Armando Salvatore 
Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies 
Reconstructing the Public Sphere in Muslim Majority Societies

This collection of essays examines how modern public spheres reflect and mask – often both simultaneously – discourses of order, contests for hegemony, and techniques of power in the Muslim world. It builds on scholarship that re-imagines theories and practices of the public in modern and contemporary societies. While examining disparate time periods and locations, each contributor views modern and contemporary public spheres as crucial to the functioning, and understanding, of political and societal power in Muslim majority countries.

Table of Content

PART ONE: CONTESTED HEGEMONIES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE Socio-Religious Movements and the Transformation of ‘Common Sense’ Into a Politics of ‘Common Good’; S.Le Vine Power, Religion, and the Effects of Publicness in Twentieth Century Shiraz; S.Manoukian ‘Doing Good, Like Sayyida Zaynab’: Lebanese Shi-i Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere; L.Deeb ‘Building the World’ in a Global Age; R.Baker PART TWO: PRACTICE, COMMUNICATION AND THE PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION OF LEGAL ARGUMENT Constructing the Private/Public Distinction in Muslim-Majority Societies: A Praxiological Approach; B.Dupret & J.Ferrié Communicative Action and the Social Construction of Shari’a in Contemporary Pakistan; M.K.Masud Is There An Arab Public Sphere? The Palestinian Intifada, a Saudi Fatwa, and the Egyptian Press; D.Hamzah Cover Stories: A Genealogy of the Legal-Public Sphere in Yemen; B.Messick Public Spheres Transnationalized: Comparisons Within and Beyond Muslim Majority Societies; C.Lynch

About the author

ARMANDO SALVATORE is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, Humboldt University, Germany. He is author of
Islam and the Political Discourse of Modernity (Ithaca Press, 1997) and editor of
Between Europe and Islam: Shaping Modernity in a Transcultural Space (co-edited with Almut Höfert, Peter Lang, 2000).

MARK LE VINE is Associate Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture and Islamic Studies at the University of California, USA. He is the author of
Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine (UC Press, NYP),
Why They Don’t Hate Us: From Culture Wars to Culture Jamming in the Global Era (Oneworld Press NYP), and co-editor with Viggo Mortensen and Pilar Perez of
Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation (Perceval Press).