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SUMMARY:When Authoritarianism fails in the Arab World: understanding the r
 ecourse to the Muslim lexicon - Dr Francois Burgat\, director of research 
 at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research)
DTSTART:20130228T170000Z
DTEND:20130228T183000Z
UID:TALK43209@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Annette LaRocco
DESCRIPTION:The French Embassy has generously sponsored a cycle of lecture
 s and workshops which bring to Cambridge leading scholars from France to i
 nteract and foster research collaborations with experts in Cambridge from 
 across the Schools of Arts and Humanities and Humanities and Social Scienc
 es. In this second year of collaboration\, the cycle of talks and workshop
 s will explore the complex theme of identity in 21st-century France and be
 yond.\n\nThe lectures\, which will be given in English\, are open to any m
 ember of the University.   \n\nIn this lecture\, co-organised by the Centr
 e of Governance and Human Rights and CRASSH\, *Francois Burgat\, director 
 of research at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research)* will gi
 ve a talk on _When Authoritarianism fails in the Arab World: understanding
  the recourse to the Muslim lexicon._\n\nFor the first time in decades\, '
 Arab revolutions'\, ushered in by the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings
 \, make it possible to seriously envision a phasing out of the autocratic 
 machinery in the Middle East and North Africa.Whatever the end results of 
 this awakening\, the glimpse at a post-authoritarian era has already affec
 ted domestic and international political dynamics\, if only by anticipatio
 n. In the parliamentary arenas\, even if it is clear that its roots are to
  be found deep in the fourteen centuries of Muslim history and the realiti
 es or the myths of a long interaction with the West\, the explanation of t
 he rise of contemporary Islamism can be circumscribed within a timeline of
  the last hundred years or so. It is essential\, to reach a better underst
 anding\, to distinguish two processes and so two levels of analysis: on th
 e one hand\, the essentially identity-centered reasons for which a generat
 ion of political actors originally choose to "speak Muslim"\, that is to s
 ay\, preferentially and at times ostentatiously to have recourse to a lexi
 con or a vocabulary derived from Muslim culture\; on the other hand\, the 
 diversified uses that such actors make of this lexicon\, in each of the co
 untries where the failure of Authoritarianism offers them new opportunitie
 s as well as in the North/South arena\, contingent on variables which are 
 simultaneously multiple\, banal and profane\, and so determine their diffe
 rent political claims and mobilisations.\n\n*Francois Burgat* is a politic
 al scientist\, director of research at the CNRS (National Centre for Scien
 tific Research)\, and\, since 2008\, director of the Institut français du
  Proche-Orient ("IFPO - French Institute for the Near East":http://www.ifp
 orient.org)\, a leading multidisciplinary research institution at the serv
 ice of knowledge production on the societies of the Near-East with a focus
  on Syria\, Lebanon\, Jordan\, the Palestinian Territories and Iraq. Dr Bu
 rgat has carried research in the Maghreb\, Near East and Arabic Peninsula 
 for the last 30 years and worked in the University of Constantine in Alger
 ia\, at the Cedej in Cairo\, and was between 1997 and 2003 the director of
  the Centre Français d'Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales in Sanaa\, Ye
 men. 
LOCATION:Room SG1\, Alison Richard Building\, Sidgwick Site\, 7 West Rd\, 
 CB3 9DT
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