Social Movements in Tunisia and Egypt: A Tale of Two Revolutions

Abstract

In this paper, the author addresses the Arab uprisings both in Tunisia and Egypt. He tries to explain to which extent the so called Arab Spring is amongst social movements which joins in global ones related to capitalist world system and to its local allies authoritarian regimes in Middle East and North Africa. Those new social movements could be explained by people outrages due to social inequalities, injustices, and human rights abuses. The uprisings are triggered by outrages and hopes for better society. They are wireless because they were fuelled and framed by new media (Internet, Face Book, Twitter), leaderless in the sense that they sparked collectively and without any ideology, religion, or leader. The study theoretical framework draws from literature’s review on the issues of World System (Wallerstein 1970s), the concept of power according to: (Max Weber 1978; Michel Foucault 1984; Jürgen Habermas 1991; Craig Calhoun 1992; Seyla Ben Habib 2012; Nancy Fraser 1990s and others). In order to better understand the social movements in Arab World, the author used the concept of System, Actors, Emotions, Strategies, opportunities, and contexts. Finally, the objective of this research is explain to which extent Arab uprisings are in fact social movements linked to the social and political changes in Arab societies in the arena of wider global social movements.