Introduction Page 1 of 12 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: University of St Andrews; date: 25 March 2018 Revolution and Authoritarianism in North Africa Frédéric Volpi Print publication date: 2017 Print ISBN-13: 9780190642921 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2017 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190642921.001.0001 Introduction Understanding and Explaning the Arab Uprisings Frédéric Volpi DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190642921.003.0001 Abstract and Keywords The chapter considers two ways of conceptualizing the events of the Arab uprisings. These transformations can be explained by actor- centric narratives stressing the contingency of protest episodes and of their outcomes. They can also be portrayed as the unfolding of longer- term trends in which specific combinations of economic, military, social and political factors repeatedly shape the form and outcomes of change. The chapter highlights the importance of meaning-making in the construction of the causality of the 2011 uprisings in North Africa. It points to the centrality of interpretation in explanations of the trajectories of change both in countries that have witnessed dramatic political transformations (Tunisia, Libya) and in countries having experienced only mild institutional reform (Algeria, Morocco). Keywords: Actor-centric narrative, Contingency, Causality, Meaning-making, Interpretation, Political transformation ‘In international affairs, and throughout the social world, there are two sorts of stories to tell and a range of theories to go with each. One story is an outsider’s, told in the manner of a natural scientist seeking to explain the workings of nature and treating University Press Scholarship Online Oxford Scholarship Online