The Arab Spring: Getting Started
- Arab Spring (Opens in new window)An overview article with a summary of events and recommended reading.
- How Facebook Changed the World: Arab Spring (Kanopy Video) (Opens in new window)looks at the impact of social media on the Arab Spring.
Voices of the Arab Spring by ISBN: 9780231538589Publication Date: 2015-02-10Narrated by dozens of activists and everyday individuals, this book documents the unprecedented events that led to the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Beginning in 2011, these stories offer unique access to the message that inspired citizens to act, their experiences during revolt, and the lessons they learned from some of the most dramatic changes and appalling events to occur in the history of the Arab world. The riveting, revealing, and sometimes heartbreaking stories in this volume also include voices from Syria. Featuring participants from a variety of social and educational backgrounds and political commitments, these personal stories of action represent the Arab Spring's united and broad social movements, collective identities, and youthful character. For years, the volume's participants lived under regimes that brutally suppressed free expression and protest. Their testimony speaks to the multifaceted emotional, psychological, and cultural factors that motivated citizens to join together to struggle against their oppressors.
Social media and web archives
r-Sheif is an archive of tweets, instagrams, facebook posts, and YouTube videos about the Arab Spring, along with tools for visualizations and support for research.
archive-it.org: North Africa and the Middle East documents the Arab Spring revolutions from 2011 to the present. From the creators of the wayback machine, it has captures of web sites and blogs from the region.
Separate archive-it libraries are available for Tunesia and Egypt (in partnership with American University in Cairo).
Public opinion, participation, and political change
- Global Gender Gap ReportPublished annually by the World Economic Forum, this report compares countries on the basis of chiefly economic indicators, such as labor force participation, income and wages, but also compares political participation, health indicators, and educational attainment.
- Middle Eastern Values StudyThis project from the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan compares attitudes across the Islamic world on cultural and religious topics. Most of the studies have been carried out in the early 2000's.
- Pew Global SurveysThe Pew Research Center regularly polls citizens of the Middle East on all sorts of topics including confidence in political institutions and opinions about democratic trends.
