REVOLUTION AS AN UNDER-EXPLORED THEME IN THE MIDDLE EAST

ABSTRACT The Arab Spring of 2011 has revived an academic interest in social movements and revolutions in the Middle East, which was used to be associated with the persistence of authoritarianism. Although the Arab Spring has come up with different outcomes in various countries, currently, there is a burgeoning literature that studies reasons, processes and outcomes of recent social movements and revolutions particularly in the Middle East. In fact, the subject of social movements and revolutions has been underestimated and underexplored in the Middle East studies, or Social Movements studies for a long time. This article argues that despite the negligence of the relevant literature, history of the Middle East has witnessed numerous social movements and revolutions. Then, it provides a historical overview of Middle Eastern revolutions. Against this background, this paper attempts to analyze potential reasons of the aloofness the literature towards social movements and revolutions the Middle East. Keywords: Social Movements, Revolution, Essentialism, Middle East Studies, Arab Spring. ULİSA: Uluslararası Çalışmalar Dergisi, 2(2), 2018. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ulisa/issue/42003/505869