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Abstract
This article analyzes the concept of volunteering in the Arab world. The main argument is that the nature of the Arab world in addition to the historical development of civil society directly affected the philosophy of volunteering in the region. Since civic services were not framed nor included in the national agendas of the state, this had a direct negative effect on the development of the act. However, due to social, economic, and political factors, this trend is changing: As of 2000, organizations and societies started to understand the importance of volunteering and its link to the social and economic revival of societies; Arab states started to encourage the act by providing the right legal and political environment. However, these different policies are not building democratic societies nor encouraging civic engagement. The article concludes with recommendations for how to bring people back into civic and political society as well as suggestions for future research.
Notes
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2. John Kurtz, “Civic Engagement of Youth in the Middle East and North Africa: An Analysis of Key Drivers and Outcomes.” Mercy Corps (2012), 1–33; Caroline R. Nagel and Lynn Staeheli. “Whose Awakening Is It? Youth and the Geopolitics of Civic Engagement in the ‘Arab Awakening.’” European Urban and Regional Studies 20(1): 115–119 (2013).
3. Kurtz, “Civic Engagement of Youth in the Middle East and North Africa.”
4. Ragui Assaad, “Unemployment and Youth Insertion in the Labor Market in Egypt,” in Egyptian Economy: Current Challenges and Future Prospects, Kheir-el-Din, Hanaa, ed. (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008), 133–177.
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6. Barbara L. Ibrahim and Sherif, Dina H. From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2008), 12.
7. Helmut K. Anheier and Lester M. Salamon, “Volunteering in Cross-National Perspective: Initial Comparisons,” Civil Society Working Paper 10, July 2001.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Susan. J. Ellis and Katherine H. Noyes, By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990).
12. Ronald Inglehart, “Modernization and Volunteering,” in The Values of Volunteering (Springer, 2003), 55–70. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4615-0145-9_4.
13. Ibid.
14. Henrietta Grönlund, Kirsten Holmes, Chulhee Kang, Ram A. Cnaan, Femida Handy, Jeffrey L. Brudney, Debbie Haski-Leventhal, et al. “Cultural Values and Volunteering: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Students’ Motivation to Volunteer in 13 Countries.” Journal of Academic Ethics 9(2): 87–106 (2011). doi:10.1007/s10805-011-9131-6.
15. Anheier and Salamon, “Volunteering in Cross-National Perspective: Initial Comparisons.”
16. Ibid.
17. Marc A. Musick and John Wilson. Volunteers: A Social Profile. Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xww&AN=220615&site=ehost-live.
18. Lucas C. P. M. Meijs and Linda B. Karr. “Managing Volunteers in Different Settings: Membership and Programme Management,” in Volunteering as Leisure/Leisure as Volunteering: An International Assessment (Wallingford: CAB International, 2004), 177–193.
19. Mary V. Merrill, “Global Trends and the Challenges for Volunteering.” International Journal of Volunteer Administration 24, no. 1 (2006): 9–14.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Musick and Wilson, Volunteers; Lesley Hustinx, Ram A. Cnaan, and Femida Handy, “Navigating Theories of Volunteering: A Hybrid Map for a Complex Phenomenon.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 40(4): 410–434 (2010).
24. Robert Wuthnow, Acts of Compassion: Caring for Others and Helping Ourselves (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).
25. Hustinx, Cnaan, and Handy, “Navigating Theories of Volunteering.”
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Sidney Verba, Kay L. Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality, Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995).
29. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000); Robert Wuthnow, Loose Connections: Joining Together in America’s Fragmented Communities (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998).
30. Mohammed El-Nawawy, Egyptian Revolution 2.0: Political Blogging, Civic Engagement, and Citizen Journalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
31. Putnam, Bowling Alone.
32. El-Nawawy, Egyptian Revolution 2.0, 12.
33. Michael Edwards, Civil Society. 3rd edition. (Cambridge: Polity, 2004).
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35. Putnam, Bowling Alone.
36. Nawaf Salam, “Civil Society in the Arab World.” Islamic Legal Studies Program—Harvard Law School, October 2002. http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/publications/salam.pdf (accessed March 15, 2012).
37. William R. Polk and Richard L. Chambers, eds. Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East, Chicago, 1968.
38. Salam, “Civil Society in the Arab World.”
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. Gerald H. Blake and Richard I. Lawless, eds. The Changing Middle Eastern City (London: Croom Helm, 1980).
42. Mahmoud Hussein, “Versant Sud de la Liberte.” Politique Etrangere 54, 3 Paris, 1989.
43. Sheila Carapico, “NGOs, INGOs, GO-NGOs and DO-NGOs: Making Sense of Non-Governmental Organizations.” Middle East Report 213, 2000.
44. Salam, “Civil Society in the Arab World.”
45. Sabri Ciftci and Ethan M. Bernick. “Utilitarian and Modern: Clientelism, Citizen Empowerment, and Civic Engagement in the Arab World.” Democratization, August 8, 2014, 1–22. doi:10.1080/13510347.2014.928696.
46. Salim Nasr, “Good Governance for Development in the Arab Countries: Arab Civil Societies and Public Governance Reform,” Working Paper of the UNDP Dead Sea Conference, UNDP Program on Governance in the Arab Region, Jordan, February 2005.
47. Tania Haddad, “Civil Society and Philanthropy in the Arab World.” Muslim Philanthropy, Journal of the Academy of Philanthropy 1 (1): 109–116 (2013).
48. Justin Gengler and Mark Tessler. “Civic Life and Democratic Citizenship in Qatar: Findings from the First Qatar World Values Survey,” n.d., 1–20.
49. Ibid.
50. Decree on Community Service for Public Secondary Schools. Vol. 201312/4, 2013.
51. “Silatech Convenes Arab University Leaders to Discuss Civic Engagement.” Silatech, February 14, 2014. http://www.silatech.com/home/news-events/silatech-news/silatech-news-details/2014/02/14/silatech-convenes-arab-university-leaders-to-discuss-civic-engagement (accessed April 10, 2015).
52. “Launch of Dubai Volunteering Center.” Governmental. Cambridge: Polity, June 1, 2012. http://www.cda.gov.ae/en/MediaCenter/News/Pages/2012/volunteeringCenter.aspx (accessed April 1, 2015).
53. Kurtz, “Civic Engagement of Youth in the Middle East and North Africa.”
54. Ibid.
55. Dina and Khouri. “Youth Civic and Political Participation in the MENA Region.”
56. Kurtz, “Civic Engagement of Youth in the Middle East and North Africa.”
57. Amaney A. Jamal and Mark A. Tessler. “Attitudes in the Arab World.” Journal of Democracy 19(1): 97–110 (2008).
58. Dina and Khouri, “Youth Civic and Political Participation in the MENA Region.”
59. Ibid.
60. Ellen Lust-Okar, “Elections under Authoritarianism: Preliminary Lessons from Jordan.” Democratization 13(3): 456–471 (2006).
61. Nadine Sika, “Youth Political Engagement in Egypt: From Abstention to Uprising.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 39(2): 181–199 (2012).
62. “Civic Life and Democractic Citizenship in Qatar: Findings from the First Qatar World Values Survey,” Justin Gengle Social and Economic Survey Research Institute.
63. Sika, “Youth Political Engagement in Egypt.”
64. Ibid.
65. Decree on Community Service for Public Secondary Schools. Vol. 201312/4, 2013. Dina and Khouri. “Youth Civic and Political Participation in the MENA Region.”
66. “Youth Unemployment in the Arab World Is a Major Cause for Rebellion.” International Labor Organization, May 4, 2011. http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_154078/lang–en/index.htm (accessed April 4, 2015).
67. Kurtz, “Civic Engagement of Youth in the Middle East and North Africa.”
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. Inglehart and Welzel, “Changing Mass Priorities”; Moghadam, “Modernizing Women”; Lipset, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy”; Ciftci and Bernick, “Utilitarian and Modern.”
71. Jamal A. Amaney, Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007); Ciftci and Bernick. “Utilitarian and Modern.”
72. Amaney, Barriers to Democracy.
73. Ibid.
74. A. Kandil, “Civic Service in the Arab Region.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 33 (4 suppl.): 39S–50S (2004). doi:10.1177/0899764004270097.
75. Gilbert Doumit, “Economic Systems in Favor of Social Justice.” UNESCO Regional Bureau, Beirut, Arab Youth: Civic Engagement & Economic Participation, n.d., 26–31.
76. Nagel and Staeheli. “Whose Awakening Is It?”
77. Ibid.
78. Kurtz, “Civic Engagement of Youth in the Middle East and North Africa.”
79. Amaney, Barriers to Democracy.