Syrian Society in Revolution and War (2011–2024)
Legacy and Transformations
In 2011, Syrians broke the wall of silence and rose up against the Assad regime to reclaim their rights to liberty and dignity. But the popular revolution was crushed by a 14-year war with devastating consequences: half a million people killed or wounded, over 150,000 imprisoned or disappeared. Half the population was forced into exile or displaced within the country. Millions of Syrians endured grief, hunger, and torture—and for all, a deep sense of powerlessness in the face of injustice. Yet, ...
Éditeur : Presses de l’Ifpo
Lieu d’édition : Beyrouth
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 19 juin 2025
ISBN numérique : 978-2-35159-576-3
DOI : 10.4000/145wz
Collection : Contemporain publications | CP 41
Année d’édition : 2025
ISBN (Édition imprimée) : 978-2-35159-813-9
Nombre de pages : 376
Myriam Ababsa et Valentina Napolitano
ForewordMyriam Ababsa et Valentina Napolitano
Cadenza Academic Translations (trad.)
IntroductionSyrian Society amid Revolution and War: A Diachronic Approach across Territories
Part I — Individual and collective journeys
Charlotte al-Khalili
Revolutionary Struggles within the HomeTransformations in the Domestic Lives of Syrian Women in Exile after 2011
Valentina Napolitano
Relations de genre et formes de protection parmi les familles syriennes en Jordanie (2018-2020)Sana Yazigi
« La mémoire d’un rêve de changement »L’engagement et le parcours de Sana Yazigi dans l’archivage d’une mémoire syrienne
Part II — Economic dynamics, subsistence and humanitarian aid
Joseph Daher
L’impact de la politique économique du gouvernement syrien sur les structures socio-économiquesMathilde Gingembre
Agrarian Migrations and Moral Economies in Times of WarSyrian Pastoral Refugees in Jordan
Salam Kawakibi
Alep : un parcours personnel (2011-2022)Part III — Political reconfigurations, governance structures and forms of mobilisation
Matthieu Rey
Les terroirs syriens en recompositionGéographie politique de la Syrie au regard du temps long
Anna Poujeau
L’enlèvement collectif des druzes de Suwaydāʾ par l’État islamique (juillet 2018)Recompositions confessionnelles et politiques en temps de guerre en Syrie
Aurora Sottimano
Reconsidering Governance from BelowPractices and Models of Autonomous Governance, Social Inclusiveness and Decentralisation in Wartime Syria
Julie Bernath
Transitional Justice in the Syrian ContextDiaspora Mobilisation and the Invention of Spaces for Justice
Yassin al-Haj Saleh
Majoritarian Syria: Justice in Conflict ResolutionÉlizabeth Picard
Afterword. The Birth of a New Syria?In 2011, Syrians broke the wall of silence and rose up against the Assad regime to reclaim their rights to liberty and dignity. But the popular revolution was crushed by a 14-year war with devastating consequences: half a million people killed or wounded, over 150,000 imprisoned or disappeared. Half the population was forced into exile or displaced within the country. Millions of Syrians endured grief, hunger, and torture—and for all, a deep sense of powerlessness in the face of injustice. Yet, despite the destruction and the persistence of daily violence, these years of war also gave rise to immense hope and profound social transformations that transcended questions of identity and religion. New forms of mobilisation, autonomous civic initiatives, solidarities, and expressions of free speech emerged, asserting that the Syrian people are determined to shape their own future.
The contributions gathered in this volume bear witness to the pioneering legacy of a decade of revolution and war that has irreversibly transformed Syrian society. Through case studies ranging from self-governance and wartime economies to shifts in domestic life, gender dynamics, and transitional justice, the book explores the scale of political, social, economic, and familial changes that Syria has undergone. These developments are analysed both within Syria and in exile—in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan—and are situated within the country’s longer historical trajectory. Long overshadowed by geopolitical and strategic readings of the conflict, Syrian society is placed at the heart of this book, which seeks to uncover the forces driving its struggle for liberation.
Myriam Ababsa (dir.)
myriam.ababsa@gmail.com
Geographer and urban planner, associate researcher at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo Amman), the Géographie-Cités laboratory, and CAREP Paris. A graduate of the École normale supérieure Fontenay-Saint Cloud, she obtained her PhD in 2004 from the University of Tours (Raqqa, territoires et pratiques sociales d’une ville syrienne, Ifpo, 2009). She is the author of Amman, de pierre et de paix (Autrement, 2007). Together with Rami Daher, she co-edited Villes, pratiques urbaines et construction nationale en Jordanie (Ifpo, 2011); with Éric Denis and Baudouin Dupret, Popular Housing and Urban Land Tenure in the Middle East (American University in Cairo Press, 2012); and the Atlas of Jordan (Ifpo, 2013). Her most recent book, co-authored with Norig Neveu and Falestin Naïli, is: Amman Social History through Photography (Ifpo, 2025). She is a member of the scientific council of Mondes Arabes (CNRS, Collège de France) since 2022.
Valentina Napolitano (dir.)
valentina.napolitano@ird.fr
Sociologist, research fellow at IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement) and associate researcher at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (Ifpo) in Amman, her work focuses on forced migration, political violence, and collective action in the Middle East (Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon). After studying political mobilisation within Palestinian refugee camps in Damascus, her current research explores the transformations of the Syrian family sphere in the context of war and forced displacement. Among her recent publications: “Donner sens et cohérence à la désertion en contexte de guerre : les émotions d’ex-militaires syriens”, Critique internationale 91/2 (2021), pp. 67–87; with Jalal al-Husseini, “La politique jordanienne à l’égard des réfugiés syriens : entre hospitalité et protection des intérêts nationaux”, Confluences Méditerranée 110/3 (2019), pp. 127–142.
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Les quartiers irréguliers de Beyrouth
Une histoire des enjeux fonciers et urbanistiques dans la banlieue sud
Valérie Clerc-Huybrechts
2008
ONG palestiniennes et construction étatique
L’expérience de Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) dans les Territoires occupés palestiniens, 1983-2005
Caroline Abu-Sada
2007
Penser l'Orient
Traditions et actualité des orientalismes français et allemand
Youssef Courbage et Manfred Kropp (dir.)
2004
The grammars of adjudication
The economics of judicial decision making in fin-de-siècle Ottoman Beirut and Damascus
Zouhair Ghazzal
2007
Itinéraires esthétiques et scènes culturelles au Proche-Orient
Nicolas Puig et Franck Mermier (dir.)
2007
Les pèlerinages au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient
Espaces publics, espaces du public
Sylvia Chiffoleau et Anna Madœuf (dir.)
2005
Maaloula (XIXe-XXIe siècles). Du vieux avec du neuf
Histoire et identité d’un village chrétien de Syrie
Frédéric Pichon
2010
