New Perspectives on Social Movements in the Middle East: Mobilization, Citizenship and Political Change

Dear Colleagues,

Social movements have played a central role in shaping the modern political and social history of the Middle East, and collective action has repeatedly challenged established political and social arrangements. The Arab uprisings of 2010–2011 represented a particularly dramatic moment in this history, bringing millions of citizens into public spaces and challenging prevailing assumptions about authoritarian stability, political participation and social change.

Yet the significance of Middle Eastern social movements extends far beyond the spectacular uprisings of 2011. Subsequent mobilizations in Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Morocco, and Tunisia demonstrate the continuing importance of collective action in reshaping political identities, citizenship claims, socio-economic grievances, and state–civil society relations. Recent scholarship has emphasized the continuities between pre-2011 activism and post-2011 mobilization and has questioned interpretations that portray the region as simply returning to its pre-uprising political condition.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Societies, which seeks to enrich the literature by examining social movements through the interconnected concepts of mobilization, citizenship, and political change.

The Special Issue adopts as its starting point the proposition that social movements should not be understood simply as temporary reactions to political crises; they are also processes through which citizens negotiate rights, construct collective identities, challenge inequalities, occupy public spaces, develop alternative forms of participation, and redefine relationships between state and society.

The central question of the Special Issue is:

How do social movements transform citizenship and political participation in the Middle East, and under what conditions do they generate lasting political and social change?

This Special Issue also welcomes research on informal forms of political action. Contributions may examine grassroots activism, informal networks, cultural practices, workers' organizations, digital communities, youth cultures, feminist organizing, and other forms of collective or dispersed action that challenge established structures of power.

The theoretical framework of the Special Issue draws upon major approaches to social movement research, including resource mobilization theory, political opportunity structures, political process theory, framing, collective identity, contentious politics, and repertoires of contention and theories of everyday politics. Contributions drawing on citizenship studies, feminist theory, political sociology, anthropology, political economy, postcolonial theory, and critical approaches to authoritarianism are particularly welcome.

The Special Issue seeks to place Middle Eastern cases in dialogue with broader international scholarship. Rather than treating the Middle East as an exceptional region, we encourage authors to ask how experiences from the region may confirm, challenge or extend existing theories of social movements and political change.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Social movements and democratization;
• The long-term legacies of the Arab uprisings;
• Youth movements and generational politics;
• Women and feminist mobilization;
• Labour movements and workers' struggles;
• Islamist and post-Islamist movements;
• Amazigh and other identity-based movements;
• Citizenship, political belonging and recognition;
• Minority rights and political inclusion;
• Digital activism and social media;
• Civil society and contentious politics;
• Environmental and climate movements;
• Inequality, austerity and socio-economic protest;
• Migration and transnational activism;
• Diaspora mobilization;
• Post-conflict political mobilization;
• Transnational networks and regional solidarity;
• Social movements in Iran and the wider Middle East;
• Comparative studies between Middle Eastern and other world regions;
• New theoretical approaches to social movements and political change.

Every article should seek to answer the following question: What does this case teach us about social movement theory, citizenship, or political change?

We particularly encourage original comparative, interdisciplinary, and theoretically informed contributions, although single-country studies are welcome when they make a clear contribution to broader theoretical debates. Articles should not merely describe a movement or political event but should explain how the case advances our understanding of mobilization, citizenship, state–society relations, or political change.

The Special Issue welcomes original research articles, conceptual papers, and substantial review articles. All submissions will undergo the journal's standard editorial and peer-review procedures.

We invite scholars in sociology, political science, political sociology, international relations, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, gender studies, history, and related disciplines to contribute to this interdisciplinary project.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Moha Ennaji
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.