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NORTH AFRICA TRANSITION AND EMERGING ACTORS Berber Movements, Gender Mobility and Charity OrganizationsInternational ConferenceNaples,25th-27th September2014Deadline for submitting abstracts: 3rd March 2014 Replies will be posted by end-March 2014(No abstracts will be accepted after the deadline)Since the 2011 “Arab Spring” in North Africa the implementation of democratic reforms has been challenging in particular in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. The North African revolutions and uprisings exacerbated many of the region’s underlying problems and tensions. Nonetheless, in the transition process new governance models are emerging and existing social actors are assuming a new and more effective role.The conference will particularly focus on national minorities, civil society organizations and gender mobility as crucial factors for a transition road map in North Africa.The conference aims at analyzing:The initiatives of sub-national governments.The relationship between sub-national and national actors.Political governance and strategies at local, sub-national and transnational level.The role of charity organizations in the search for both new development models and alternative welfare models.The role of Berber civil society organizations, with a special focus on the transnational “Berberity” identity re-construction.The growing women’s self-awareness and visibility as an integral part of Arab and Berber contemporary societies.A multi-disciplinary approach in analyzing the above-mentioned issues is strongly recommended. Suggested but not exhaustive sub-topics are as follows:New cultural identities.Emerging forms of bottom-up representation.Women rights in the transition. From equality to complementarity?Islam and identity construction.Social crisis and economic transition.North African Berberity: representational power, cultural diversity and language planning.The Tuareg autonomy and aspirations to an independent state.Philanthropy and no-profit organizations in North Africa.This conference is organized within the National Research Project (PRIN – year 2010-11), on “State, Plurality, and Change in Africa”, which brings together scholars from six Italian Universities. Our research units – based at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” – focuses on sub-national political authorities and social actors and their relationship with the central State, particularly in Northern and Southern Africa.The official languages of the conference will be both English and French.A selection of the papers presented at the Conference will be published in a book. The finalversion of the selected papers must be submitted at latest by 30th December.Those wishing to present a paper at the conference should submit an abstract of max 500 words to Professors Anna Maria Di Tolla (aditolla@unior.it) and Ersilia Francesca (efrancesca@unior.it) before 3rd March 2014.