World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th - 24th 2010

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MIDDLE CLASS POLITICS AND THE POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS - 1/2: Middle Class Politics and the Politics of the Middle Class: A Perspective from Contemporary Egypt (352) - NOT_DEFINED activity_field_Panel
 

· NOT_DEFINED date: THU 22, 2.30-4.30 pm

· NOT_DEFINED institution: American University in Cairo (Egypt)

· NOT_DEFINED organizer: Reem Saad

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description: The post 1952 developmental state marshaled a series of policies which greatly favored the Egyptian middle classes. The Nasser regime, whose members came mostly from middle class backgrounds, introduced a procession of reforms such as universal education, guaranteed employment, and expansion of the bureaucracy. These developments helped dramatically expand the size of the middle classes whose members’ interests became intertwined with those of the state institutions and Egypt’s consecutive regimes.
During the last two decades, however, the political and economic orientation of the Egyptian regime shifted towards a liberalized economy that manifested itself in the weakening of the public sector, discontinuing employment guarantees, as well as a virtual disappearance of quality free education, among other things. In this process, the middle class- so far an integral component of the regime’s power base- was sidelined in favor of a new business elite. While the present crisis of the middle class has led some observers to declare its demise, this panel seeks to offer a close scrutiny of the changing locations of members of the Egyptian middle classes. As a consequence of their increasing political and economic marginalization, certain segments of the middle classes have become active in recent political and cultural movements, seeking to redefine the terms of the political game and incidentally reclaiming new spaces for themselves.
This symposium attempts to show, through empirical evidence, how class politics continue to play a major role in social and political processes in contemporary Egypt.

Chair: Iman Hamdy (American University in Cairo).

Paper presenter: Iman Hamdy (American University in Cairo), “Academics in Opposition Politics: Agents for Change?”
“No politics on campus” has been an iron-rule enforced by the post-1952 Egyptian regime in educational institutions, including those in the field of higher education. The populist policies of nationalizing and expanding higher education were accompanied by a highly centralized educational system and strict government control of the universities. In addition, due to their total reliance on state resources, universities have been chronically suffering from insufficient funding and under-paid teaching staff. Being preoccupied with their economic well-being and subjected to political scrutiny, most Egyptian academics—with strong middle class affiliations—have stayed away from politics. While some of them have been recruited to work in the government apparatus or in the ruling party, very few were active in opposition politics. Being either affiliated to leftist or Islamist trends, these elements have been continuously chased or purged by the regime.

As has been the case with the middle class in general, the economic liberalization policies of the 1980s have undermined the economic status and prestigious position of university professors. Furthermore, the consequences of these policies at the foreign policy and domestic levels have fueled feelings of resentment and political frustration among large segments of this group. With the political transformations taking place in Egypt in the past two years, they got the chance to voice their concerns and play a much more visible role in opposition politics. Veteran figures who have been part of the silent majority for decades, as well as younger academics, came to the fore as founders and leaders of political movements seeking change and championing a wide array of causes ranging from political democracy to educational reform and independence of universities from the government. These movements attracted all political trends across the right-left, religious/secular spectrums.
By relying on newspaper articles and personal interviews, this paper attempts to examine this phenomenon, seeking to answer the following questions: Why did it rise now? What are the forms of activism for those academics? What are their political agendas and how do they reflect middle class concerns? Are there any generational differences between them? Finally, how do they perceive their role and impact?

Paper presenter: Habib Ayeb (American University in Cairo) “Irrigation Engineers in Egypt: A middle class social group in crisis”.
Due to the almost complete dependence of Egyptian agriculture on irrigation, the role of the state in administering water resources has been very important. The centralization of irrigation administration by Mohamed Ali in the early 19th century laid down a firm system of water management and control. A key feature of this system, which is largely still in place in contemporary Egypt, is the army of technicians deployed by the Ministry of Irrigation, whose principal function is the control and maintenance of the infrastructure, the distribution of irrigation water, in addition to being the mediators between farmers and the state.
Though coming from the lower echelons of the bureaucracy, these technicians are locally described by the higher status title of “irrigation engineers”. These white-collar government employees who adopt an urban life-style and dress code are considered by the farmers as representatives of the government and its powers. Until recently, their position as local managers of irrigation water who controlled farmers’ access to this precious resource, gave them a lot of power at the village level.
This paper looks at the current crisis and related responses of this group to the newly adopted irrigation reform plans whereby farmers’ Water User’s Associations (WUAs) are intended to take over many of the key functions of the “irrigation engineers”, thus depriving them of their local power basis and the many benefits that came with it.
Given this background, the paper shall focus on two types of responses and their implications for the general political picture. The first concerns the “irrigation engineers’” resistance to the transfer of decision-making powers to the WUAs. By showing how they seek to subvert the policies they are supposed to implement, the paper tries to illustrate why central policies may fail at the local level. The second type of response is the tendency, shared by large sections of the bureaucracy, to sympathize or join the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood. The paper argues that this tendency is not due to ideological indoctrination as much as to a feeling of being abandoned by the state.
The paper shall be based on original field research in selected sites in rural Egypt. Methods of data collection shall include observation, analysis of official documents, as well as in-depth interviews with irrigation engineers, farmers and Ministry of Irrigation officials.

Paper presenter: Reem Saad (American University in Cairo), “Middle class and the changing face of rural resistance”.
This paper offers a simultaneous look at two long standing issues in the study of rural Egypt. The first is the changing nature of rural society with increasing education, migration, communication, and white collar employment all leading to the rise of a rural middle class with distinctive styles of life and patterns of consumption. The second issue relates to the perennial question of the type, extent and effectiveness of rural resistance.
As is the case with other areas and sectors of Egypt, rural Egypt has recently been witnessing an unprecedented level of incidents of protest and resistance. While recent resistance incidents include ‘classical’ concerns relating especially to disputes over land tenure, the majority of protest events are not related to agriculture. These include uprisings in demand of drinking water, pedestrian bridges, housing rights and protests against the installation of mobile phone towers. The paper argues that this qualitative shift in type and frequency of rural resistance is a result of changing concerns and modes of expressions of the rural population, and is necessarily linked to the growing rural middle class and the rapid erosion of boundaries between city and countryside.
The paper shall rely on a methodology that combines fieldwork in selected sites in rural Egypt with press reviews and documentation of resistance incidents undertaken by human rights NGOs.

Paper presenter: Maha Abdelrahman (American University in Cairo), “When Kefaya is not Enough: Middle Class Activism in Egypt”.
The enthusiasm with which social commentators and political analysts have observed the advent and multiplication of ‘street movements’ in Egypt, starting with the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, has waned with the recent dwindling of the activities of groups leading these movements. Kefaya (which means enough in Arabic; enough to Mubarak’s rule), has, undoubtedly been the most prominent of these groups since its inception in 2004. Despite the popular appeal of Kefaya’s daring political message, and the media coverage it has received both domestically and internationally, the group has been unable to create a mass base. One important cause of this inability is Kefaya’s strong middle class orientation which is reflected not only in the background of its members and the crowds they draw to their activities, but also in its agenda, strategies, and tactics. Nowhere was this more apparent than during the recent wave of worker’s strikes, and the various forms of civil disobedience. In the midst of searing popular discontent, Kefaya and other smaller groups have failed to address the concerns of the classes and social groups most affected by neo-liberal policies.
This paper explores the socio-economic and political conditions which have given rise to this form of middle class activism, contrasting the situation in the Arab World with Latin America. It also attempts to show how the class nature of social movements shapes their priorities and tactics, often rendering them ineffective in pursuing the universal objectives they propagate.