Looking for an Everyday Revolution
Anna Littauer Carrington Thursday, 16 September 2010
Are we too busy watching for fiery revolutions in the city square to notice gradual, widespread change in the back streets? This is Asef Bayat's contention in this collection of essays, culled from the last 10 years of his research and adapted for this volume. Together, they provide a slightly circular approach to the topic, but the book's interdisciplinary analysis—weaving together political considerations, historical fact, and sociological observation—makes it a valuable contribution to a wide range of social science disciplines. Bayat, a sociologist by training, begins by challenging two commonly-held presumptions: that the Middle East's socio-political status is "unchangeable" and that traditional social movement theories can be uncritically applied to the region. He contends that these two presumptions prevent observers from recognizing the importance of "social nonmovements," which he defines as "the collective actions of noncollective actors; [nonmovements] embody shared practices of large numbers of ordinary people whose fragmented but similar activities trigger much social change" (14).
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