Political science, media, and policy analysis of Islamist movements and the Middle East more broadly, often concentrate on national politics and major urban areas. A growing body of political science research is now drawing attention to the significance of political organization, mobilization and contestation taking place outside of the capital cities. POMEPS and the Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD) at the University of Gothenburg invite proposals for short papers exploring questions related to Islamist politics at the local level, particularly in areas outside of urban core areas.
Questions to be explored might include, but are not limited to: How do local/community conditions relate to the emergence and strengthening of Islamist movements, and what is the nature of these movements? Do we see the strengthening of Islamist movements in conditions with unresponsive local-level state actors, poor service delivery, and/or little political participation? Or do such movements actually help to mobilize support, participation and engagement in local level politics? Do the political and ideological orientations of Islamist movements in the provinces differ systematically from those in the urban core? How do different strands of Islamism, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist movements or Sufi orders, perform at the local level? In “mixed” communities (e.g., Muslim/Christian as found in much of SubSaharan Africa), when do we find cooperative community relations and where do we find segregated practices? When do local Islamist movements tend to inflame or to suppress radicalization towards violent extremism?
The conference will be hosted by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden on June 13-14, 2017. Selected participants will be expected to circulate a short essay of approximately 2000 words at least two weeks prior to the workshop. The workshop will discuss each paper intensively, and after revisions all papers will be published as an issue of the open access POMEPS Studies and GLD Working Paper series. POMEPS and GLD/Gothenburg will cover all travel expenses, and offer a modest $250 honorarium.
To submit a proposal, please send Lauren Baker (pomeps.team@gmail.com) a CV and a one paragraph description of the proposed paper in a single PDF by January 8, 2017.
Participants should be at least a degree candidate (i.e. ABD) or have a PhD in Political Science or related discipline.