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„[…] Bayat concludes his reflections on the early outcomes of the Arab Spring with some more general remarks on the possible and desirable means of fundamental social change today. In a striking move, he goes on to associate ‘refolution’- creating ‘a better environment for the consolida-tion of electoral democracy’- with Raymond Williams’s elaboration of the idea of a ‘long revolution’. Here, he writes, is ‘another understanding of “revolution”’, and so it is, but not of a kind that is likely to flatter the practitioners of refolution as an improvised route to the next political settlement. For Williams, the revolution would be long in the making and even longer, perhaps, in the fulfilment, precisely because of the scope and depth of the transformation it envisaged; but it would not be gradualist in the sense that reformists and latter-day eclectics propose. ‘The condition for the success of the long revolution in any real terms is decisively a short revolution’, he wrote. 15 It may come early or late on in the sequence, but its moment is inescapable. The conceptual frame-work of the long revolution offered a way to resist, theoretically and in practice, the ‘scaling-down’ of expectations – a horizon limited to the achievement of universal suffrage, a certain standard of living, a given school-leaving age – that was itself a severe hindrance to genuine democratic, industrial and cultural advance, Williams argued. It suggested a measure for actual conditions of development and demanded that we identify and counter the forces – ‘the nameable agencies of power and capital, distraction and disinformation’ – that continually operated to block or limit any forward move. Accommodation with them, as Bayat proposes, was not an option.“ (S. 74)

„Revolution in Bad Times“:

„[…] rather  than  looking  for quick results or worrying about set demands, we might view the Arab uprisings as ‘long revolutions’ that may bear fruit in ten or twenty years by establishing new ways of doing things, a new way of thinking about power. Yet at stake are not merely semantic concerns about how to define revolutions, but the hard problems of power structures and entrenched interests. However one characterizes the process—as ‘long revolution’, or as one that begins with the radical transformation of the state—the crucial  question  is  how  to  ensure  a  fundamental  shift  from  the  old, authoritarian order to inaugurate meaningful democratic change, while eschewing violent coercion and injustice. One thing is certain, however: the journey from the oppressive ‘old’ to the liberatory ‘new’ will not come about without relentless struggles and incessant popular mobilization, in both public and private realms. Indeed, the ‘long revolution’ may have to begin even when the ‘short revolution’ ends.“ (S. 60)

Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen, liebe Freundinnen und Freunde,

der Wissenschaftler Asef Bayat stellt sein viel beachtetes Buch »Leben als Politik«, das als eine prophetische Vorwegnahme des »Arabischen Frühlings« gilt, erstmals auf einer Veranstaltungsreise in Deutschland vor. Siehe:

http://www.assoziation-a.de/neu/Leben_als_Politik.htm

http://www.assoziation-a.de/lesen/Bayat.htm

Die Aufstände im Maghreb und dem Nahen Osten, die als »Arabischer Frühling« in die Geschichte eingingen, haben nicht nur die politische Situation in der Region grundlegend verändert, sondern auch das von Vorurteilen geprägte Bild erschüttert, das im Westen über die »Arabische Welt« vorherrscht. Bis zum »Arabischen Frühling« galt das Credo, arabische Gesellschaften seien politisch, ökonomisch und sozial erstarrt und zu emanzipatorischen Veränderungen unfähig. Diktatoren wie der tunesische Ben Ali oder despotische Regierungschefs wie Ägyptens Mubarak galten westlichen Politikern lange als verlässliche Partner im »Kampf gegen den Terror«.
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