The Arab Transformations Project

Welcome to the Arab Transformations Project

Funded by the European Commission, it carried out public opinion surveys across the region in late 2014, and built a longitudinal database using secondary data gathered between 2000-2015, making it possible to look comparatively at trends in attitudes, values, and behaviour across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The funded portion of the project concluded in September 2016, but research continues into key questions such as democracy, development, security, migration, gender, and the international relations of the Middle East.

Key Findings:

• The Arab Uprisings were driven primarily by concerns over endemic corruption and economic dislocation;
• Political elites are not generally trusted by populations, who are dissatisfied with;
• Liberal institutions like elections are not enough, especially when they don't respond to people's expectations;
• people want to live in a ‘decent society’ with economic security and social justice;
• The EU can contribute by promoting truly inclusive development and growth, but existing Free Trade Agreements produce more inequality, not less.

The Arab Transformations Project: Political and Social Transformations in the Arab World

The Arab Transformations project investigates the root causes of the Arab Uprisings, which became popularly known as the ‘Arab Spring’.

It analyses the economic, social, and political changes in Arab MENA countries directly after this radical period of change and explores the outlook for the region.

Based on large-scale cross-national surveys in North Africa, Jordan, and Iraq asking 85 questions and collecting nearly 300 variables, the Project explores respondents’ opinions across a broad range of topics. These include:

• EU/MENA Relations
• Security
• Quality of Life
• Gender
• Social Media and Youth
• Corruption
• Migration
• Politics and Relgion
• Trust
• Drivers of Uprisings

The Project offers country by country analysis across these themes.

• Egypt
• Libya
• Morocco
• Tunisia
• Iraq
• Algeria
• Jordan

The Team

The ArabTrans project is coordinated by the University of Aberdeen (UK) and delivered by a multi-disciplinary team made up of six partners from five Middle Eastern and five partners form European countries. The teams include experts in comparative survey research and policy analysis with disciplinary backgrounds in Politics, Sociology, Public Policy, Middle East studies, International Relations, and Development Studies.

The ArabTrans Project produces a wide range of outputs, including project Deliverables, Policy Briefs, Reports of interest to stakeholders, and further academic outputs building on project research. All outputs are listed here by country and by theme. Project Deliverables are also listed independently.

The Arab Transformations Project Events

The funded research phase of the project is now concluded, but on the left is a list of the events that have taken place throughout the project.

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Use the archive to browse previous events, or subscribe to our Event RSS feed to be kept up to date with upcoming events.