Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution
Files
Department
Social Research Center (SRC)
Abstract
Rabab El Mahdi For thirty years, particularly since the advent of neoliberalism, the concepts of ‘marginalization’ and ‘poverty’ have come to replace those of ‘class’ and ‘exploitation’ as analytical categories. The reasons for this are many, but the ideological hegemony and political power of a very small class of big businesses served by technocratic states have been paramount. Under this model, the conflictual power relations revealed by the categories of ‘class’, ‘exploitation’ and the subsequent ‘class struggle’ have been seen not to be useful. Rather, the neoliberal model is legitimized by preaching a harmonious power structure in which ‘trickle-down’, ‘efficient use of resources’, ‘meritocracy’ and ‘technical fxes’ are used to justify and deal with pressing problems of poverty and maldistribution of power and wealth. In similar vein, the recent uprising in Egypt since 25 January 2011 has been constructed as a non-violent, youth revolution in which social media (especially Facebook...
Publication Date
Winter 1-25-2021
Document Type
Book Chapter
Book Title
Marginality and exclusion in Egypt and the Middle East
Editors
Ray Bush , Habib Ayeb
ISBN
978-1-78032-084-7
Publisher
Zed Books Ltd
City
London
First Page
133
Last Page
147
Keywords
Middle East, North African Studies, marginalization, exclusion, Egypt, Mubarak, 25 January, facebook, social media, workers
Recommended Citation
APA Citation
El Mahdi, R.
(2021).Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution. Zed Books Ltd. , 133-147
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1212
MLA Citation
El Mahdi, Rabab
Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution. Zed Books Ltd, 2021.pp. 133-147
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1212