Drifting sands; shifting identities: reclaiming an identity through the looking glass
Date
2021
Authors
Haghighi, Mehzad, author
Ishiwata, Eric, advisor
Daum, Courtenay, committee member
Souza, Caridad, committee member
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Volume Title
Abstract
The aim of this research is to introduce a different narrative, and thus the ways in which a new understanding of Middle East can emerge. Worldwide, corruption is endemic. In developing countries, the circulating capital surplus dividend subsequent to autonomy has not been widely shared. Services—protection, prosperity, health, and housing—are fundamental support pillars for the Social Contract between sovereign and citizen. Contrary to their anointed leader, populaces in developing countries are no longer willing to be complicit with sustaining Matured Democracies' nationalistic interests. This research, then, is a reasonable attempt to outline these multifaceted trends by disentangling history, economic, and politics of the region. The culturally specific logic to these localities, the forces of globalization, and the governmentality of the nation-state, has led to flawed ethnography of the Middle East as a delimited land and romanticized nomadism. In the Middle East, the Sykes Picot Agreement disrupted tribal composition, alliances, and politics in the region. The analysis will conclude with suggestions of how to avoid a verbal high-wire act, with fresh impetus on nationalism and patriotism encouraging identity as a continuum and not just a spectrum. Thus, we must begin by introducing different narratives, invert the scripts, alter the discourses, and directly engage and educate the Joe Six-Packs' of Matured Democracies.
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Subject
corruption
capital surplus dividend
social contract
globalization
governmentality
Middle East