ARAB REGION: Academic freedom curtailed

The social sciences in the Arab region are shaped by severe socio-political, economic and environmental challenges, instability and by diverse and divergent research policies, agendas and funding programmes at the national and regional levels, say Seteney Shami and Moushira Elgeziri.

In the first of two commentaries in the World Social Science Report 2010, Shami and Elgezri say the three main fields of social inquiry in the region include the challenges facing the post-independence Arab state, issues arising from global and developmental agendas, and the fields emerging from interaction and opposition to Western scholarly agendas.

Shami is a Jordanian anthropologist and Programme Director at the Social Science Research Council in New York. She is also Interim Director of the newly formed Arab Council for the Social Sciences. Egyptian Elgeziri is a PhD student in the Netherlands and is a consultant for the council.

They identify three main fields of social inquiry. The first and most established is the literature on the challenges of the post-independence Arab state, including the quest for democracy, the elaboration of Arab identity and nationalism in the context of changing regional dynamics, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The second arises from global and development agendas addressed by NGO-based research. The writers say these are perhaps best summarised by the UNDP's Arab Human Development Reports that refer to the region's "knowledge deficit, freedom deficit and a deficit in women's empowerment".

"To these challenges we should add research on economic development concerns such as trade, labour markets and poverty," Shami and Elgezri say.

Finally, they point to the themes and fields of research arising from interaction with, and sometimes opposition to, Western scholarly agendas. Among the dominant of these are questions of gender, Islam, social history and comparative politics.

"Within these regional agendas we can also discern specifically national concerns, especially where there is a fairly robust research community, as in Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco. These concerns are shaped by particular questions regarding the relationship between the state and society, and issues related to social segmentation, urban life and the politics of culture."

The 1970s and 1980s saw a proliferation of scholarly production and regional circulation, often fuelled by a drive towards the 'indigenisation' of the social sciences, Shami and Elgezri say.

"The present landscape is characterised by partial agendas, local concerns and the general alienation of Arab intellectuals who are reluctant to take part in public discourse and, in fact, are discouraged from doing so.

"Both the state and religious authorities curtail academic freedom to a significant degree. So satellite television and blogging are more powerful as media of critical debate than scholarly production."

They note that to avoid confrontation with the Arab states and engage in "high-quality products that ensure recognition on the international academic scene", many Arab scholars write in foreign languages for a mostly non-Arab readership.

In recent years, however, some Arabic journals and books have drawn attention and triggered discussions, because of their theoretical rigour or the importance of the topics addressed.

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com