Beyond the Square: Urbanism and the Arab Uprisings focuses on the urban spatial dynamics of the mass protest movements that convulsed the Arab region since December 2010. The volume shifts attention away from public squares — and in particular Tahrir Square in Cairo — to consider the broader urban context in which the uprisings unfolded. The essays are topically and geographically diverse, exploring a range of sociospatial phenomena in countries that are at the heart of the Arab uprisings as well as those countries that appeared peripheral to the upheaval. This breadth of perspective highlights the centrality of space and spatial concerns to the ongoing political transformations in the region. In this way, the book provides a distinctive — and critical — analysis of one of the most significant political events of our time.

Deen Sharp is a doctoral candidate in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Program, specializing in geography, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Claire Panetta is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

“Revolutions do not occur in a vacuum; rather, they are caused by a complex mix of domestic and international factors. They ultimately come to fruition in places, and not just in central squares. Beyond the Square fills a major gap in our understanding of how urban space factors into popular uprisings. It is a valuable contribution to the analysis of space and politics.”  ---Asef Bayat, author of Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East

“Deen Sharp and Claire Panetta’s Beyond the Square is unique in its scope and theoretical sophistication. Discussions of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) urbanism have tended to focus on a few 'usual suspects': Cairo, Dubai, or the Maghreb. Beyond the Square expands the conversation, covering a much wider range of case studies and orchestrating them in a coherent way that speaks to the sociospatial in theoretically generative ways, going beyond the central, highly visible urban forms and delving deeper into less tangible but no less important sociopolitical contexts of contemporary urban politics in the MENA.” ---Ahmed Kanna, author of Dubai, the City as Corporation

UR05

238 pages black and white, with a 16 page color folio, softcover, 6” x 9”
ISBN 978-0-9960041-4-5, printed in the United States, 2016.

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