Abstract: The unfolding unrest in the Middle East opened up new debates on the relationship between social capital and civil society. This work has a threefold focus: first, it explores how the existing stock of social capital spurred on the contemporary civic activities in the search of constructing stable democracies across the Middle East; second, it examines how civic movements in this region can contribute to increasing the current deficit of social capital; and third, it analyses the implications of the deployment of social media tools in the recent uprisings. This work suggests that although the Middle Eastern states have always been subject to severe violence and supressive political systems, civil society organisations and the stock of social capital has been steadily rising.
Keywords: social capital, civil society, democracy, uprising, social media, internetworked social movements