Background

Regional-level discourse has tended to focus on national and international forces affecting the refugee crises and terrorism, but individuals that 'live locally' can not be forgotten. This project aims to deepen our understanding of local governance in the MENA region. Scholars from Europe, the MENA region, and the US have employed a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches and examined a diverse set of cases to better understand subnational governance in the MENA region.   

Book Project

This project will culminate in an edited volume that will explore comparative decentralization, state-building and power, gender, service provision, and social cohesion at the local level around the MENA region. 

Publications:

Brooke, Steven and Monica C. Komer. (2021). How Gender and Local State Capacity Shape Citizens’ Use of the Mosque. The Program on Governance and Local Development Working Paper No. 37, University of Gothenburg, Available At: http://gld.gu.se/media/2025/gld-working-paper-37.pdf    

Kherigi, Intissar. (2021). "Municipal Boundaries and the Politics of Space in Tunisia," The Program on Governance and Local Development Working Paper No. 38, University of Gothenburg, Available At: http://gld.gu.se/media/2032/gld-working-paper-38.pdf

Barnett, Carolyn; Shalaby, Marwa. (2021). "Success Beyond Gender Quotas: Gender, Local Politics, and Clientelism in Morocco" The Program on Governance and Local Development Working Paper No. 48, University of Gothenburg. Available At: http://gld.gu.se/media/2303/gld-working-paper48.pdf 

Collaborators

Collaborators on the volume are; Christina Parreira (Harvard University); Steven Brooke with Monica Komer (University of Wisconsin, Madison); Aytug Sasmaz (Harvard University) with Julia Clark (World Bank) and Alexandra Blackman (NYU Abu Dhabi); Marika Sosnowski (University of Melbourne), Intissar Kherigi (Jasmine Foundation); Kristen Kao (University of Gothenburg); Marwa Shalaby (University of Wisconsin, Madison) with Carolyn Barnett (Princeton University); Lindsay Benstead (Portland State University); Matt Buehler (University of Tennessee); Sylvia Bergh (International Institute of Social Sciences) with Francesco Colin (Erasmus University). The volume is co-edited by Professor Ellen Lust and Senior Researcher Kristen Kao.

Workshops and Seminars:

• Middle East and North Africa Workshop, Sarajevo, August 7-9, 2019

• Fall 2020 Weekly Seminar Series for the GLD in the MENA Edited Volume, September to December, 2020