ABSTRACT
Investigating the connections between multiculturalism, minorities, citizenship, and democracy in North Africa, this book argues that multiculturalism in this region– and in the Arab world at large – has reached a significant level in terms of scale and importance.
In the rest of the world, there has been a trend – albeit a contested one – toward a greater recognition of minority rights. The Arab world however, particularly North Africa, seems to be an exception to this trend, as Arab states continue to promote highly unitary and homogenizing ideas of nationhood and state unity, whilst discouraging, or even forbidding, minority political mobilization. The central theoretical premise of this book is that North Africa is a multicultural region, where culture is inherently linked to politics, religion, gender, and society, and a place where democracy is gradually taking root despite many political and economic hurdles.
Addressing the lacuna in literature on this issue, this book opens new avenues of thought and research on diversity, linking policy based on cultural difference to democratic culture and to social justice. Multiculturalism and Democracy in North Africa will be of use to students and researchers with an interest in Sociology, Cultural Studies, and Political Science more broadly.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |40 pages
Conceptualization and historical background
part |58 pages
The Berber issue and democratization
chapter |21 pages
The Berber (Amazigh) movement in Morocco
part |44 pages
Authoritarianism, change, and cultural diversity
chapter |20 pages
Why no Arab Spring in Algeria?
part |44 pages
Islamism, women, and media in Tunisia
chapter |25 pages
The Tunisian media in transition
part |74 pages
Multiculturalism and minorities in Egypt
chapter |20 pages
The not-so-silent minority
chapter |23 pages
Egypt
part |35 pages
Socio-cultural and political transformations in post-Qaddafi Libya