Reproducing Sectarianism

Examines the politics of civil society in modern Lebanon.The Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere has highlighted the growing importance of the politics of civil society in the contemporary Middle East. In Reproducing Sectarianism, Paul W. T. Kingston examines rights-oriented advocacy networks within Lebanon's postwar civil society, focusing on movements and political campaigns based on gender relations, the environment, and disability. Set within Lebanon's postwar sectarian democracy, whose factionalizing dynamics have long penetrated the country's civil society, Kingston's fascinating study provides an in-depth analysis of the successes and challenges that ensued in promoting rights-oriented social policies. Drawing on extensive field research, including interviews and a wealth of primary documents, Kingston has produced a groundbreaking work that will be of interest to Middle East experts and nonexperts alike.Paul W. T. Kingston is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is the author of Britain and the Politics of Modernization in the Middle East, 1945-1958 and the coeditor (with Ian S. Spears) of States within States: Incipient Political Entities in the Post-Cold War Era.