Observatoire des transformations dans le monde arabe
OTMA aims to put in place tools for observing and measuring the new historical period opened since the Tunisian "revolution" of January 2011.
A first step in this project is to identify "transition markers" and indicators using qualitative observations and quantitative surveys to inform ongoing change or non-change. The OTMA project aims in the medium term to become a sustainable platform leading to the creation of conceptual instruments that are comparative in time and space (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria), mobilising the knowledge acquired in other periods of major democratic transformations (Latin America, post-communist Europe) and leading to global interpretative syntheses.
The research training aspect is also an essential component of this project, which will take the form of co-supervision of theses and the organisation of doctoral training courses in conjunction with the various partners.
OTMA also aims to provide an interface between scientific producers working on the issues of recent societal change in the Arab world and public and private decision-makers. Finally, OTMA aims to mobilise the various means put in place by the many Euro-Mediterranean cooperations to help build a scientific community in the southern Mediterranean capable of dealing in a multidisciplinary manner with the challenges of the transformations under way.
Three main themes have been identified:
- Observe and measure (r)evolutions and social change
- Cleavages, fault lines and mediating institutions
- Gender as a marker of transitions
OTMA will support the valorisation of the scientific productions of its members by promoting co-publication, especially by young researchers.
