Omran for Social Sciences and Humanities
Omran is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal dedicated to producing, disseminating, and advancing specialized knowledge in sociology and anthropology, published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies
Book previews prepared by the Editorial Board: - Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man , Shawky Douaihy (trans.) (Doha/Beirut: Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, 2025), 512 pp. - Youness Loukili, Introduction to Visual Anthropology (Doha: Qatar University Press, 2025), 190 pp. - Safeguarding Knowledge: Studies on Academic Freedom in the Arab Region (Beirut: Arab Council for the Social Sciences, 2025), 93 pp. - Joseph Wilson, Humans of AI: Understanding the People behind the Machines (Toronto: Aevo University of Toronto Press, 2026), 354 pp. - Walaa Alqaisiya & Nicola Perugini (eds.), Palestine and the Western Academe: Fighting the Exception, Defending Epistemic Justice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2026), 378 pp.
Copyright (c) 2026 Omran for Social Sciences and Humanities https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Homo Numericus: The Coming “Civilization”
Book Title : Homo numericus: La “civilization” qui vient . Author : Daniel Cohen. Translation : Ali Youssef Asaad. Publisher : Jubail: Page Seven Publishings.​ Date of Publication : 2022. Pages : 268.
The Teacher in New Sociologies of Education
The emergence of new sociologies in the field of education has marked a significant epistemological turning point in the historical development of approaches to the dialectical relationship between “educational” and “social” matters. Within this framework, schools are central to unpacking social and educational inequalities, particularly with regard to the organization of school knowledge and classroom interactions. A key focus within this inquiry has been on teachers, regarded as active agents in any educational reform. They have come to represent both the foundation of educational change and a primary entry point for new sociological research on schooling. This article explores how new sociologies of education have addressed the role of teachers – highlighting, on the one hand, their centrality in driving educational transformation, and on the other, the value of sociological knowledge about teachers in fostering their critical reflexivity and motivating their engagement in deconstructing, analysing and dismantling the processes through which schooling reproduces educational inequalities.
The Wet and the Dry: Traditional Irrigation in Bali and Morocco
The comparative perspective is of central importance to effective analysis in human ecology. The present paper compares "traditional" irrigation systems in two quite disparate settings: east central Morocco and southeastern Bal. Bali, which has a tropical climate and a plentiful water supply, displays a highly collective approach to the organization of irrigation facilities. Morocco, which is essentially an arid country, displays, on the contrary, a much more individual, property-based approach to water regulation. The internal organization of these two regimes is described and their connection with more general cultural and ecological factors is traced, in an attempt to demonstrate that patterns of adaptation are susceptible to the same pattern of analysis as other aspects of social and cultural life. The contrast between the strongly group-oriented Balinese approach to water control and distribution and the highly individualistic Moroccan one is said to extend in an overall way to the two societies as a whole.
Current Ecological Trends: An Exercise in Classification and Typology
Book Title : Current Ecological Trends: An Exercise in Classification and Typology . Author : Khalid Chahbar. Publisher : Rabat: Dar Al Qalam. Date of Publication : 2024. Pages : 192.
When the Sociologist Wears the Historian’s Cloak: Uses of History in Khaldoun Al-Naqeeb’s Analysis of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Societies
This study examines the uses of history in Khaldoun Al-Naqeeb’s study of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula societies by examining his writings through a historian’s lens. It does not treat this use as a standalone historical narrative; instead, it analyses his instrumentalization of historical materials, events, and sources within an interpretive argument about state and class formation, and the trajectories of economic and political transformation. The article discusses Al-Naqeeb’s critique of historians and analyses his use of history, as reflected, for example, in his periodization – largely driven by an economistic perspective – as well as in his class analysis that tends to privilege economic determinants over lineage and tribal affiliation. The paper concludes that while Al-Naqeeb’s project enriched Arabian Peninsula studies, it requires a more rigorous application of historical methods to the contexts he addresses.
War by Another Means: The Impasse of Gaza’s Reconstruction After Genocide
This study examines the trajectory of reconstruction in Gaza as a process unfolding within a structure of de-development, understood here as a form of settler-colonial governance aimed at erasing the foundations of development, destroying the economy, and, more broadly, eliminating the indigenous population. It argues that employing past approaches in the current reconstruction risks turning reconstruction into a mechanism for the continuation of the genocide. The study further demonstrates that any future reconstruction process will confront major structural challenges, including the severe humanitarian crisis produced by genocide, the continuation of the blockade, Palestinian political division, chronic funding shortages, and the volatility of international aid. It concludes that sustainable reconstruction will remain unattainable unless it is accompanied by an end to the siege, the dismantling of the structures of de-development, and its integration into a broader trajectory toward self-determination and emancipation within a unified Palestinian national project.
Post-Independence Algerian Protest Movements: Rupture and Continuity
This study examines the trajectories of rupture and continuity in Algerian protest movements, from the demonstrations of the mid-1980s to the Hirak movement of February 2019. It adopts a qualitative approach, combining participant observation, interviews with political actors, analysis of social movement literature, and a review of scholarship on the Algerian political system. This study argues that Hirak represents a distinct protest moment, marked by its peaceful nature, extended duration, broad social base, and articulation of substantive demands for political reform and the establishment of a civilian state. At the same time, it remained unable to evolve into a political formation capable of producing a representative leadership. The findings suggest that this paradox reflects profound sociological transformations, including the central role of migration and a multifaceted urban character that has generated, but not transformed, general demand.
The University as a Field of Struggle: Student Protests in Tunisia and Egypt (1968-1973)
This article examines student protests in Tunisia and Egypt between 1968 and 1973. These include two uprisings in Tunisia and four in Egypt, which functioned more like waves within a single cycle with a beginning and an end. The analysis demonstrates that, from the perspective of social movement theory, these protests are an expression of general political crises, yet almost exclusively student-led. It shows that two issues preoccupied students: the political system and its impact on higher education governance (in both countries), and the national crisis (in Egypt) related to the Israeli occupation of Egyptian territory in the 1967 war, which in turn is connected to another national question (the Palestinian revolution). The analysis indicates that the intensity of the uprisings is linked to the dynamics of universities, between their status as formal institutions of socialization and their potential role as sites for rebellion, that is, as a field of social struggle.
Awareness of Otherness between Religion and Utility: Moroccans’ Representations of Sub-Saharan African Migrants
This article examines how religious affiliation informs the construction of social representations of “otherness” among a sample of Moroccans in relation to Sub-Saharan African migrants in Morocco. Drawing on a Weberian theoretical framework that evokes the concepts of secularization, rationalization, and utilitarian action strategies, the article analyses fourteen semi-structured interviews conducted by Menassat for research and social studies as part of a qualitative study carried out in six Moroccan cities. The study finds that the principle of utility and the type of activities carried out by African immigrants in Morocco are the most influential factors in how the interviewees construct their representations of African immigrants. In this context, religion only serves a justificatory role in shaping these representations.
The Fundamental Concept and Technology of Artificial Intelligence and its Evolution: From Computational Models to Machine Learning
Book title: The Fundamental Concept and Technology of Artificial Intelligence and its Evolution: From Computational Models to Machine Learning . Author: Ghazza Abderrazzak. Publisher: Doha/Beirut: Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Date of Publication: 2024. Pages: 448.
Copyright (c) 2025 Omran for Social Sciences and Humanities https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Book previews prepared by the Editorial Board: - Mahmoud Bakir, Forging National Identity: The Future of Syria (Doha/Beirut: Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, 2025), 248 pp. - Bouazza Al-Khallaki, The Value System in Moroccan Popular Culture: A Socio-Cultural Study of Folk Riddles in the Gharb Region (Casablanca: Afrique Orient, 2025), 300 pp. - Abdullah Alajmi et al. (eds.), Social Anthropology in the Arab World: The Fragmented History of an Uncomfortable Discipline (New York/ Oxford: Berghahn, 2025), 356 pp. - Mariusz Finkielsztein, The Sociology of Boredom (Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2025), 352 pp. - Ahmad Alzoubi, Diáspora Palestina na América Latina: Estudos sobre mídia e identidade (São Paulo: MEMO, 2025), 264 pp.
Tribalism and Political Power in the Gulf: State-Building and National Identity in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE
Book Title: Tribalism and Political Power in The Gulf: State- Building and National Identity in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE . Author: Alanoud al-Sharekh & Courtney Freer. Publisher: London: I.B. Tauris. Date of Publication: 2021. Pages: 224.
From Poverty to Exploitation: The Motivations and Consequences of Palestinian Women Working in Israeli Settlements
This report examines the economic and social characteristics of Palestinian women working in Israeli settlements, analysing income levels, poverty, and related issues. It utilizes field surveys and interviews, with a focus on women living in the communities of the Jordan Valley. The findings show that most women working in settlements are employed in low-wage jobs in the agriculture and food processing sectors, often due to limited job opportunities in the local market, wage gaps, and financial need. The report emphasizes the lost opportunity cost to the local economy and proposes policies that would promote long-term local employment opportunities.
Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness
How behaviour and institutions are affected by social relations is one of the classic questions of social theory. This paper concerns the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society. Although the usual neoclasical accounts provide an “undersocialized” or atomized-actor explanation of such action, reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the “oversocialized” way criticized by Dennis Wrong. Under- and oversocialized accounts are paradoxically similar in their neglect of ongoing structures of social relations, and a sophisticated account of economic action must consider its embeddedness in such structures. The argument in illustrated by a critique of Oliver Williamson’s “markets and hierarchies” research program.
The Cost of Closure: Occupation Checkpoints in the North and Central West Bank since 7 October
This report examines the impact of Israeli checkpoints and movement restrictions in the north and central West Bank, focusing on lost working hours and additional fuel costs. Geographic data collected using GPS devices reveals that traffic decreased by 51.7% following Israel’s incursion into Gaza in October 2023. Waiting times at 14 military checkpoints, out of a random sample of 23 permanently reinforced checkpoints between cities in the northern and central West Bank, ranged from 15 to 50 minutes. The report estimates the daily loss of working hours at approximately 191,146, costing the Palestinian economy around $764,600 per day, or $16.8 million per month. The additional distances travelled to avoid checkpoints result in extra fuel consumption estimated at approximately $19,203 per day, or $6 million annually.
Pastoral Settlement: Policies to Combat the Latest Models of Settlement and Economic Exploitation
This article argues that the accelerating practice of pastoral settlement is one of the most ominous forms of Israeli settlement, and discusses its economic, social, and demographic impacts on Palestinian Bedouin and pastoral communities in the West Bank, particularly in Area C. It analyses the impact of land confiscation and displacement on livelihoods, especially for shepherds, livestock breeders, and farmers. The study highlights ongoing Israeli land violations aimed at consolidating the settler–colonial project to seek a comprehensive socio–economic understanding of the dynamics of the conflict. It combines interviews with relevant institutions and a field survey using a sample of Bedouin communities living in Area C. The study reveals that pastoral settlement has deprived herders of their traditional grazing lands, forcing them to change their livestock feeding patterns and increasing the costs of rearing livestock, all in the absence of effective support programs.
Localization of Humanitarian Action in Gaza as a Field Imperative, Not an Institutional Choice
The genocide in Gaza has led to the complete collapse of the humanitarian system. The capacities of international actors have been crippled by direct targeting, coupled with systematic and large–scale prevention of aid entry. As a result, no functioning humanitarian system remains, and the overall response has collapsed. Localization of humanitarian action has thus become an imposed necessity shaped by the realities on the ground, rather than the outcome of a deliberate strategic vision. In this context, local organizations have emerged as virtually the only active responders. This study examines the structural constraints faced by local actors amid the extreme contraction of humanitarian space. The findings reveal that the core of the crisis lies in Israelʼs use of humanitarian action as a weapon of control, alongside severe shortages of resources and equipment, threats to the safety of aid workers, breakdowns in coordination channels, scarcity of funding, and the outright looting of humanitarian aid.
The Impact of Settlement Expansion on Jerusalem Villages: Demographic and Economic Transformations in Biddu, Beit Iksa, Ar-Ram and Kufr Aqab
This article examines Israeli settlement expansion in Jerusalem from both demographic and geographic perspectives, focusing on the isolation of surrounding Palestinian villages and towns from the city centre, as well as the isolation of their residents and suburbs from the rest of the Palestinian population. The article concentrates on Israeli settlement activity in the northern and northwestern parts of Jerusalem, analysing the economic, social, and demographic transformations of the villages of Biddu, Beit Iksa, Al–Ram, and Kafr Aqab. The article concludes with an overview of how settlement expansion policies have produced numerous economic, social, and demographic impacts, according to the specific geopolitical characteristics of each area and the colonial objectives behind these policies.
Israeli Industrial Zones in the West Bank: Economic Impact Study
This article argues that the Israeli industrial zones in “Area C” of the West Bank serve a purpose that goes beyond simple profit-making; they represent a settlement complex with a broader function of colonization and Judaization. It analyses the economic, environmental, and political impact of these areas on Palestinian economy and society through five dimensions: labour exploitation, environmental pollution, the entanglement of Palestinian capital, the disruption of Palestinian trade, and the impact of all this on agriculture. The article adopts a qualitative analytical approach, including the analysis of Israeli and Arab documents and reports, as well as interviews with Palestinian experts. Its findings highlight the need to formulate alternative Palestinian policies that dismantle the colonial economic structure and redirect resistance efforts toward effective boycotts and independent development strategies.
The Cost of Israeli Settlement on the Palestinian People
This article reviews the existing literature on the economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people from 1948–2022, in order to build a methodology that can estimate the total cost. The study proposes three methodologies of estimation: aggregation, counterfactual, and occupation gains, whereby the methodology selection is contingent on the economic variables under estimation. Updating the cost estimates from previous studies reveals that Israel has gained between $955bn and $1.707tn from its settlements and occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem from 2000–2022. Estimating the losses incurred during the 1948 Nakba in 2022, the paper shows an increase from $3bn to $719bn in material losses.
Introduction: Israeli Settlements in the West Bank
This special issue of Omran brings together contributions produced within a joint research project between the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) and the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS). The project was carried out by MAS’s research team, in collaboration with external scholars, under the academic supervision of the ACRPS. The issue responds to the urgent need to move beyond fragmented treatments of Israeli settlement policies by advancing original, in-depth Palestinian analytical approaches. Collectively, the contributions seek to offer a comprehensive understanding of settlement expansion, its interconnected dimensions, and its multifaceted costs across the economic and social spheres of Palestinian life.
The Timeline, Components, and Governing Structure of Israel’s West Bank Settlement Project
This article explores the various components of the Israeli settlement project in the West Bank, as well as the Israeli agencies and institutions that plan, implement, and support it, and the status of settlement activity under international law. It begins by highlighting the comprehensive nature of the settlement project as an integrated structure locked in a zero–sum relationship with the Palestinian space. Across four sections, the study presents a historical overview of the development of settlements in the West Bank; an outline of the project’s structural components; an analysis of the four Israeli bodies that administer settlement expansion and shape its legal and planning frameworks; and, finally, the position of international law on Israeli settlements.
عروض كتب من إعداد هيئة التحرير: - عز الدين الفرّاع، مناطق الحدود الاستعمارية: المجتمع والاقتصاد والهوية (حالة الناظور/ مليلية) (الدوحة/ بيروت: المركز العربي للأبحاث ودراسة السياسات، 2025)، 416 ص. - حسن قرنفل، ألان تورين وإحباط السوسيولوجيا (الدار البيضاء: أفريقيا الشرق، 2025)، 249 ص. - أحمد حمدي عبد العظيم، كنيس الخراب: الصهيونية والاستيطان والعمارة (الجيزة: مدارات للأبحاث والنشر، 2024)، 439 ص. - Md Mizanur Rahman et al. (eds.), Handbook of Families in the Arab Gulf States (Singapore: Springer, 2025), 785 pp. - William Barylo, British Muslims in the Neoliberal Empire: Resisting, Healing, and Flourishing in the Metacolonial Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025), 240 pp.
The Impact of the Israeli War on the Palestinian Economy in the Gaza Strip: The Challenges of Economic Recovery
This report examines the impact of the Israeli war on the economy in Gaza the challenges facing economic recovery. It identifies the impact of the aggression on economic activity according to indicators such as the scope of destruction based on the number of military offensives, the extent of economic sector losses, and decline in GDP and its makeup by sector. It also considers rates of unemployment, poverty, and food insecurity and the significant rise in prices. In the second part, the report reviews the concept of economic recovery, its indicators, and the challenges facing recovery and reconstruction. Finally, the report provides an overview of the interventions required to achieve economic recovery, then presents a number of relevant recommendations.
Mecca in Morocco: Articulations of Muslim Pilgrimage in Moroccan Everyday Life
Book Title: Mecca in Morocco: Articulations of Muslim Pilgrimage in Moroccan Everyday Life . Author: Kholoud Al-Ajarma. Publisher: Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Date of Publication: 2024. Pages: 328.
Fairouz and the Arab Diaspora: Music and Identity in the UK and Qatar
Book Title: Fairouz and the Arab Diaspora: Music and Identity in the UK and Qatar . Author: Dima Issa. Publisher: London: I.B. Tauris. Date of Publication: 2023. Pages: 232.
Social Media and Surveillance: An Anthropological Study of Moroccan Digital Lives
This article explores the concept of digital surveillance in the context of digital freedom and the right to privacy. It uncovers new dimensions of digital surveillance sanctioned by social media users in their search for recognition. The article adopts an anthropological approach, conducting an analytical-interpretive study of the digital lives of a sample of Moroccan social media users. It finds that the more an individual engages in digital activities, the tighter their space for privacy becomes and the more their perception of digital freedom changes in light of the ethical constraints associated with the use of digital spaces. The ongoing digitization of public and private spaces leads individuals to internalize the concept of digital surveillance, which becomes a mechanism for self-censorship.
Toward a Pharmaceutical Anthropology in Morocco: The Biography of Aureomycin from Physical Production to Cultural Reinterpretation
To discuss pharmaceutical anthropology requires moving beyond the traditional distinction between folk remedies and standard modern medicines, toward studying them all the same way. The biographical approach to objects helps in understanding the various transformations and interactions that govern a medicine in a given temporal and social context. This article traces the life story of Aureomycin in Morocco, from the contexts in which it appeared, through its physical production, marketing and distribution processes, and finally its consumption. It becomes evident that the medicine is not used in the way that producers expect; rather, it is subjected to the logic of “pharmaceutical heretics” who treat Aureomycin as folk medicine and part of new, intermediary treatment process – one that is neither wholly modern nor traditional.
Digital Activism Within the Coptic Community in North America: New Transnational Opportunities or Emerging Threats?
This article critically examines the dual impact of digital technologies on the political agency of the Coptic diaspora, emphasizing both the opportunities and limitations posed by information and communication technologies (ICTs). Digital platforms have enhanced diaspora visibility, resource mobilization, and transnational activism, but they also introduce major risks, including misinformation, censorship, and surveillance. These growing challenges have hindered the diaspora’s ability to navigate power structures, reducing the effectiveness of advocacy efforts. The article argues that the drawbacks of digital activism now outweigh its initial benefits, creating new constraints on Coptic political influence. In light of these pressures, it calls for a reassessment of how diaspora groups can sustain activism in an increasingly hostile digital landscape.