Can we talk about the specificities of the Middle East, Iran or the Mediterranean without reducing these territories to a culture or religion? On December 16, 2019, the CRASH team organised a conference-debate with Jean-François Bayart, a French political scientist who has devoted his work to the sociology of the State and identity illusions. This meeting, prepared with Claudine Vidal, was moderated by Elba Rahmouni. 

According to this researcher, the globalizing explanations that are often in vogue (for example, the necessary transition to a free market economy or democracy) do not allow us to understand international relations in their complexity.

In contrast to these standardised explanations, it is possible to take an interest in the cultural and historical specificities of different societies. The difficulty then consists in treating these "cultural areas" without falling into another form of simplification: a culturalist approach often rooted in a western-centred vision of history and religions.

Jean-François Bayart explains why territories are not objective data. He shows us the interest, in order to understand the geopolitical issues, in studying the sequence of social and historical events that give certain territories their uniqueness.

Bibliographical references related to the subject:

•    Jean-François Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, Paris, Fayard, 1989 
•    Jean-François Bayart, The Illusion of Cultural Identity, Paris, Fayard, 1996
•    Jean-François Bayart, L’Islam républicain. Ankara, Téhéran, Dakar, Paris, Albin Michel 2010
•    Jean-François Bayart, « ‘Dessine-moi un Mena !’, ou l’impossible définition des ‘aires culturelles’ », Sociétés politiques comparées, 38, janvier-avril 2016http://fasopo.org/sites/default/files/varia1_n38.pdf