... the structure of the Arab middle class since independence until the present, with a focus on the past decade. * Email: am_badawi@yahoo.com † This paper is a summary of a recently published book in Arabic under the same title by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies. © 2014 The Centre for Arab...

...). Egyptian identity in fact was remodeled and remolded along paths that unravelled it in profound and, one might add, pathological ways. Part of this remoulding process involved creating a new elite structure of businessmen. The purpose behind this socially engineered business class, seemingly...

..., there were beneficiary classes tied to the ancient regimes and soldiers accustomed to domination and privileges, who presented structural impediments to change. Despite the great humanitarian disasters in countries like Syria and Libya, the international community proved incapable of decision and indifferent...

... City in the late 1980s. El Sakka explains the sociological and class structure of the city through the football (soccer) matches held between the city’s clubs. He also states that the mayor of Gaza had a role in the cultural movement because he founded Samer Cinema in 1939 and was one of the founders...

... with the prevalence of conspicuous consumption under the authoritarian racist occupation. 21 • The fragmentation of the political national field was accompanied by changes in the class structure, especially in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where the Palestinian Authority was erected. A large middle...

... and deep alterations in society.” Theda Skocpol, an American sociologist and political scientist, provides a structural explanation of revolution ( Skocpol 1979 , 4). She believes that revolution is a rapid, basic transformation of a society’s state and class structures; and revolutions are accompanied...

... discrimination. It also means “liberation from the constraints of quotas, class, and administrative and political corruption.” It means the rule of the people by the people for the people—in the words of Abraham Lincoln (1861–65) who tried to reform the status of “slaves” in American society, restore the states...

.... Injustice in this reading appears in the form of class inequalities, rooted in the economic structure of society (Miller, cited in Morvaridi 2008 , 21). The neoliberal conception, on the other hand, emphasizes equal respect and equal opportunity. The World Bank discourse holds that: “The evidence...

... in the hawza : from curricular structure to the material setting of classes. The article will close with a brief discussion of the implications of its findings. It must be realized that up until the Islamic revolution in Iran, religiosity was not the norm in Lebanon, particularly for the Shia ( Deeb 2006...

... Movements and National Politics . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press . Merton , Robert K . 1968 . Social Theory and Social Structure , 4th ed . New York : Free Press . Miller , Walter B . 1958 . “ Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency .” Journal...

... by how far those characteristics are met. For example, the change from capitalist to socialist values, regardless of whether the values are dictated coercively or embraced voluntarily, determines changes in the social structure and an alteration of class relations of power and stratification in politics...

... the campaign to restore class power” (40). Simply put, therefore, Harvey tells us that human beings are not born neoliberal, but the public support is a result of an effective ideological campaign that uses individual freedom and “noble values” in order to achieve free flow of capital. It is also achieved...

...Jamal Wakim This article argues that the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90) was in essence a terror of state directed by mercantile economic and political elites (the comprador class) controlling the Lebanese state and society against the middle and poorer classes (the working class). The aim...

... divided according to class categories of urban versus Bedouin, and regional division between Hijazis and Najdis in Saudi Arabia ( Al-Mutairi 2011 ). As consolidated identity is supposed to be a bulwark against the marginalization of any class or group in the community and where fragmented societies...

... combined factors: substantial economic interests, a long-time legitimacy buttressed by the army’s active involvement in welfare and development initiatives, and the reliance on universal conscription as the main avenue for the successful accommodation of class and social cleavages—key elements underpinning...

... to converge with social and economic class differences despite the presence of the states’ redistributive economic rent allocation. An accentuated divide, based on HE outcomes, then, could undermine the Gulf states’ efforts to foster a unified sense of a civic, national identity. At the same time, it could...

...), but through diverse social classes—particularly traders, the mercantile class, and Sufis. Islamicate rules are similar to those of the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which affirmed as an elementary proposition that each state would follow its own distinct religion. The only difference being Islamic rule...

... imbalance means that work loses its moral character, causing conflict between individuals. Here, Durkheim believes that the phenomenon of non-standardized labor arose in European societies as a result of the emergence of the struggle between labor and capital, that is, between the working class...

... equipment and technical expertise ( Challand 2009 ; Hamdan 2011 ; Hilal 2003 ). Aid has also created a situation in which a few urban-based mega-organizations have become the greatest beneficiaries of donor funds being run by a newly emerged middle class of Palestinian elites ( Hanafi and Tabar 2003...

... that there is a structural malformation in neoliberalism that could reinforce the rise of class divisions and inequality. It also lends credence to the stereotypical statement that “neoliberalism affords us all a mystical freedom but relegates many of us to certain destitution.” The lack of social solidarity...