In the Middle East and Africa, deteriorating living conditions have given rise to a variety of social movements and unrest since the 1970s. Although each of these events and movements had its own logic, they all took place in the context of the implementation of neoliberal economic policies, generally referred to as structural adjustment reforms. Structural adjustments have been the subject of extensive literature, but most existing studies have focused on the logic of international financial institutions, national governments, and private enterprises. By focusing on the revolts against, and more generally on the multiple social responses to structural adjustments policies, this volume suggests that the perspective should be reversed. It investigates the ways in which the upheavals brought about by this new liberalization were actually experienced by the people of Africa and the Middle East in their daily and material lives and their shared concepts of fairness and unfairness.
