Bourdieu’s capital and insurgent group resilience:a field-theoretic approach to the polisario front
The conflict between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco is approaching its 43rd year and, despite being under-reported, continues to draw attention for the resilience of the ethnically Sahrawi rebel movement. Even as regional and international politics have shifted—and with nearly 150,000 Sahrawi refugees living in camps in Algeria—the Polisario Front has endured. This article asks what explains that persistence and applies Bourdieu’s “forms of capital” as an analytical lens.
A gap in the wall: Collective report on violations of economic, social and cultural rights in Western Sahara under illegal occupation by Morocco
This report is the result of the work of a group of young people who, in Barria in 2013, set out to gain an in-depth understanding of the Western Sahara conflict. Their aim was to produce a report—at times even described as an investigation—and this document is the tangible outcome. Acknowledging their limitations as non-researchers, they seek to use data and witness testimonies to expose the realities of violations of economic, social, and cultural rights and to keep making those violations public. They argue that only by naming, visualizing, and giving a human face to these issues can solutions be found—solutions that, in some political circles, are repeatedly delayed despite their profound impact on the lives and futures of individuals, families, and an entire people.
The Front Polisario Verdict and the Gap Between the EU’s Trade Treatment of Western Sahara and Its Treatment of the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Morocco’s control over Western Sahara and Israel’s control of the West Bank bear similar features in terms of public international law, in general, and the laws of belligerent occupation and the principle of self-determination, in particular. Yet despite these comparable attributes, when it comes to the application of its Common Commercial Policy (CCP) the EU has been treating the two cases differently.
The Unresolved Western Sahara Conflict and Its Repercussions
Western Sahara conflicts have yet to be definitively resolved. It now belongs to the category of “forgotten” or “frozen” conflicts. The conflict itself is not the only issue to have been forgotten.
Nomads and nation-building in the Western Sahara
Nomads and Nation-Building is an intimate ethnographic portrait of the enigmatic Sahrawi nomads of the western Sahara Desert.