SIGNOLES Aude

A sociology of local power in Palestine and the Arab world

My doctoral research focused on local power in Palestine. Combining the sociology of political domination, the sociology of local elites and the sociology of territorial public action, it examined the power relations between the periphery and the political centre in a context of state-building and chronic political instability linked to the uncertain future of diplomatic negotiations. My findings highlight the new forms of remote control of Palestinian urban areas (by the Israeli hegemon), as well as the institutionalisation of a specifically national local political space, in which imported models of 'good governance' circulate, along with technical reference systems that seek to legitimise the intervention of urban experts in local decision-making. My work also highlights the existence of clientelist recruitment practices for local authorities, in the absence of municipal elections, and the rise of cause-builders favourable to 'local democracy', initially drawn from the ranks of the opposition (left-wing and Islamist), then joined by outsiders of the ruling party - in this case, Fatah Youth. Finally, using the example of water management, my thesis highlights extremely varied local configurations of power, with - everywhere - the emergence of new regional agencies competing with the 'old' municipalities in their role as service providers, private players entering the market (whether multinationals or local NGOs), with rather mixed success and very violent conflicts over the appropriation of resources and the use of water, bringing to the fore the sometimes long-standing antagonisms between town and country and leading to mobilisations and coalitions of heterogeneous, even improbable players.

My doctoral research was enriched by my involvement in international teams working on local government reforms in the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. In this way, I made decentralisation policies in Palestine an object of methodological comparison and, by mirror effect, questioned the contexts, issues and forms of controversy linked to attempts to transform local power. After 2011, in the context of the social and political mobilisations of the 'Arab springs', the choice of decentralisation was presented by many political decision-makers - in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya - as a response to demands for greater freedom and dignity from local populations and as a means of combating socio-spatial inequalities between regions. I then sought to analyse the processes of change - and continuity - in the administration of local affairs in the various countries of the Arab world 'in revolution', by examining in particular the role of international donors in political transformations, based on work on the circulation of ideas and models of public action.

Exile and political (impasse): the multiple repertoires of action of (Palestinian) nationalism

My research focuses on the foundations and evolution of (Palestinian) nationalism. I have studied the links between political Islam, political modernity and nationalism; political violence and the recognition of national claims; colonial policy and nationalist resistance; individuation, economic liberalism and the atomisation of claims; diasporic nationalism and the euphemisation/radicalisation/globalisation of the struggle. More specifically, this work on nationalism at a distance has led me to take an interest in the circulation of identities and ideologies between the Middle East and Latin America from a socio-historical perspective. Generally speaking, my work on (contemporary) Palestine opts for a sociological approach to the socio-political processes observed, based on dense ethnographic surveys. In this respect, it differs from the international relations approaches dominant in the academic world, which view this society in terms of its (complicated and conflictual) relations with its (Israeli) neighbours.

Islamic solidarity associations, between the institutionalisation of a specific area of activity, the professionalisation of players and contrasting uses of religious references

Between 2017 and 2019, I led a collective research project - on contract, for the Bureau des Cultes - on French Islamic solidarity associations, understood as non-State, not-for-profit actors who engage in practices to help the needy by rooting their reasons for action in the precepts of Islam. We have studied around fifteen of them, carrying out case studies on four of them: Syria Charitythe Palestinian Charity and Relief Committeethe Secours Islamique France and Lallab. We began by placing the (recent) history of these associations in a sociological perspective, in order to examine the contexts of their emergence, the trajectories of commitment of their founding fathers and the dynamics of their institutionalisation. We then focused on the policies used to mobilise donors and volunteers, based on observation of charity galas and fundraising appeals. Finally, we took a closer look at the employees of these 'caring' companies - very often women - in order to determine the reasons for their entry into this sector of activity, but also for their (numerous) resentments, and even their demobilisation. Our main hypothesis was based on the (rapid) professionalisation of a rapidly expanding business sector and its players, coupled with contrasting uses of religious reference points: sometimes shunned, sometimes very prominent, sometimes suggested, religious reference points are rarely used in the development of the humanitarian causes to be supported, but do appear to be recurrent in the appeals made to private donors (made up of the public of the Muslim faithful).

Remembrance policies and citizenship education: the inclusion of the harkis in school curricula in France

This line of research, which I developed in a recently defended (in 2020) Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR), sets out to analyse the introduction of a new theme in school history - the memory of the Algerian War and, more specifically, that of the Harkis - which, from the outset, is associated with a memorial and therefore civic purpose. Its originality lies in the fact that it focuses on the intermediaries of public action who guide, coordinate and lead these educational policies with a remembrance dimension. These intermediaries intervene at regional level (in the person of the Inspecteur d'Académie-Inspecteur Pédagogique Régional and/or the Départements (in the case of the 'Monsieur Mémoire' of the Office National des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre). The southern Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region was used as the main base for gathering data in the field, since many harkis settled there from the 1960s onwards and it is now an important area for the settlement and remembrance of these populations. My initial question was this: what 'narrative of the common' do these players formulate? More than that, what social meaning do they give to teaching the history of a colonial war and its memories? And how do they see the inclusion of the harkis in school curricula as conducive to educating young people (teenage secondary school pupils) about citizenship?

I developed my research hypothesis on the basis of the sociology of public action and the sociology of mobilisation, according to which middle managers in the civil service seize upon the injunction to remember issued by government authorities (who wish to commemorate the past from a victimist and dolorous perspective) to defend a vision of a (more) critical history - developed on the basis of memories. I have divided my argument into four parts. Chapter 1 focuses on the Rectorat and, more specifically, the memorial referent within it - in this case, the IA-IPR in history. I have endeavoured to highlight the role he plays in coordinating teacher training activities and the incentive mechanisms he develops for teachers to encourage them to bring the harkis (and memories of the Algerian War) into the classroom. Chapter 2 looks at the Office National des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre (ONAC-VG) in the regions and studies the work this public body does in framing the words of witnesses and the meaning it ascribes to their public statements - more specifically, in schools. Chapter 3 starts with the witnesses and what they reveal about their inclusion in group memories. In this case, they deliver counter-narratives and a pacifying message that they link to the need to fight racism. Finally, Chapter 4 looks at the students' work. It provides food for thought about the knowledge that has been stabilised at school, but also about the knowledge that has been assimilated and must be transcribed by the pupils because it is expected of them by their teachers. In itself, it enables us to link the pupils' accounts to the official discourse calling for war memories, to prescribed knowledge and to the words of witnesses.

Theses defended (4)

Elen LE CHÊNELa 'décharge' de l'Etat dans l'accueil des étrangers. Reinvention of guardianship and the production of the migration problem in contemporary Turkey" (co-directed with P. Aldrin, Sciences Po Aix/MESOPOLHIS). AMU doctoral contract. Defended on 10 May 2021. Duration: 91 months.

Elen LE CHÊNE is currently an ATER in the political science department at the University of Lille.

Publications:

• " Bypassing in order to exist: Syrians and humanitarian actors confront Turkish bureaucracy"(with Adrian Foucher), Migration Society2019/3, no. 177, pp. 53-67.
• "Integrated border management: circulation and international projection of a European 'model'. The example of Turkey", Revue française d'administration publique2017/1, no. 161, pp. 117-132.

Iyad MOHAMEDLes aides de l'Union européenne envers l'Autorité palestinienne en matière de sécurité depuis 2005. Etude de cas : la police civile" (co-directed with M. Tozy, Sciences Po Aix/MESOPOLHIS). Thesis funded by a 3-year grant from the French Embassy in Jerusalem. Defended on 30 March 2021. Duration: 89 months.

Iyad MOHAMED was in charge of public relations at the Palestinian Parliament when he began his doctoral thesis. He wanted to become a diplomat thanks to his thesis. He passed the entrance exam for the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the final year of his doctorate and is now Deputy Director of the Africa Department in Ramallah.

Esra SERIMLe facteur iranien dans les relations d'alliance entre la Turquie et les Etats-Unis d'Amérique" (co-directed with G. Groc, IREMAM). Thesis funded by grants from Turkish foundations. Defended on 31 January 2020. Duration: 62 months.

Habiba AS'HRAFWorking the community, making sense. Shiite mobilisations in Yemen and Bahrain: Ansâr Allah and al-Wifâq (2000-2017)". (co-directed with B. Rougier, CEDEJ). Thesis funded by short-stay grants from the French Embassy in Egypt and the WAFAW-ERC programme. Defended on 31 January 2019. Duration: 61 months.

Habiba AS'HRAF was an assistant in the Francophone Department of Political Science at Cairo University when she began her PhD. Her grant from the French Embassy stipulated that she would join the same department as a full professor at the end of her thesis. This was done as soon as she obtained her doctorate. She is now one of the key members of the teaching and research team here.

Publications:

• "Ansar Allah: from Saada to Saana, Middle EastNo. 46, 2020, pp. 24-29.
• Confinement at Cairo University. Testimony of Habiba Ashraf [podcast], An Eye on the City, https://spx.hypotheses.org/3491

Theses in progress (7)

Andrea GALLINAL ARIASLes effets des crises migratoires dans les sociétés d'accueil : une analyse multisectorielle du politique. The Canary Islands as a privileged observatory" (co-directed with P. Aldrin, Sciences-Po Aix/MESOPOLHIS), AMU doctoral contract, 1^era registration in 2021-2022.

Andrea GALLINAL ARIAS will be teaching political science at Science Po Aix during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Publications:

• Local Economic Development in Asturias7 May 2020, https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-gallinal-arias-28a790195/en?trk=people-guest_people_search-card
• "The Canary Islands as the backdrop for the new border play, AntiAtlas of Borders, https://www.antiatlas.net/le-borderscape-europeen-a-lepreuve-du-covid-19/

Sami OUCHANELa politique de coopération éducative de la France au Liban. Enseignement, francophonie et relations internationales 1946-1990" (co-directed with J. Honvault, historian, IREMAM), Contrat doctoral de Sciences Po Aix-en-Provence, 1^era registration in 2021-2022.

Sami OUCHANE is a doctoral student with an atypical background, having taught history and geography in several French lycées abroad for eight years. He passed the agrégation in geography in 2021, finishing in 3rd place.^th The same year, he was awarded a doctoral contract at Sciences Po Aix. Since then, he has been a lecturer in political science at the same institution.

Article published about him:

• "The commemoration of the war takes place at the Lycée Abdel Kader, L'Orient-Le-JourBeirut, 6 May 2016, https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/984518/la-commemoration-de-la-guerre-sinvite-au-lycee-abdel-kader.html

Laurence DUFRESNE AUBERTINLes murs de la colère. Droit au logement et mobilisations à bas bruit en Algérie' (co-directed with E. Gobe, politiste, IREMAM), AMU doctoral contract, thesis due in October 2023 (co-directed since September 2021).

Laurence DUFRESNE AUBERTIN is a student from Quebec whom I followed during her two Masters 2 at Sciences Po Aix on the one hand, and at the Department of Arabic Studies at the University of Aix-Marseille on the other, and then during her year in Cairo, during which she did an intensive course in Arabic. She enrolled for her PhD in September 2016 under the supervision of Eric Gobe at a time when I had too many co-directors to take her on. I have been following her ever since and, with his agreement, took her on as a co-director last September. Laurence Dufresne Aubertin was the winner of the CNRS/GIS MOM Michel Seurat Prize in 2019. She worked as a visiting lecturer in the Political Science Department between 2018 and 2020, including a lecture on Comparative Politics in English. She has just been recruited as a research engineer for the ERC DREAM programme. Drafting and Enacting the Revolutions in the Arab Mediterranean. In Search for Dignity. From the 1950's Until Today (ed. L. Dakhli).

Publications:

• "Algeria. The low-key mobilisation of women", Orient XXI21 September 2021, https://www.pressegauche.org/Algerie-La-mobilisation-a-bas-bruit-des-femmes
• "Family in danger": the reality and fabric of those entitled to social housing in Algeria, The Year of the Maghreb [Online], no. 23, 2020, pp. 121-134.
• "Moral and political claims of a revolt. The Mzab riots in Algeria (2013-2015)", The Year of the Maghreb [Online], no. 16, 2017, pp. 209-222.
• [Myriam Aït-Aoudia, The democratic experience in Algeria (1988-1992). Political learning and regime changeParis, Les Presses de Sciences Po, 2015, 300 p.], Review of Muslim Worlds and the Mediterranean[Online], No. 142, 2017

Article published about him:

• "The 2019 Michel Seurat Prize awarded to Laurence Dufresne Aubertin", https://orientxxi.info/magazine/le-prix-michel-seurat-2019-attribue-a-laurence-dufresne-aubertin,2897

Eva BERNARDLe mouvement des femmes entre auto-organisation et action protestataire : L'auto-défense collective contre les violences masculines à Istanbul et Diyarbakır", 1^era registration in 2020-2021. Thesis funded by a grant from the GIS "Genre" and mobility grants from the IFEA, Istanbul.

After a Master 2 in Conflict Policy, Law and Justice at the University of SOAS in London, Eva Bernard worked as a journalist for a number of years. freelance in Turkey for nearly seven years, she contacted me about doing a PhD thesis during the 2019-2020 academic year and we then worked on writing a thesis project, in partnership with E. Massicard (who follows her with me informally). Since then, she has been very involved with the IFEA in Istanbul (UMIFRE).

Alice BAUDYLes recompositions identitaires chez les descendants de harkis" (co-directed with P. Aldrin, Sciences Po Aix/MESOPOLHIS). Doctoral contract from the Région Sud, 1^era registration in 2019-2020.

Alice BAUDY wrote her Master 2 dissertation under my supervision on a public action mechanism that I also studied as part of my Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR). Since she started her PhD, she has been very involved in the life of the laboratory and the PhD students' association. She has been teaching political science at Science Po Aix since the first year of her thesis.

Publications:

• In the footsteps of the Villa Air-Bel: history and citizenship at school, 2021, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03436048/

Article published about him:

• Alice Baudy and Pierre Sintès. Discussion about the exhibition 20 tonnes of bronze, 250 tonnes of granite, https://www.livre-provencealpescotedazur.fr/evenements/alice-baudi-et-pierre-sintes-596/page-1

Damien ROMAINLes diplomates palestiniens entre libération nationale et technocratisation de la fonction de la représentation extérieure" (co-directed with P. Aldrin, Sciences Po Aix/MESOPOLHIS). AMU doctoral contract. Doctoral thesis due in June 2022.

Damien ROMAIN was a contract history-geography teacher before enrolling for a PhD in political science. He is very involved with doctoral students and was elected as a student representative on the laboratory board. He was an ATER at Science Po Aix in 2019-2020 and will be an ATER again at the University of Lyon-2 during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Publications:

• "Palestinian diplomats: an elite on the fringes of the Palestinian national movement", SociologyS, 2020, https://doi.org/10.4000/sociologies.12951
• Representing a "terrorist organisation" in Europe: the case of the PLO (1967-1974), Maghreb - Mashrek2019/4, no. 242, pp. 5-17.
• [LATTE Abdallah, Stéphanie ; PARIZOT, Cédric (dir.), Israel/Palestine, the illusion of separation(Contemporary Societies series, Presses Universitaires de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2017), Review of Muslim Worlds and the Mediterranean[Online], no. 146,
• [BONTEMPS Véronique et al, 2020, Thinking Palestine in networksParis/Beirut, Ed. Diacritiques/Presses de l'IFPO], Review of Muslim Worlds and the Mediterranean[Online], no. 150, 2021.

Minas OUCHAKILIANCrise du projet national et mobilisations protestataires dans les camps de réfugiés de Cisjordanie. Notables and Fatah activists confronted with the governance of the Palestinian Authority" (co-directed with E. Gobe, political scientist, IREMAM). AMU doctoral contract. Doctoral thesis to be defended in October 2022.

Minas OUCHAKLIAN was a journalist freelance in Palestine for over ten years before embarking on editorial work in the social sciences and enrolling for a thesis. The progress of his thesis was slowed down by serious health problems, which led him to suspend his registration for two years.

Publications:

• "The Palestinian security government through the prism of the riot", Review of Muslim Worlds and the Mediterranean[On line], no. 147, 2020
• [DOT-POUILLARD Nicolas, The Shattered Mosaic. A history of the Palestinian national movement (1993-2016)Paris, Actes Sud, 2016, 255 pages], in Review of Muslim Worlds and the Mediterranean [Online], no. 145, 2019.
• "Les groupes armés du camp de Balata (West Bank). Mobilisation, revolt and parallel economy in the shadow of Fatah networks", in V. Bontemps et al, Thinking Palestine in networksParis/Beirut, Ed. Diacritiques/Presses de l'IFPO.

Leading research teams

• Decentralisation in the Arab world

With Jean-Philippe Bras (Professor of Public Law at the University of Rouen), I led a research team made up of researchers (including Moroccan and Tunisian geographers) at the first Congress of the Groupement d'Intérêt Scientifique Moyen-Orient et Mondes Musulmans (GIS MOM), held in Paris in July 2015. This team then integrated French-speaking PhD students affiliated to the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC) in Tunis, as well as PhD students from Sciences Po Aix. It published the results of its collective reflections in a dossier of The Year of the Maghrebentitled "Etats et territoires du politique. La décentralisation en débat" (published in 2017). 7 of its 10 articles have been published in English with funding from the GIS MOM (and are available online on the journal's website).

• On the emergence of authoritarianism (Arab world/Latin America)

With B. Botiveau (IREMAM), I led a research team which, through a scientific cooperation agreement, brought together IREMAM, Sciences Po Aix and the Colegio de Mexico. Other institutions (and colleagues) from other scientific establishments in Latin America then joined us. Together, we have initiated research on Observing the emergence of authoritarianism in the Arab world and Latin America. A study day I organised at Sciences Po Aix on 27 June 2014 enabled us to publish a collective work (Riveneuve, April 2018, see appendix 2, p. 17).

Research contracts evaluated following a call for projects or by mutual agreement

• 1 ANR on State and diaspora (based on the Palestinian case)

In 2005, when I had just defended my thesis, I was awarded an ANR "Young Researcher" grant for a collective research programme entitled " Palestinian nation-building, between diaspora life and state formation ". I ran it for five years, co-directing with Jalal Al-Husseini (associate researcher at CERMOC-Amman). The programme brought together around fifteen doctoral students from various disciplines (political scientists, sociologists, historians, geographers), attached to several international research centres (CERMOC-Amman; CERMOC-Beirut; Muwatin in Ramallah), under the sponsorship of Daniel Rivet (Professor of History) and Hamit Bozarslan (sociologist, Director of Studies at EHESS) - the ISSMM management team - and then Jean-Philippe Bras (Professor of Public Law). Total budget: 150,000 euros. It resulted in the publication of a collective work (IISMM/Karthala, 2012).

• 1 programme funded by L'humanitaire islamique (in France)

In May 2017, I responded to a scientific call for tenders, known as "Islam, religion and society", issued by the Bureau des Cultes (BCC) (attached to the Ministry of the Interior) on "Islamic humanitarianism in France" (or HUMISLAF), on behalf of IREMAM. Begun in January 2018, the research, which I led with a research engineer, brought together, for a year and a half, a team of five people (including two Master 2 students), who met every two months in Aix-en-Provence. Two student interns joined us for the last six months to help write the final report. The total budget was 25,000 euros. A 250-page report was submitted to the study's sponsor.