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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2016
Current debates about the status of middle east studies are informed by an assumption that separates ‘area studies’ from ‘global studies,’ and ‘area specialization’ from disciplinary or theoretical orientation. Arguing against such separation, I propose that a resort to comparative perspectives may help bridge the divide. To this end, I discuss imperatives and modalities of thinking comparatively in the context of the Middle East, and their implications for bringing other areas into comparative inquiries. Focusing on illustrations from Middle East social studies, I attempt to think through my own, albeit limited, experience of comparative research within the Middle East region.
page 151 note 1 Mark, Tessler, et al. (eds.) Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).Google Scholar I have a sense of unease with this otherwise well-intended and worthwhile collection. It is as if the contributors have been asked to write pieces that mix theory and case studies for a special occasion (a conference and a book) after which they are to go back to their usual approaches to scholarship!
page 152 note 1 It was not until December 1999 that New York University’s Sociology and Middle East Studies Departments organized a joint conference to explore how studies of Islamism can contribute to social movement theory, and how Islamicists can benefit from concepts utilized to study social movements.
page 152 note 2 Middle East Reports, October-December 1997, no. 205; Arab Studies Journal, spring 1998; MESA Bulletin, July 1995 with Rashid Khalidi's presidential address; and MESA Bulletin, Winter 2000 containing a review article by Ian Lustick, “The Quality of Theory and the Comparative Disadvantage of Area Studies.”
page 153 note 1 Peter, Gran, “Contending with Middle East Exceptionalism: A Foreword,” in Arab Studies Journal(spring 1998): 7.Google Scholar
page 153 note 2 Benedict, Anderson, The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World (London: Verso, 1998).Google Scholar
page 153 note 3 Olivier, Roy, The Failure of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar
page 154 note 1 Theda, Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China (Cambridge University Press, 1979);Google ScholarRobert, Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton University Press, 1993);Google ScholarNikki, Keddie, “The New Religious Politics: Where, When, and Why Does ‘Fundamentalism’ Appear?,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40.4 (October 1998): 696–723;Google ScholarDale, Eickelman and James, Piscatory, Muslim Politics (Princeton University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
page 154 note 2 See Asef, Bayat, Street Politics: Poor People’s Movements in Iran (Columbia University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
page 155 note 1 For a more detailed analysis of these issues see Asef, Bayat and Eric, Davis, “Who is Afraid of Ashwaiyyat? Urban Change and Politics in Egypt,” Environment and Urbanization 12.2 (October 2000): 185–99.Google Scholar
page 156 note 1 Asef, Bayat, “Revolution without Movement, Movement without Revolution: Comparing Islamist Activism in Iran and Egypt,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 40.1 (January 1998): 136–69.Google Scholar
page 156 note 2 Rosemary, O’Kane, ed., Revolutions: Critical Concepts, 4 vols. (London: Routledge, 2000).Google Scholar
page 157 note 1 Lucciani, G., ed. The Arab State (London: Routledge, 1990),Google Scholar introduction; and Hazem, Beblawi and Luciani, G., eds. The Rentier State (London and New York: Croom Helm, 1987), introduction.Google Scholar
page 157 note 2 Note how Janet Abu-Lughod compares Cairo with New York, a city which might be argued should be compared with say London or Hong Kong from the industrial world; Janet, Abu-Lughod, “New York and Cairo: A View from Street Level,” International Social Science Journal 42 (1990): 307–18.Google Scholar
