The subsequent lives of Arab revolutionaries

Introduction

What are the biographical consequences and the social outcomes of revolutionary activism when the revolutionary moment turns into a civil war, an authoritarian restoration, a fragile democratic transition, or a return to the former 'years of lead'?

Project Overview

LIVE-AR will develop a novel and ambitious analytical approach that will focus on the 'subsequent lives' of ordinary revolutionaries in four contrasted case studies: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.

Analytical Framework

By articulating the micro and meso levels, it will propose a groundbreaking three-fold shift from the usual viewpoint:

a) From the revolutionary moment to the 'subsequent lives' of the women and men who participated in these events and a longitudinal analysis;
b) From political and state institutions and macro-political transformations to the ordinary activists and the individual level;
c) From national studies to cross-national comparisons in order to comprehend patterns and variations depending on the political context.

Lines of Research

This analytical framework will unfold along four intertwined lines of research:

1. Activist careers and biographical consequences
2. 'Emotional legacies'
3. Revolutionary interpersonal networks
4. Revolutionary organizations

Contribution to Literature

In so doing, it will not only contribute to the literature on social movements, activism, and contentious politics by providing, if not a collective biography, at least a detailed 'mosaic of life stories' of activists from the Global South, but also to the field of comparative politics.

Data and Methodology

To which it will offer original and empirically grounded data to document the multiple possible social outcomes of revolutionary processes as they unfold in non-democratic contexts.

The project will rely on a multidisciplinary skilled team and devise a diversified qualitative methodological 'toolkit' combining:

• Life story interviews with life calendars
• An analysis of digital social networks and internet archives
• Ethnographic observations of daily life practices and encounters
• Secondary sources