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As a reading suggestion, we would like to pull your attention to Summer Academy participant Rachid Ouaissa's essay "Blocked Middle Classes as an Engine of Change in the Arab World?", published in the book "Euro-Mediterranean Relations after the Arab Spring. Persistence in Times of Change" by editors Jakob Horst, Annette Jünemann and Delf Rothe (published by Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013).[caption id="attachment_473" align="alignleft" width="201"] Rachid OuaissaPhoto by Georges Khalil under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0[/caption]Ouaissa examines the uprisings of 2011 in the Middle East and North Africa and their reasons, paying special attention to a rising middle class. He comes to the conclusion that there have been episodes of riots and protests in the past, thus the riots of 2011 are not unique but happen through intervals of time and the incongruety of the Middle East's economies with the global economy.