Youth and Education in the Middle East: Shaping Identity and Politics in Jordan

(Hardback)

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The uprisings that were seen throughout the Middle East during 2010 and 2011, make it difficult to over-state the role of educated youth in the region s politics. Daniele Cantini combines an analysis of young people in Jordan, of its relevance and of its perceived crisis, with one which looks at education and the pursuit of knowledge. He thereby highlights the unprecedented rise in youth population and the growth in institutions of higher learning as a way to explore and explain the challenges Arab-majority societies are currently facing. It proposes an understanding of the university as an institution integral to the survival of the regime, discusses its fragile reforms, and crucial in the formation of young people s social and political identities. Youth and Education in the Middle East, offers vital first-hand accounts of the role of educational institutions and the impact they have in shaping transnational and local constituencies as well as in the micropolitics of everyday life."

Reviews

'A fresh and theoretically sophisticated ethnography of a Middle East university and its contradictions. Skilfully interweaving accounts of global policy initiatives, student lives, campus activism and the gendered challenges of the local labour market, Cantini makes an important contribution to the anthropology of higher education.' - David Mills, Department of Education, Oxford University; 'Cantini's book is a notable contribution to the small but growing literature on the history and ethnography of higher education in the Middle East. Examining the University of Jordan as an institution, a space, an experience and a vector of socio-economic and political currents, Cantini's study presents a view of Jordanian society missing from more traditional ethnographies - one where young people are constructing their lives and identities while contesting, resisting or railing against their contexts, even when they are "stuck" in them. These complexities are nicely contextualized within an institutional analysis of the university as a site for modernity, state power, legitimacy and globalization.' - Seteney Shami, Director General, Arab Council for the Social Sciences and Program Director, Social Science Research Council

Author Bio

Daniele Cantini is Senior Research Fellow at the Graduate School for Society and Culture in Motion at the University of Halle, Wittenberg. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and History from the Department of Cultural and Language Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.