Protests and Generations: Legacies and Emergences in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean

The aim of the book is to problematize the relations between generations and protests in the MENA and the Mediterranean. We contend that the articulation between generations and protests relies on the tension between historical ties and their rejection. The contributions to the book address this tension in specifically documenting several case studies that highlight the generating processes by which generations and protests are correlated. What the production and use of generation brings to scholarly understanding of the protests and the ability to articulate them is one of the major questions this collection addresses. Our book is divided into three main sections. The first, “Forms of Protest and the Production of Generations,” examines how “generation” can act as a frame of reference that enables a tactic/strategy of protest, a sense of unity and solidarity, and as constituting the novelty of protest practices. The second, “Genealogies of Generational Formations,” explores entangled temporalities and the production of generations, particularly as this production revolves around the category of “youth.” The third, “Memory, History and the ‘New Generation’,” challenges scholarly work that associates forms of protest that seem to appear from nowhere with the category of a “new” generation. Investigating how generation works in those three different ways is crucial for further understanding the challenges that these protests present against the injustices of social and political orders and, just as importantly, the obstacles that they themselves might face in advancing their causes.