Arab Spring? Social Movement? Change in society is not always bad, a time of transition from one phase towards another is something that might bring a better condition for the future. Even if the transition period are filled with violence, the end result of the transformation can be either in the shape of new government or even a society change. The beginning of those transitions and transformation are triggered by an action call social movement. In this paper, the writer will attempt to describe, and analyze one case of social movement in the world, more specifically the case of the Arab Spring.
According to Snow, Soule and Kriesi (2004: 11), Social movements can be thought of as 'collectivities acting with some degree of
All these revolts have ended up with high amount of deaths and injuries. (Diani and Bison 2004)
The trigger of the revolution started with a 26-year-old Tunisian street trader called Mohammed Bouazizi to douse himself in petrol and strike a match. This act of self-immolation was the catalyst for wide spread unrest in Tunisia, which saw large demonstrations taking place throughout December, eventually leading to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in early January 2011. After the Tunisian Presidents’ exile, Egyptians started protesting the unemployment, political unrest, and demanded for President Hosni Mubarak to resign. Protests in Egypt started on 25 January. In Egypt, the economic situation was dire, and people were fed up with the government’s inability to provide basic services and alleviate widespread poverty and unemployment. Similar to Tunisia, the business elite had ties to those in power. Furthermore, unlike in Tunisia, the Egyptian army was to a much greater extent involved in the life of Egypt thus its protestors. (Pelletreau 2011)
Even though the catalyst was just a single person that felt that he had enough oppression and economic injustice, this single act was the catalyst for the movement that totally changed the political and social landscape of the Arab World. The root causes of which were the injustice, the economic and social inequality felt by the people,