Alwaght | News & Analysis Website

Alwaght- Asef Bayat in his book "Life as Politics: How ordinary people changed the Middle East" defined social Non-movements as:
"In general, Non-movements  refers to the collective  actions  of  non-collective  actors;  they  embody  shared  practices  of large numbers of ordinary people whose fragmented but similar activities trigger much social change, even though these practices are rarely guided by an ideology or recognizable leaderships and organizations."
Accordingly, social Non-movements have come to represent the mobilization of millions of the subaltern, chiefly the urban poor, women, and youth who encapsulate the discreet and prolonged ways in which the poor struggle to survive and to better their lives by making quiet and long term progress. Having different demands, they share a goal: "to change the status quo". Self-immolation of Mohammad Bu Azizi in Tunisia was a typical social non-movement that resulted in the Islamic Awakening.
Social Non-movements  embody the protracted mobilization of millions of detached and dispersed individuals and families who strive to enhance their lives in a lifelong collective  effort  that  bears  few  elements  of  pivotal  leadership,  ideology,  or  structured organization. Examples of social Non-movements are found in Egypt, Turkey and Europe. Cairo elite lament about the ‘invasion of fallahin’ (peasants) from the dispersed Upper Egyptian countryside, and Istanbul elite warn of the encroachment of the ‘black Turks,’ meaning poor rural  migrants  from  Anatolia,  who  they  say,  have  altogether  ruralized  and transformed  the  social  configuration  of  “our  modern  cities.”  In a strikingly similar tone, white European elites express profound anxiety about the ‘invasion of foreigners’, Africans, Asians, and in particular Muslims, who they see as having overwhelmed Europe’s social habitat, distorting the European way of life by their physical presence and cultural modes, their Hijab, mosques and  minarets.
In addition to the poor masses in The West Asia and European settlers, we are witness to presence of women who are trying to maintain their faith and become more social. The social Non-movements of women in Saudi Arabia are among the examples that want to call for change in the status quo in Saudi Arabia, and are trying to cast themselves as public activists.
Another important component of social Non-movements is young people who, for instance, had a stronger presence at the recent developments in Egypt. Very often "youth movements" are erroneously conflated with and mistaken for "student movements" or "youth chapters" of this or that political party or political movement. Broadly speaking, a youth Non-movement is about reclaiming youthfulness. Young people are an opportunity for all groups, and can even draw the attention of the Salafis and the secularists. In fact, youth Non-movements  are an opportunity for all, as they embody a collective challenge whose  central  goal  consists  of  defending and  extending  youth  habitus, defending and extending the conditions that allow the young to assert their individuality,  creativity,  and  free  them  from  anxiety  over  the prospect  of  their  future.  Youth Non-movements in Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and other countries in the West Asia have provided an unmatched opportunity for all groups, as the young people in these countries enjoyed an enormous constituency, with two-thirds of the total population being under thirty years of age. Youths forged collective identities in schools, colleges, urban public spaces, parks, cafés, and sports centers; or they are connected with one another through the virtual world of various media to express collective dissent. For example in Saudi Arabia, a new middle class is emerging through the Internet, as the chief executive manager of Twitter recently said that the highest growth rate of its new subscriber were from Saudi Arabia. As in a short time, the number of its subscribers from Saudi Arabia has increased thirty fold. Besides, the number of Saudi nationals returning to Facebook and other social networks has dramatically increased. In present-day Saudi Arabia:
-          There are 11.4 million Internet users (40 percent of the population). Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Internet users in the West Asia              .     
-          There are 4.5 million users on Facebook from Saudi Arabia (17 percent of the population).
-          77 percent of the 5 million Saudi male and female students are on Facebook.
A major part of the news circulating among the Saudi people (students, elites, etc.) is the news item posted on Facebook and Twitter pages.
These media were so influential on public opinion in Saudi Arabia that after the events of the Islamic Awakening in the region, King Abdullah offered $ 150 billion to buy Facebook. Besides, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is the biggest shareholder of Twitter. Therefore, social Non-movements in Saudi Arabia have given rise to three socio-political protest movements in the Saudi society which follows: a) liberal intellectuals; b) the reformist Islamists that advocate new interpretations of the traditional religion; and c) the Shiite reformist movement.
In general, the policy of the youth is not based on protest as it is among women and the poor, rather their policy is based on practice, politics of seeking a solution through action. In this condition, no political protests are staged in order not to raise the sensitivity of security institutions. Nevertheless, with non-governmental practical demands, Non-movements lay the ground for social changes, and are changed into genuinely revolutionary movements.  
  The logic of action in social Non-movements
In general, the features of social Non-movements are as follows:
- Non-movements ,  tend  to  be  action-oriented,  rather  than  ideologically  driven;  they  are  overwhelmingly quiet, rather than audible;
- Whereas in social movements leaders usually mobilize the constituencies to put pressure on authorities to meet their demands, in Non-movements   actors directly practice what they claim, despite government sanctions, thus, theirs is not a policy of protest, but of practice.
- Unlike social movements, where actors are involved in mobilization and protestation, the Non-movements are made up of practices that are merged into the ordinary practices of everyday life (daily practices of women, youth and the poor)
- These practices are not  carried  out  by  small  groups  of  people  acting  on  the  political  margins; rather, they are common practices of everyday life carried out by millions of people who albeit remain fragmented.
In fact, the  power  of  Non-movements  rests on the power of big numbers, that is, the consequential effect on norms and  rules  in  society  of  many  people  simultaneously  doing  similar,  though contentious things. A large number of people acting in common have the effect of normalizing and legitimizing those acts that are otherwise deemed illegitimate. And this is what we have been witness to in various regional developments.