36 Introduction
proper balance between state building and civil society/nation building (in
Palestine for example). Examining the public spheres created by these asso-
ciations and activities gives us a further dimension by which to judge rela-
tive success: is the growth of civil society accompanied by the development
of spheres of participation and discussion that deepen the sense of citizen-
ship, accountability and rights and consequently has positive implications
for the development of political communities and social mobilization?
e concept of public spheres thus promises to elucidate the diver-Th
sity of civil society, of resistance practices and democratization processes.
Much of the writings on democratization and civil society (especially on
the Middle East and North Africa region) have been ahistorical as well
as technicist and prescriptive. As mentioned, civil society research often
focuses narrowly on certain forms of association and types of mobiliza-
tion and action, thus ignoring social arenas where dynamic change and
innovation may be taking place, as well as long-standing historical forms
of association and mobilization that do not fit the definition of civil soci-
ety. The notion of public spheres promises a more synthetic and inclusive
analysis that could bring in realms of social life that the concept of civil
society tends to exclude.^24
s is amply illustrated by the chapters of Davis on Iraq and Alagha Thi
on Lebanon, which take on questions of civil society and political move-
ments. Both are concerned with the issue of sectarianism and mobili-
zation through and across ethno-religious lines. They show the ways in
which political participation, and its goals and purposes, change over
time, even when such identities remain salient and even become further
essentialized. Hadj-Moussa also is primarily concerned with collective
action and the ways in which identities are shaped and reshaped in rela-
tion, and in resistance, to the state as well as to powerful social move-
ments. Her analysis supports Saba Mahmood’s argument that “the public
sphere is also a space for the creation of particular kinds of subjects and
for the cultivation of those capacities and orientations that enable par-
ticipation within this sphere ... while much of this literature focuses on
the technologies of discipline through which public subjects come to be
produced, relatively little attention has been paid to the contrasting con-
ceptions of social authority that undergird such disciplinary practices in
specific cultural and historical locations.”^25