ABSTRACT

One of the most remarkable features of the uprisings that swept the Arab world in 2011 was the absence of political parties, Islamist movements, and established civil society organizations from the ranks of those protesting against incumbent regimes. From the earliest phases of the protest movements in Tunisia and elsewhere across the region, commentators noted their amorphous nature – youthled, non-ideological, horizontal, leaderless movements which relied on nontraditional means of mobilization and transmission of their message. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the conceptual assonances involved, social movement theory (SMT), and, in particular, the concept of new social movements (NSMs), have been frequently invoked in subsequent academic analyses of these events.