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New Patterns of Mobilization for and against Democracy

Massimo Ramaioli

Contact: M.Ramaioli(at)aui.ma

Assistant Professor, Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane

Massimo Ramaioli is Assistant Professor in Political Science and Coordinator in the School of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. Previously, he was Assistant Dean in the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Assistant Professor, Social Development and Policy Program at Habib University (HU) in Karachi, Pakistan.

He obtained an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and then received a PhD in Political Science from Syracuse University.

His main research interests are contentious politics, political Islam, Gramscian theory and International Relations theory. Before joining HU, he taught for two years at the Center for International Exchange and Education in Amman, and studied Arabic in Tunis, Damascus, Beirut and Fes. He is a regular contributor for Nuovo Mondo Economico of the Centro Studi Einaudi of Turin, Italy, and a research fellow at the German Institute of Global Area Studies of Hamburg, Germany.

Research project

‘Cattivi Maestri’: Intellectuals and Political Mobilization

The expression ‘Cattivi Maestri’ (Italian for ‘Evil Teachers’) refers to intellectuals whose dangerous ideas may upset socio-political order. In the 1970s, as Italy plunged into a spiral of violent extremism that sought to alter the liberal-democratic order, this expression prods us to ask: How do intellectuals contribute to (radical) political mobilization? How does their ideational production – their writings, publications, public pronouncements and statements – impact and inform episodes of collective claim making? In particular, I aim at investigating how intellectuals engage and relate to their followers, acolytes and larger society in order to sustain social and political mobilization, specifically as we confront instances of radical and anti-status quo political projects.

This project develops from my PhD dissertation work, which dealt with the role of Islamic ideologues and scholars within the Salafi community in Jordan and the larger Arab Mashreq. In such work, I relied on a Gramscian understanding of the intellectuals; and combined it with the work of Tilly, Tarrow and McAdam about contentious politics and political mobilization.

In the context of the New Patterns of Mobilization for – and against – Democracy Project, I intend first to refine the theoretical framework I have developed thus far; and second, to examine cases beyond the Islamic world. Amongst these, I am considering Abimael Guzman and Sendero Luminoso in Peru and Antonio Negri and Brigate Rosse Italy.