While the Arab people took center stage in the Arab Spring protests, academic studies have focused more on structural factors to understand the limitations of these popular uprisings. This book analyzes the role and complexities of popular agency in the Arab Spring through the framework of contentious politics and social movement theory.

This book applies social movement theory to the analysis of processes of political contention in the Middle East, with special attention to the Arab people

IntroductionContextualizing The Arab Uprisings: Different Regimes, Different Revolutions And Different Trajectories; Fawaz A GergesPART I1. Contention And Constitutionalisation In The Global Realm: Assessing The Uprisings In West Asia And North Africa For International Politics; Jan Wilkens2. Reconceptualizing Resistance And Reform In The Middle East; Mishana Hosseinioun3. Kuwaiti Arab Spring? The Role Of Transnational Factors In Kuwait's Contentious Politics; Anastasia Nosova4. The Iraqi Independence Movement: A Case Of Transgressive Contention; Aula HaririPART II5. Contentious Politics And The Syrian Crisis: Internationalisation And Militarisation Of Conflict; Jasmine Gani6. Foreign Engagement In Contentious Politics: Europe And The 2011 Uprisings In Libya; Inez Von Weitershausen7. Foreign Actors: A Double-Edged Sword Over Contentious Politics In The Middle East; Eugenio Lilli8. Transnationalized Domestic Contention: Explaining The Varying Level Of Western Solidarity Given To Kurds And Palestinians; David Zarnett9. The Emergence Of The Boycott, Divestment, And Sanctions Movement; Suzanne MorrisonPART III10. Contentious Copts: The Emergence, Success And Decline Of Maspero Youth Movement In Egypt; Magdalena C. Delgado11. From Progress To Order: The 'Kurdish Openings' And Limits To Contentious Politics In Turkey; Oguzhan Göksel12. Contentious Politics And Bottom-Up Mobilisation In Revolutionary Egypt: The Case Of Egyptian Football Supporters In Cairo; Suzan Gibril13. A Berber Spring: The Breakthrough Of Amazigh Minorities In The Uprisings' Aftermath; Cleo JayPART IV14. New Modes Of Collective Actions: The Reemergence Of Anarchism In Egypt; Laura Galián15. Muslim Groups In The Gezi Park Protests: Identity Politics And Contentious Politics Under Authoritarian Neoliberalism; Ayse Dursun16. Claiming 'Marginal Space': The Contentious Politics Of 'Citizenship' Among Palestinian Feminists In Israel; Kim Jezabel Zinngrebe17. Characteristics Of Prolonged Social Movements: The Case Of Gezi Park Protests; Birce Altiok-Karsiyaka And Kerem Yildirim18. Reassembling The Political: Placing Contentious Politics In Jordan; Christopher Parker & Pascal DebruynePART V19. Contentious Economics In Occupied Palestine; Alaa Tartir20. The Bottom-Up Mobilization Of Lebanese Society Against Neoliberal Institutions: The Case Of Opposition Against Solidere's Reconstruction Of Downtown Beirut; Hadi Makarem21. Iftar In Mcdonald's: The Everyday Encroachment Of Cairo's Subaltern Cosmopolitans; Harry PettitConclusions; John Chalcraft