Review essay: Possibilities of Positive Social Action in the Middle East - A Re-Reading of the History of Social Policy in the Region

Review: 1) JANINE A. CLARK, Islam, Charity and Activism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. 256 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–2532–1626–7. 2) RIADEL EL GHONEMY, Affluence and Poverty in the Middle East. London: Routledge, 1998. 324 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–4151–0033–6. 3) CLEMENT HENRY AND ROBERT SPRINGBORG, Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 280 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–5216–2312–4. 4) STEPHEN P. HEYNEMAN (ed.), Islam and Social Policy. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004. 218 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–8265–1447–9. 5) MASSOUD KARSHENAS AND VALENTINE M. MOGHADAM (eds), Social Policy in the Middle East: Economic, Political and Gender Dynamics. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006. 288 pp. ISBN–13: 978–1–4039–4165–7. 6) SHAHRA RAZAVI AND SHIREEN HASSIM (eds), Gender and Social Policy in a Global Context. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006. 355 pp. ISBN–13: 978–1–4039–9630–5. 7) MAHMOUD SADRI AND AHMED SADRI (eds), Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam, Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 256 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–1951–5820–5. 8) BEHDAD SOHRAB AND FARHAD NOMANI, Islam and the Everyday World. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006. 240 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–4153–6823–0. 9) QUINTAN WIKTOROWICZ (ed.), Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. 320 pp. ISBN–13: 978–0–2532–1621–2

A new era for social protection analysis in LMICs? A critical social policy perspective from the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA)

This paper advocates for a new generation of social protection (SP) research that takes seriously the analysis of political and policy-making processes in the Global South. Based on qualitative research funded by the ESRC and Carnegie Corporation, it combines theoretical insights from social policy and critical policy analysis to highlight the importance of policy framing in shaping development and social welfare outcomes. Empirically, the broader research upon which the paper is based covers the broad range of social policy changes that have happened in the Middle East and North Africa region over the last decade. The critical policy approach adopted in this paper is important because of the endurance of SP as a global orientation in international development interventions at a time when its operationalisation in policy terms appears to be narrower than its professed goals. The paper categorises SP according to three orders of discourse: social risk management, social justice/social contracts, (“ex ante”) institutionalisation of social protection (specifically social assistance), in order to address areas of “discourse closure” (Veit-Wilson, 2000) in the conceptualisation of SP. On the basis of this categorisation, the paper proposes a framework for analysing SP that highlights the importance of three elements to aid SP policy operationalisation: (1) state-civil society relations in the provision of services; (2) the ethical and not only legal parameters of SP; (3) the enhancement of social cohesion as a final SP outcome. These three elements support a process-oriented analysis of SP encompassing policy actors, principles and goals that can better ascertain the long-term impact of SP on social policy agendas in the Global South.</p

Political attitudes and participation among young Arab workers:a comparison of formal and informal workers in five Arab countries

Informal employment has long been a feature of Arab economies and as such, better understanding of the political participation of informal workers is important, especially given their involvement in social uprisings, such as during the Arab Spring in 2011. This paper tests for the first time the impact of informality of labour on political participation in five Arab countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. By using the European Union’s 2015–2016 SAHWA survey and logistic regression models, we are able to show evidence of an association between political participation and informality through the negative impact of the latter on four indicators of political participation: affiliation to political parties/movements; frequency of participation in political activities; frequency of speaking about politics; and voting in elections. Furthermore, the paper confirms that age, gender and education are significant predictors of political participation in the countries analysed. We argue that these findings have relevant policy implications

State of the Art:'The People' and Their Social Rights: What Is Distinctive about the Populism-Religion-Social Policy Nexus?

The aims of this review article are two-fold: (1) to set out the key theoretical trends in the study of religion, populism and social policy as antithetical concepts that also share common concerns; (2) to re-assert the relevance of social policy to the social and political sciences by making the case for studying outlier or indeed rival topics together - in this case populism and religion. Social policy scholars do not necessarily associate these two topics with modern social policy, yet they have a long history of influence on societies all over the world; populism is also especially timely in our current era. The article contributes to the literature by: (a) helping social policy better understand its diverse and at times contradictory constituencies; (b) contributing to a more complex and inclusive understanding of social policy and, therefore, social welfare. In setting out the state-of-the-art, the article also draws upon research on social policy which spans various continents (North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and Latin America) and a preceding paper collaboration by the authors on religion and social policy (Pavolini et al., 2017).</p