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Critical voices in critical times: revolution without revolutionaries, an interview with Asef Bayat

Asef Bayat talks about revolutions and revolutionary ideas, the place of ordinary people in social transformation, and what we can learn from the “Tahrir moment.”

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Asef Bayat- Hague copy.jpg
Asef Bayat- Hague copy.jpg

Asef Bayat. Picture courtesy of author. Some rights reserved.

Interview by Heba Khalil ; video by Linda Herrera

Asef Bayat is the Catherine and Bruce Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In his new book, “Revolution without revolutionaries: making sense of the Arab Spring” (Stanford University Press, 2017), he explores the meaning of revolutionary struggle in the post-Cold War era, a “time when the very idea of revolution had dissipated.”