Utopianism in the Middle East and North Africa - by Simon Wolfgang Fuchs & Thomas Pierret (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first comprehensive overview of utopianism in the modern Middle East and North Africa.

Book Synopsis

This is the first systematic exploration of the diversity of utopian thought and practice in the modern Middle East and North Africa. Beyond intellectual debates, utopianism has infused the many ideologies that have shaped contentious politics and governance in the region, from state formation to revolutionary transformations, conflicts, and the recent authoritarian resurgence. Drawing on case studies from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, contributors address a broad array of utopian visions pertaining to political ideologies such as liberalism, secularism, Islamic revivalism, and socialism, but also to fields of expertise and technologies such as urbanism, the atom, and artificial intelligence. Likewise, they acknowledge the diversity of players that partake in the production of utopias, including writers, ideologues, activists, statesmen, experts, artists, and social media users. Moreover, authors consider both imaginaries promoted by challengers to the incumbents, and visions that serve the consolidation of authoritarianism.

Review Quotes

Middle Easterners and North Africans have habitually projected their fears and hopes onto the future, and tried to realise utopias. How they did so, and why: that is the remit of this path-breaking volume, whose fascinating journey ranges from Tunisia to Iran and from atoms via prisons to desert cities.--Cyrus Schayegh, Geneva Graduate Institute