Research on ongoing developments is on shifting sands

by Gerd Junne

Additional tags: West Asia, Blogosphere

The fast pace of recent events in Iran illustrates that any research on ongoing developments is on shifting sands. It is extremely difficult to say anything about the leeway for civil society which will still hold true a few months later. That is the risk of doing future oriented research rather than historical studies. Political developments have also made it harder to do research in direct cooperation with researchers and activists in the two countries, something which has been an aim of the knowledge programme Civil Society in West Asia from the outset.

However, many local researchers are now abroad and their intimate knowledge of the situation in their home countries is a strong asset for our programme.

The focus of this programme lies on developments in Iran and Syria, putting them into a broader regional perspective. Comparative studies on civil society in other MENA countries (Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, Yemen) are a catalyst for additional questions. They help to unbundle the concept of “civil society” and take a closer look at the broad spectrum of civil society actors and their interaction with each other and the state. The schism between religious and secular actors has been a particular point of interest.

The borderline between civil society and the state turns out to be less clear-cut than assumed in theoretical discussions. Most actors have a rather ambivalent relationship to the state. Organizations can only survive if tolerated by the state, and risk becoming instrumentalized by state authorities who can use them as a kind of fig leaf to demonstrate a façade of pluralism. The alternative is not to organize into established groups, but to cooperate in loose networks.

As a result, our research has shifted somewhat to the observation of the new forms of action, which have developed under these conditions. One of these new forms is the role of the Blogosphere in authoritarian states. Recent developments in West Asia let us pay closer attention to the direct influence of the Internet on democratic processes within an authoritarian state. Questions arise regarding what role new types of media can play in the interaction between civil society and an authoritarian regime. See our Newsletter for more details.

Professor Gerd Junne, Chair in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam