Introduction: “We Have a Collective Vision to Build Our Society”

Abstract

When launching the research project for this book in 2006, we did not imagine what kind of consequences the spirit behind the above quote from one of our informants would have. Like the overwhelming majority of the Middle East studies community, we were surprised by the events subsequently labeled the “Arab Spring.” There is no doubt that the various uprisings across the Arab Middle East were driven by a multiplicity of different visions. Yet they were united by the fundamental goal of getting rid of regimes that have stifled the development of Arab societies and the personal life expectations of their people for decades.¹ The Arab Spring was motivated by a deep dissatisfaction with the general living conditions in the region. In Egypt and beyond, we have also witnessed the rage of a defeated, frustrated, and often humiliated middle class (cf. Amin 2011, 85). Consequently, the cry for democratic politics is closely intertwined with visions of the “good life” and attempts to successfully construct meaningful modern selfhoods. In addressing the politics of modern Muslim subjectivities, we perceive the Arab Spring as an historical event that made visible a much more fundamental social transformation. How to understand this social transformation?