Crowds and Politics in North Africa ─ Tunisia, Algeria and Libya

"A topical study of crowd dynamics and the relationships of crowds to political power in Tunisia, Libya and Algeria, this book takes predominant crowd theory to task questioning received ideas about 'mob psychology' that remain prevalent today. One central theme of the book is gender, providing an in-depth look at women's participation in the recent uprisings and the subsequent gender-related aspects of political transitions. The social and political dynamics of tribalism and other forms of group belonging are raised in the book, including analysis and discussions with Libyan regional tribal chiefs, Libyan and Tunisian tribal members and citizens regarding their notions of tribal belonging. Crowd language is also central to the book's discussion of how crowds represent themselves, how we as observers represent crowds, and how crowds confront languages of authoritarianism and subjugation. Crowds and Politics in North Africa includes dozens of interviews with crowd participants and key civil society actorsfrom Tunisia, Libya and Algeria. Among these, there are numerous interviews with Benghazi residents, activists and tribal leaders as one of the original case studies in the book is the crowds during and after the attack on the US consular installation inBenghazi Libya. A valuable resource, this book will be of use to students and scholars with an interest in the Middle East and Politics more broadly"--

Andrea Khalil is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Queens College, City University of New York. She has taught at the American University in Cairo (1999-2000), served as the Director of the Centre for Maghreb Studies in Tunis (2001-2002) and was Fulbright Scholar Tunisia (2012-2013). She is the author of The Arab Avant-Garde: Experiments in North African Art and Literature (2003) and the editor of North African Cinema in a Global Context: Through the Lens of Diaspora (2008).