This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests.
Jonas Burkhard is a student of Arabic and Politics at the University of Edinburgh. He is particularly interested in contemporary Moroccan politics and the history of the Amazigh movement. From September 2016 to March 2017, he completed a stay at the Arabic Language Institute in Fes, Morocco. From May to June 2017, he served as an intern at the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES) of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.
Online and Traditional Forms of Protest Mobilization: Morocco’s Rif Protests and Beyond
When investigating the relative role that social media and other factors can play in the mobilization of popular demonstrations, the recent Rif protests, which some have perceived as having the potential to spark a “second Arab Spring” in Morocco, are interesting to look at. These protests suggest that large-scale popular demonstrations might often result from a combination of both online mobilization and much more traditional mobilization strategies employed by charismatic movement leaders. In this sense, the Rif protests also contradict assumptions about the presumed role of “diffuse leadership,” which emerged in the context of the Arab Spring.
