Struggles over access to the Muslim public sphere: Multiple publics and discourses on agency, belonging and citizenship (Introduction to the Themed Section)

Abstract This introductory essay provides the context for the articles in this Themed Section. Despite the diversity in locations, historical backgrounds and contemporary processes of change, all contributors to this Themed Section focus on the struggle of Muslim groups over access to an emergent Muslim public sphere. They highlight the contestations of and shifts in the notions of agency, belonging, and citizenship in nation-states with Muslim communities within its borders. The introduction consists of two parts. The first part reviews the notion of the public sphere as conceptualized by Habermas and critiqued by scholars of a diversity of backgrounds. In relation to the concept of the Muslim public sphere, three aspects of critique are given closer c

Re-branding Abu Dhabi: From oil giant to energy titan

This article presents a case study of Abu Dhabi\u27s \u27energy re-branding\u27 since 2005 when it declared its intention to transform itself from an oil exporter to a total energy giant that also embraces alternative (renewable and nuclear) energy. The first part of the article identifies the benefits of this policy for Abu Dhabi\u27s external diplomacy but argues that the real driver is the emirate\u27s domestic gas shortage and its effects on economic diversification and political legitimacy. The second part of the article discusses the motivations and interactions of local and foreign agents by focusing on the implementation of alternative energy platforms. It therefore provides a rare glimpse of the policy-making process in Abu Dhabi. The final part of the article examines the extent to which energy re-branding may be linked to a process by the government to reiterate, reinterpret and repudiate Emirati identity in order to enhance regime legitimacy in the twenty-first century. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Angst Springs Eternal:Dangerous Times and the Dangers of Timing the “Arab Spring”

Various reflections on the ‘Arab Spring’ evince a common view of the relationship between change and time that imbues events with a sense of intrinsic peril. Based on a framework developed from Norbert Elias’s concept of timing, this article elaborates the relationship between time and the ‘Arab Spring’ by unpacking and explaining three rhetorical tropes prevalent in academic responses to the revolts. The first two construct a problem to which the third proffers a solution. First, analysts treat time itself as a problematic force confounding stability and progress. Second, they deploy fluvial metaphors to present dynamic events as inherently insecure. Third, they use temporal Othering to retrofit the ‘Arab Spring’ to the familiar arc of liberal democracy, which renders the revolts intelligible and amenable to external intervention. These moves prioritize certainty and order over other considerations and constrain open-ended transformations within a familiar rubric of political progress. They also constitute an active timing effort based on a conservative standard, with important implications for our understanding of security and for scholarly reflexivity. The article concludes with three temporal alternatives for engaging novel changes like the ‘Arab Spring’