Locating Marginality and Poverty in Egypt and the Middle East

Locating Marginality and Poverty in Egypt and the Middle East

Files

Department

Social Research Center (SRC)

Abstract

Ray Bush Habib Ayeb Revolutionary upheaval in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011 has challenged many commentators to rethink their often limited interpretations of politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) . Ideas of an ‘Arab mentality’ or of Arab ‘mice’ content with ‘political passivity’ and of a region simply not ready for democratic deepening have been upset by momentous struggles to throw off the yoke of repression and struggle for new patterns of justice and equality (Fisk 2003; cf. Fisk 2011) . Yet commentators have been reluctant to talk about revolutionary struggles. There has also been a reluctance to contemplate agendas set by, among others, independent trade unions and the Youth Coalition in Egypt which pushed beyond the initial framing of rising demands for political rights to advance root-and-branch social and economic transformation. Commentary and analysis on the revolutions have preferred to speak of an ‘Arab spring’ or...

Publication Date

Winter 1-5-2021

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

3

Last Page

13

Keywords

Middle East, North African Studies, marginalization, exclusion, Egypt, Mubarak

Locating Marginality and Poverty in Egypt and the Middle East

Share

COinS