Ilyas Saliba
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MESA Meeting in Washington DC

12/2/2014

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Just a few months after the #APSAonfire breakdown in the Wardmann Park Marriot in DC the Middle Eastern Studies Association yearly meeting (MESA) #MESA14DC was held in the same place this November. 

I went there to present a work in progress paper titled: "Authoritarian learning: Morocco during the Arab Uprisings" at the panel: Logics and Legitimacy in State Formation.
The papers presented at this panel were quite diverse and covered case studies from the Gulf (Barhain, Qatar, UAE) to Iraq, Oman and Morocco. They were all trying to come to grasp with legitimation strategies in those authoritarian regimes. Although looking into very different phenomena and means applied by the rulers: From coordinated settlement and the provision of goods to ideology and reinterpretation of national history, in order to assure the loyalty of citizens or even non-citizens as in the case of migrant workers in the Gulf. All in all the presentations at the panel were interesting but as it was a total of five papers there was unfortunately only little time left for a discussion afterwards.

In general the line-up at MESA of scholars working on topics I am primarily interested in, such as authoritarianism in the MENA Region, transition in Tunisia, contentious politics and protest under authoritarian rule and the Syrian conflict was quiet impressive. I tried to see many panels in order to  hear some of the researchers that I have been reading and citing since the beginning of my graduate studies. In that respect the congress was a great opportunity to engage with other scholars working on similar topics or the same cases and exchange ideas, arguments and experiences.

Especially interesting was the roundtable on researching contentious politics in the region in which  sociologists studying social movements and political scientists focusing on authoritarian governance engaged. Besides an interesting methodological debate on variable based vs experience based research and related why and how questions, the discussion went on to the problems of account evidence and post-script rationalization of events by interviewees. I also really liked the statement by one of the presenters who said: "After the Arab Uprisings Middle Eastern scholars are in the spotlight of the social sciences, but we have to decide what to do with this opportunity." In my opinion researchers of the region should pave the way for a more mechanism oriented approach to the social sciences in times of contentious politcs. This to some extend of course is a plea for more esxperience based research engaging with the field in order to complement the (predominant) model based attempts of conceptualizing authoritiarian politics. This is definately one of the driving motivations behind my work.
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to prepare for the conference I went to the stunning study room of the library of congress

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IPSA SummerSchool in Sao Paolo

2/15/2014

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After two weeks of intensive course work, assingments and discusssions the IPSA summer school has come to an end today.
I took the course comparative case study methodology taught by Derek Beach from the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

The course was great designed in a way that the participants had to apply the taught prinicples and methods straight away on their own research projects. This way the course really got you thinking about your own project from the beginning.

Actually as a result of teh course I have changed my research design from a pure case study design to a mixed method design including a QCA followed by 2-3 in-depth case studies investigating causal mechanisms through process tracing.

The more hands-on methodological trainnig was embedded in many discussions about the philosophy of science and how we make claims in the social sciences based on what kind of empirical material.

The neo-positivist but qualitative approach that was brought forward during the lectures is based upon a deterministic understanding of causality that is paired with bayesian arguing based on contextualizing and critically engaging wioth ones own evidence.

I have found the thoughts extremely interesting and refreshingly systematized and transparent for qualitative method standards. I aim to apply some of these concepts in my dissertatiuon and forthcoming works to undermine the methodlogical strength of my works. 

In march Derek will also give a two day workshop on process tracing in Berlin that I am already looking forward too. 

On top of all the input it was also a great opportunity to engage with PhD and graduate students from all over the world in a nice environment at teh University of Sao Paolo.
It seems intensive workshops are even possible despite regular samba, sun and caipirnhas.

All in all it was it was a great two weeks and I would recommend teh course (which is also taught at teh ECPR summer schools) and the summer school in Sao Paolo to any methodologically interested graduate student.
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    Ilyas Saliba

    is a researcher and PhD student in political science, freelance journalist and photographer interested in Democracy, Transition, Authoritarianism and Security especially in the MIddle East and North Africa.

    From time to time I will publish links, comments and thoughts relating to my research, events, current political issues and the life as a PhD student on this Blog.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

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