

radicalism, but the scarcity of jobs and the absence of justice”

(141).

* “Although the economic situations of Karim and Dina differ

in significant ways, their stories provide a lens to understand

what it is like to be young and Egyptian at the current global

moment” (141).

CONCLUSION

“Al Jazeera English: Inside Story - Egypt: The Youth Perspective (Part 1)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyMBACh41pQ

“Unemployment on the Rise for Egypt's Youth”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14pjj00bJZ8

“Egypt's Youth Impatient for Change”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDz0uBKiAWM

EGYPTIAN YOUTH

“THE ARAB SPRING, DIGITAL YOUTH AND THE CHALLENGES OF EDUCATION AND

WORK”

Linda Herrera and Peter

Mayo 2012

MAIN ARGUMENTS

The authors argue that while youths’ use of digital communication tools highlights a deep familiarity with “civic and political rights”, their focus on economic rights and “fair labor policies” has been less noteworthy (71).

THE RISE OF THE ‘ARAB SPRING’

 Tunisia - “26-year old Mohammed Bouazizi, dubbed the father of the Arab revolution, set himself on fire on the sidewalk in front of the local municipal building where he sought but never received justice” (72).

•Egypt: “Khaled Said, a 28 year old from Alexandria was dragged out of a cyber café by two police officers and brutally beaten to death in view of witnesses. The ‘Call for the revolution of January 25’ which brought down the presidency of Hosni Mubarak originated from the Facebook page: ‘We are all Khaled Said’ (72).

•Libya: On February 15th, “the arrest of human rights lawyer, Fethi Terbil” led to street protests (72).

INTERACTIVE TIMELINE OF THE ARAB SPRING:

 http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest- interactive-timeline

SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS FOR YOUTH ‘REVOLT’

Both Egypt and Tunisia, characterized by “dismantling [of] the welfare state, accelerated privatization, crony capitalism, and corruption, draining national resources and skews distribution” (73).

Combination of youth bulge and high rates of unemployment among educated youth:

 Egypt – 25%

 Tunisia – 31% (73).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL ACTION

 “Digital Youth”

 “Digital youth have effectively used new media for a range of political action, from coordinating strikes, election monitoring, exposing corruption in naming and shaming blogging and building anti-torture campaigns” (73).

CREATIVE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

A key point to reflect on is that it is not just the mere use of social media for political action but its use in “innovative ways to build effectively activist coalitions nationally and internationally” (74).

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Political action calling for changes in the political structure must be accompanied by efforts to address issues of economic justice in order for democratic changes to be more “deep-seated” (74).

LIMITATIONS OF THE ARAB SPRING

Insufficient Attention to Economic Issues such as “economic rights, fair labor practices, and distributive justice” (73).

SEEDS OF A POTENTIAL COALITION BETWEEN EDUCATED YOUTH AND LABORERS

“We would add that these economic ventures can complement the politically mediated ones which, it has been argued, albeit romantically can give rise to a pan-Arab youth movement” (76).

“The two groups, laborers and educated youth, have potentially much to gain in forging a stronger coalition on labor issues and workers rights. High school and college graduates have a great deal in common with their less educated laboring counterparts when it comes to the insecurities of the job market and the degradation of labor rights …” (74).

YOUTH & THE ARAB SPRING

“The Arab Spring - What is it?”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-rKjTivDs

“Youth bloggers - the Arab Spring”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElpGfC5Vo_0