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MEAWARDS Arab Families Working Group Families are central to Arab societies. They affect every arena of social, political, economic, and religious life, yet in reality there is little sound empirical research and less comparative research to ground theories, policies, and practices in relation to this most central of social institutions. To address this gap, in 2001 the Population Council began collaborative research activities through the Arab Families Working Group (AFWG), a multidisciplinary network of scholars and policymakers concerned with research and programs related to Arab families. Suad Joseph, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis, coordinates the group. The group is concerned with deconstructing the myths, metaphors, and ideologies about Arab families. In recognition of the diversity of families and the multiplicity of family forms, the group is striving to understand the family in the context of class, religion, region, ethnic group, rural/urban environment, nation, and state. In 2002 the group elaborated a five-year research plan. Since then it has been engaged in a multiple-year research project on the crises in Arab families using collaborative, comparative, interdisciplinary, and transnational approaches that highlight gender and generation to study Arab families in Egypt, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza. The research focuses on two points of departure: (1) the crisis of Arab youth and the ideals of family in public discourse, policy, and nation/state-building projects; and (2) the shifting dynamics and boundaries of family (public/private) under conditions of migration, war, and displacement. The rationale for these points of departure is twofold: (1) Those under 25 years old constitute between 60 percent and 70 percent of the population in most Arab societies. Therefore, focusing on youth means focusing not only on the future of Arab societies, but on their present, their majority. (2) Shifts in how the idea of family comes to be enmeshed in and differentiated from other arenas of social life is a critical marker of social change locally and historically. Given the tumultuous changes brought about by migration, war, and displacement in Egypt, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza, the shifting boundary between family as a private arena and the “public” signifies and facilitates important transformations across all social spheres—and therefore is a key index of social development. These issues are points of departure for long-term work which will be carried out on multiple fronts and issues. Core members of the working group most recently met in May 2004, when they reviewed the first publication of a conceptual overview volume, agreed on further project proposals, planned fundraising activities, and reached consensus on a set of protocols governing members’ participation. The group met with nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders in Cairo in February 2005 to share the working group’s research strategies and discuss how to make their studies more relevant to program and policy groups. A contract for publishing the first book resulting from the group's work entitled Arab Families: Public Discourse and Border Crossings was signed with Syracuse University Press. The book will also be translated into Arabic in order to make it available to a wider audience in the Arab countries that includes academics and policymakers Locations Egypt, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza Non-Council collaborators Canada: International Development Research Centre Egypt: American University in Cairo, Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies and Social Research Center Lebanon: American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University West Bank and Gaza: Bir Zeit University, Women’s Studies Institute United States: University of California, Davis International: UNICEF Donors American University in Cairo, Social Research Center The Ford Foundation International Development Research Centre, Canada MEAwards Population Council United Nations Children's Fund
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