Hanen Keskes | University of Nottingham (original) (raw)

Papers by Hanen Keskes

Research paper thumbnail of Driven out: women’s employment, the transport sector and social reproduction in Grand Tunis

Journal of Gender Studies

Research paper thumbnail of From entertainment to extortion: Tunisian children's online experiences

Child Abuse & Neglect

Background: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a fundamental part of c... more Background: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a fundamental part of children's lives and development. However, children need to acquire the skills and knowledge to manage the risks that technology presents. Objectives: This child-centric research on children's online experiences aims to understand the benefits Tunisian children derive from the internet, the risks and harms to which they are exposed, and how aware and resilient Tunisian children are to these online risks and harms. Participants and setting: 113 children, aged 13-17, participated in focus groups in five governorates across Tunisia. Methods: Qualitative data was collected from 16 focus group discussions then data was analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic coding. Results: The internet offers Tunisian children educational, social, entertainment, and mental health benefits, in addition to personal development and commercial opportunities. Hacking and the use of fake Facebook profiles were highlighted as facilitators of online bullying, sexual harassment, and extortion, all of which disproportionately affected girls. Children demonstrated personal responsibility for their online activity but recognized that children and parents should have greater awareness about the risks the internet poses. Conclusions: The young people included in the study reported that they enjoy numerous benefits from internet access and demonstrate some resilience to online risks and harms. However, there is a need for societal and institutional change, through a combination of awareness raising, targeted support for children and parents, and improving the capacity of key actors to prevent online violence while ensuring an effective response and victim support.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘No place for a woman’: Access, exclusion, insecurity and the mobility regime in grand tunis

Research paper thumbnail of Improving young women’s access to safe mobility in a low-income area of Tunis: Challenges and opportunities pre- and post-Covid

Transportation Research Procedia

Research paper thumbnail of Orientalism and binary discursive representations of Tunisia’s democratization: the need for a “continuity and change” paradigm

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Research paper thumbnail of British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Orientalism and binary discursive representations of Tunisia's democratization: the need for a " continuity and change " paradigm

Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition have been largely divided along ... more Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition
have been largely divided along two mutually exclusive narratives.
There are those hailing the country as ‘the Arab Spring’s only
success story’ on the one hand and those sounding sensationalist
alarms about the country’s democratization failure and return to
authoritarianism on the other. This is consistent with, and perpetuates,
a problematic zero-sum binary in Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) scholarship between either a linear democratization
process or authoritarian resilience. Furthermore, these reductionist
representations highlight the failure of predominant democratization
theories to account for the nuances and complexities of
democratic transition. This paper critically examines the binary
discursive representations of Tunisia’s democratization and
explores their underpinning in two competing Orientalisms: the
classic Orientalism underscoring an ontological difference (and
inferiority) of the ‘Arab world’ to the West, and a liberal civilizing
Orientalism which, while acknowledging an ‘essential sameness’
between the West and the ‘Arab world’, places the West as the
temporal pinnacle of democracy and the normative monitor of
democratic success. This paper thus rejects the binary discursive
representations of Tunisia’s transition and advocates for a more
nuanced narrative which accounts for the patterns of continuity
with and change from authoritarian structures within the democratization
process.

Research paper thumbnail of Orientalism and binary discursive representations of Tunisia's democratization: the need for a " continuity and change " paradigm

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies , 2018

Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition have been largely divided along ... more Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition have been largely divided along two mutually exclusive narratives. There are those hailing the country as ‘the Arab Spring’s only success story’ on the one hand and those sounding sensationalist alarms about the country’s democratization failure and return to authoritarianism on the other.
This is consistent with, and perpetuates, a problematic zero-sum binary in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) scholarship between either a linear democratization process or authoritarian resilience. Furthermore, these reductionist representations highlight the failure of predominant democratization theories to account for the nuances and complexities of democratic transition.
This paper critically examines the binary discursive representations of Tunisia’s democratization and explores their underpinning in two competing Orientalisms: the classic Orientalism underscoring an ontological difference (and inferiority) of the ‘Arab world’ to the West, and a liberal civilizing Orientalism which, while acknowledging an ‘essential sameness’ between the West and the ‘Arab world’, places the West as the temporal pinnacle of democracy and the normative monitor of democratic success.
This paper thus rejects the binary discursive representations of Tunisia’s transition and advocates for a more nuanced narrative which accounts for the patterns of continuity with and change from authoritarian structures within the democratization process.

Research paper thumbnail of Driven out: women’s employment, the transport sector and social reproduction in Grand Tunis

Journal of Gender Studies

Research paper thumbnail of From entertainment to extortion: Tunisian children's online experiences

Child Abuse & Neglect

Background: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a fundamental part of c... more Background: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a fundamental part of children's lives and development. However, children need to acquire the skills and knowledge to manage the risks that technology presents. Objectives: This child-centric research on children's online experiences aims to understand the benefits Tunisian children derive from the internet, the risks and harms to which they are exposed, and how aware and resilient Tunisian children are to these online risks and harms. Participants and setting: 113 children, aged 13-17, participated in focus groups in five governorates across Tunisia. Methods: Qualitative data was collected from 16 focus group discussions then data was analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic coding. Results: The internet offers Tunisian children educational, social, entertainment, and mental health benefits, in addition to personal development and commercial opportunities. Hacking and the use of fake Facebook profiles were highlighted as facilitators of online bullying, sexual harassment, and extortion, all of which disproportionately affected girls. Children demonstrated personal responsibility for their online activity but recognized that children and parents should have greater awareness about the risks the internet poses. Conclusions: The young people included in the study reported that they enjoy numerous benefits from internet access and demonstrate some resilience to online risks and harms. However, there is a need for societal and institutional change, through a combination of awareness raising, targeted support for children and parents, and improving the capacity of key actors to prevent online violence while ensuring an effective response and victim support.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘No place for a woman’: Access, exclusion, insecurity and the mobility regime in grand tunis

Research paper thumbnail of Improving young women’s access to safe mobility in a low-income area of Tunis: Challenges and opportunities pre- and post-Covid

Transportation Research Procedia

Research paper thumbnail of Orientalism and binary discursive representations of Tunisia’s democratization: the need for a “continuity and change” paradigm

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Research paper thumbnail of British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Orientalism and binary discursive representations of Tunisia's democratization: the need for a " continuity and change " paradigm

Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition have been largely divided along ... more Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition
have been largely divided along two mutually exclusive narratives.
There are those hailing the country as ‘the Arab Spring’s only
success story’ on the one hand and those sounding sensationalist
alarms about the country’s democratization failure and return to
authoritarianism on the other. This is consistent with, and perpetuates,
a problematic zero-sum binary in Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) scholarship between either a linear democratization
process or authoritarian resilience. Furthermore, these reductionist
representations highlight the failure of predominant democratization
theories to account for the nuances and complexities of
democratic transition. This paper critically examines the binary
discursive representations of Tunisia’s democratization and
explores their underpinning in two competing Orientalisms: the
classic Orientalism underscoring an ontological difference (and
inferiority) of the ‘Arab world’ to the West, and a liberal civilizing
Orientalism which, while acknowledging an ‘essential sameness’
between the West and the ‘Arab world’, places the West as the
temporal pinnacle of democracy and the normative monitor of
democratic success. This paper thus rejects the binary discursive
representations of Tunisia’s transition and advocates for a more
nuanced narrative which accounts for the patterns of continuity
with and change from authoritarian structures within the democratization
process.

Research paper thumbnail of Orientalism and binary discursive representations of Tunisia's democratization: the need for a " continuity and change " paradigm

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies , 2018

Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition have been largely divided along ... more Mainstream analyses of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition have been largely divided along two mutually exclusive narratives. There are those hailing the country as ‘the Arab Spring’s only success story’ on the one hand and those sounding sensationalist alarms about the country’s democratization failure and return to authoritarianism on the other.
This is consistent with, and perpetuates, a problematic zero-sum binary in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) scholarship between either a linear democratization process or authoritarian resilience. Furthermore, these reductionist representations highlight the failure of predominant democratization theories to account for the nuances and complexities of democratic transition.
This paper critically examines the binary discursive representations of Tunisia’s democratization and explores their underpinning in two competing Orientalisms: the classic Orientalism underscoring an ontological difference (and inferiority) of the ‘Arab world’ to the West, and a liberal civilizing Orientalism which, while acknowledging an ‘essential sameness’ between the West and the ‘Arab world’, places the West as the temporal pinnacle of democracy and the normative monitor of democratic success.
This paper thus rejects the binary discursive representations of Tunisia’s transition and advocates for a more nuanced narrative which accounts for the patterns of continuity with and change from authoritarian structures within the democratization process.