ABSTRACT
In contemporary conflicts in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) fundamental norms are radically contested. At the same time, in many of these struggles the very question about who constitutes a ‘legitimate subject’ in global politics is central. Syrian civil society actors contesting structures of domination and struggling for fundamental rights within and outside of Syria are facing various forms of governance following forced migration and dispersal, but also in contexts of on-going political activism. Drawing on the case of Syrian activism, this chapter argues that it is necessary to conceptually and empirically account for civil society that is unbound from the state and constrained by specific local contexts within and beyond the Syrian state. I argue that these often-overlooked ‘local practices’ of activism are constitutive for international politics and the Syrian struggle. In order to theoretically approach and empirically account for these dynamics, the contribution introduces the concept of translocal activism. This contribution not only seeks to approach agency of ordinary people beyond more formal Eurocentric understandings. The concept of translocality further sheds light on political spaces traditionally differentiated as ‘national’ or ‘international’, yet that pertain to new forms of (post)national identities shaping global politics.
Introduction
