Schuhn L (2021)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article, Review article
Publication year: 2021
Book Volume: 17
Pages Range: 49-71
Journal Issue: 2
URI: http://www.tfd.org.tw/export/sites/tfd/files/publication/journal/049-072_Laura_Schuhn.pdf
Open Access Link: http://www.tfd.org.tw/export/sites/tfd/files/publication/journal/049-072_Laura_Schuhn.pdf
By 2017 at the latest, with that year’s blockade of Qatar driven by the Saudi,
Bahraini, Egyptian, and Emirati leaderships, the fragility of the concept of an
epistemic community of Arab monarchies, as described by Sean Yom in 2014
in this journal, has come to the fore. In this light, this essay advocates a shift
in this concept toward a different type of “discursive formation,” which may
advance our understanding of authoritarian clustering in the context of this
debate. Taking Twitter as a proxy for an epistemic (online) community, this
study analyzes the activities of Gulf elites on the site between 2017 and 2020
and identifies a significant subcluster within the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) states consisting of Saudi, Bahraini, and Emirati accounts. Given the
context of day-to-day politics, this finding may not surprise us; however, this
work suggests that it is not the mere existence of epistemic links resulting from
cultural, historical, economic, or structural ties, but rather a convergence in
content that drives authoritarian cooperation and the diffusion of legitimation
strategies and norms of autocratic practice.
APA:
Schuhn, L. (2021). Arab Gulf Monarchies as an Epistemic (Online) Community Revisited. Diffusion, Competition, and Survival in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings. Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 17(2), 49-71.
MLA:
Schuhn, Laura. "Arab Gulf Monarchies as an Epistemic (Online) Community Revisited. Diffusion, Competition, and Survival in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings." Taiwan Journal of Democracy 17.2 (2021): 49-71.
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