People tend much less to care about what other people are doing than in other places I have been/lived. In the tube, fellow travelers are not so much looking around at other people, but they are preoccupied with their own things, friends, colleagues or family. Building on the first point, many of the tube-goers do something when…
Here I wish to offer some theoretical perspectives on the study of revolutions. First of all, I provide a summary from McAdams, Tarrow and Tilly’s book Dynamics of Contention where they attempt to identify recurring mechanisms and processes that play a role in contentious politics by doing a comparative study of a set of historic examples…
I plan to follow a particular approach where I will first provide a summary of events in a recent revolutionary situation, then I will offer some theoretical frameworks of the study of revolutions, and thirdly, I will try to put the two together — to give practical insights by applying the theories. This post is…
Mr Joris Luyendijk has been a correspondent in the Middle East from 1998 to 2003 (he is now in London reporting on the banking world of the City) and he has written a book about how he thinks that reporting accurately is hardly possible in the region — due to the repressive regimes and highly…
My return to Western Europe has made me more conscious of life in Hungary and how radically different it is compared to the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany. In which aspects? In how you are treated by your fellow citizens. In Hungary there is a melancholy surrounding the people, especially the 50+ers. They have long…
A couple of months ago a family member, who has been a former employee at the Embassy in Iran, gave me an advice I remember well and which I try to use, if I can: write about the country where you are. And so I did, in September I wrote an Op-Ed about Hungary, of…
I just came across another book review that I have written earlier — in 2011, in fact, when I was doing an internship at USAK, in Ankara. It is a quite elaborate review, making it a bit longer than usual. Countries are more complex than they seem. Demystifying Syria (SOAS Middle East Issues Series) Fred…
