Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social mobility – Egypt – Cairo'

State violence in Egypt is an embedded part of daily life and popular culture, and well documented in social and news media. The uprisings of January 11, which took place in Egypt were organized in large part against violence and torture regularly delivered by police forces. In this dissertation I examine the implications of chronic state violence on everyday life for low-income Egyptians. In doing so, this dissertation provides analysis of how violence shapes forms of intimacy within social life, how it shapes urban landscapes and the politics therein and how it informs individual piety and banal practices of security. This work contributes to studies within feminist geopolitics, memory and emotion within geography by understanding the lives of Cairenes through their experience of the landscape and places they inhabit, maneuver through, and create with the memory and threat of state violence. The project focuses on four selected sites in Greater Cairo: Kholousy Street in Shoubra, Musky Market in Old Cairo, Cairo University in Giza, and Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. These sites have been chosen because they represent different nodes of daily life (shopping, leisure, education, and political participation) for low-income Cairenes. Research methods include participant observation at the four sites, eleven focus groups and thirty-one interviews with low-income Cairo residents in two age cohorts: one group of participants between the ages of 18 and 26, and a second cohort between the ages of 49 and 57. For each of these questions, this project provides a gender sensitive comparison of the two age cohorts in order to gain insight into the role of youth and memory and gender in Cairenes’ interpretations and representations of the Mubarak era and the recent revolution.

Women's access to micro credit has increased substantially worldwide. International organizations, non-governmental organizations, commercially-oriented institutions and governments support the proliferation of micro credit programs through diverse funding arrangements, and specifically target women to participate in such initiatives. This dissertation explores women's experiences in a micro credit program in Cairo, Egypt, funded by Save the Children (USA) in order to contribute to the growing debate on women's poverty reduction and empowerment potential. Because women's voices are critical the issues are raised through questions regarding women's situation in micro credit and what factors assist women in meeting their choices and concerns, and empowerment outcomes.
A qualitative research study of women's micro credit groups based in Cairo's Abdeen and Imbeba neighbourhoods was used in order to address women's experiences. In the literature reviewed on micro credit and micro finance, international development paradigms for women, and the socio-economic context in Cairo served to identify important influences. Women's sources of power based in the household were used to develop a conceptual framework. Women's triple roles in production, reproduction and community managing, women's practical and strategic gender needs, and theories of women's empowerment formed the principal elements.
Findings were based on interviews and observation with 69 project participants, including 54 women borrowers, of which 11 interviewed women agreed to a second interview, and 4 key staff members of the Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings program. Numerous assumptions regarding the role of micro credit in the lives of low-income women are reported and analyzed. An exploration of women's experiences reveals that, social issues in micro credit are as important, perhaps even more so, than the economic concerns of the projects. Only through building a more complete picture of women's lives can micro credit programs achieve their objective: to contribute to greater gender equity in society.
Keywords. micro credit; women; informal economy; poverty; empowerment; international social work; Middle East

The phenomenon of street children is world-wide and on the increase despite numerous programs aiming at its eradication. The failure to adequately address this complex and very diverse phenomenon is the result of conceptual confusion with respect to defining who a street child is. The dominant discourse on street children defines them as victims or deviants to be rescued and rehabilitated. As such, the capacity of many of these children for human agency is occluded by excluding them from participation in the construction of solutions to their problems. I argue that, far from being mere victims and deviants, these kids, in running away from alienating structures and finding relative freedom in the street, often become autonomous and are capable of actively defining their situations in their own terms. They are able to challenge the roles assigned to children, make judgements and develop a network of niches in the heart of the metropolis in order to resist exclusion and chronic repression. I further argue that for research and action with street kids to be emancipatory, it is necessary to acknowledge and respect the human agency the kids display in changing their own lives and to capitalize on their voluntary participation in non-formal educational activities as well as in collective advocacy.
The thesis draws on a participatory action research (PAR) methodology spanning eight years of fieldwork with street kids in Cairo, which eclectically combined street ethnography, street work and action science. I critically review the historical development of these methodologies, and I argue for a conception of PAR as an open-ended process of action and reflective participatory research incorporated into everyday activities and work with excluded, marginalized and oppressed groups such as street kids. As such, I pay special attention to the ethical dilemmas that arise in day-to-day PAR practice.

This thesis explores how low-income women in Cairo respond to gender inequalities in their daily lives, both in the household and in the informal labour market. The aim is to generate knowledge about the diversity of gender relations and ideologies in the Egyptian context and to contribute to broader theoretical debates regarding gender and resistance, with a view to informing both policy and feminist activism. The thesis argues that a modified concept of "everyday forms of resistance" provides a way forward for a more nuanced and contextualized understanding of women's responses to their positions of relative subordination, than do either Marxist approaches to power and consciousness, or the a-historical usage of the notion of patriarchy. The study is based on participant observation and in-depth interviews in four low-income neighbourhoods in Cairo over a period of 15 months. Within the household, research focused on four specific arrangements: pre-marital expectations, marriage negotiations, sexuality, and intra-household decision making. With the labour market, two types of women's work were explored; home-based piece-work, and waged work in small-scale workshops. The links between women's options in workplace and in the household were examined. Results of this exploratory study show that women's perceptions and responses are varied, complex, contradictory and in continuous flux as they interact with broader socio-economic conjunctures. Women displayed both defiance and compliance, both a lack of articulated awareness of their self-interest, and high levels of awareness of some of the injustices against them as women. Sometimes, their actions were pragmatic seeking immediate relief. At other times, they sought more medium or longer-term gains. In some instances, they acted individually and covertly and at other times they acted collectively and articulated their discontent forcefully. Any single conclusion about women's agency would thus be erroneous. Attempts to advance women's interests are also bound to be varied and complex.

This dissertation examines the specific forms of embodied suffering war and its refugee aftermath brings to female Sudanese refugees currently living in post-revolution Cairo, Egypt in order to illustrate the suffering and healing enacted within everyday life. These women, displaced from the Second Sudanese Civil War, are what I label Sudan's `Lost Girls.' The theoretical framework I employ in order to discuss their lives is a critical medical anthropology perspective based on the mindful body. I engage anthropological literature on the body in order to better understand the embodied suffering, sexual violence, and refugee aftermath of war. My research seeks to do this through distinctly gendered analyses and equally importantly, visual analyses. The research draws on historical news data collected through content analysis, contemporary qualitative data collected during fieldwork in the form of observation and interviews, with a particular emphasis on photovoice methodology. The work proposes that the humanizing aspect of emotions revealed by Lost Girls' photography of their everyday lives in urban Cairo allows for critical analysis of the many and varied ways in which women's `ordinary' experiences of war have been hidden, the implications of this for international responses to their suffering, and areas for exploring new, non-emergency refugee policies based on more ethnographically informed, gendered contextualizations of `extraordinary' violence.

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey
The slums of Cairo are a relatively new addition to Cairo. A product of urbanization and Western Structural Adjustment and economic liberalization programs, the slums are built on squatter land on the periphery of Cairo. From their inception, the slums have been informal and as a result, residents lack the resources to change their situation. I will argue that schools must be developed in the slums. These schools cannot be schools similar to other schools in Egypt, but instead must be a product of the slums. These community schools must be developed and run by the residents of the slums to produce change. I argue that these community schools would not only increase educational levels and quality within the slums but would also serve as a means to political and social change
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: College Honors Program
Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies
Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies Honors Program

In Haram City, amidst Egypt's 2011-2013 revolutionary period, two visions of the city in the Global South come together within shared walls. In this private suburban development marketed as affordable housing, aspirational middle class homebuyers embellish properties for privilege and safety. They also come to share grounds with resettled urban poor who transform their surroundings to sustain basic livelihoods. With legality in disarray and under private administration, residents originally from Duweiqa - perhaps Cairo's poorest neighbourhood - claim the right to squat vacant homes, while homebuyers complain of a slum in the gated community. What was only desert in 2005 has since become a forum for vivid public contestation over the relationship between morality, ownership, and order in space - struggles over what ought to be common in a compound. This ethnography explores residents' own legal geographies in relation to property amidst public-private partnership urbanism: how do competing normative discourses draw community lines in the sand, and how are they applied to assert ownership where the scales of 'official' legitimacy have been tipped? In other words: in a city built from scratch amidst a revolution, how is legality invented? Like the compound itself, sections of the thesis are divided into an A-area and a B-area. Shifting from side to side, four papers examine the lives of squatters and then of homeowners and company management acting in their name. Zooming in and out within sides, they depict discourses over moral ownership and then interpret practices asserting a concomitant vision of order. First, in Chapter 4, squatters invoke notions of a moral economy and practical virtue to justify 'informal' ownership claims against perceptions of developer-state corruption. Next, Chapter 5 illustrates how squatters define 'rights' as debt, a notion put into practice by ethical outlaws: the Sayi' - commonly meaning 'down-and-out' or 'bum' - brokers 'rights' to coordinate group ownership claims. Shifting sides, Chapter 6 observes middle class homeowners' aspirations for "internal emigration" to suburbs as part of an incitement to propertied autonomy, and details widespread dialogue over suburban selfhood in relationship to property, self-interest, and conviviality. Lastly, Chapter 7 documents authoritarian private governance of the urban poor that centres on "behavioural training." Free from accountability and operating like a city-state, managers simulate urban law to inculcate subjective norms, evoking both Cairene histories and global policy circulations of poverty management. Towards detailing how notions of ownership and property constitute visions and assertions of urban law, this project combines central themes in ethnographies of Cairo with legal geography on suburbs of the Global North. It therefore interrogates some key topics in urban studies of the Global South (gated communities, affordable housing, public-private partnerships, eviction-resettlement, informality, local governance, and squatting), as Cairo's 'new city' urban poor and middle classes do themselves, through comparative principles and amidst promotion of similar private low-income cities internationally. While presenting a micro-history of one project, it is also offers an alternative account of 2011-2013 revolutionary period, witnessed from the desert developments through which Egyptian leaders habitually promise social progress.

La métropole est directement gérée par les services de l'Etat. Les politiques économiques et urbaines lancées par les régimes politiques successifs, à partir des années 1952, ont profondément modifié la structure sociale des Egyptiens. Ces politiques étaient le moteur de la dynamique sociale, résidentielle et fonctionnelle. La mobilité des classes aisées vers les quartiers périphériques a créé le phénomène de polycentrisme. Par conséquent, une grande partie des services de luxe ont abandonné la zone centrale pour suivre leurs clients. Malgré la dégradation des services du noyau central, ce dernier a paradoxalement conservé sa position en tant que centre de pouvoir. En fait, le développement de grands centres commerciaux périphériques n'a pas entraîné la mort du centre-ville du Caire. Ce dernier s'est adapté grâce à ses propres modalités qui renforcent certains types de centralité. Cependant, l'abaissement de certaines substances affaiblit d'autres types de centralités.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sociologists concern themselves with exploring, describing and explaining that which is different, unknown or misunderstood. I will endeavour to focus on the latter. International migration and the emergence of a global village have compelled one to embrace the “other” with insight and vigour. This thesis explores the experiences of South African expatriates living in Cairo, Egypt. The primary objective of this study is to explore and describe the constructed experiences of South African expatriates working in Cairo. The purpose of my study, however, is not to delineate an Egyptian work ethic as a typology or an ideal type, but rather to reflect on the experiences of tension and divergencies as constructed by South African. The methodological framework underlying this thesis is that of interpretivism. A qualitative study, which included semi-structured interviews and observations, provided the researcher with rich and nuanced data. Theoretical approaches of Max Weber, particularly The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Weber’s incomplete works on Islam, are used. In agreement with Weber’s works, the main argument of this thesis is that an Egyptian work ethic is not solely fashioned through Islamic tenets per se, but that social, political and economic factors in Egypt are significant contributors.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dit is die moeilike taak van Sosioloë om die vreemde beide te verstaan en te beskryf ten einde sin te maak van ‘dit wat anders is’. Die fokus van hierdie tesis is juis ‘n poging tot die laasgenoemde. Die toenemende belangrikheid van internasionale migrasie vereis ‘n betekenisvolle interaksie met mense van ander kulture, geloof en waardestelsels. Hierdie tesis sal die ervaringe van Suid-Afrikaanse ekspatriote in ‘n Egiptiese werksomgewing ondersoek en die moontlike bronne van konflik identifiseer. Die primêre rol van die studie is om die subjektiewe konstruksies van ‘n Egiptiesewerksetiek, soos ervaar deur Suid-Afrikaners in Kairo, te identifiseer. Die doel is egter nie om ‘n spesifieke en akkurate werksetiek te beskryf as ‘n ‘ideale tipe’ nie, maar eerder om te besin oor die struwelinge wat Suid-Afrikaners in ‘n vreemde milieu ervaar in terme van hul Egiptiese kollegas en hoe hul hierdie struwelinge en verskille interpreteer. Eindelik word hierdie tesis geplaas in die globale wedywering tussen die Euro-Amerikaanse Weste en Islamietiese Ooste. ‘n Interpretatiewe metodologiese raamwerk word gebruik om data-insameling en -analise te benader. ‘n Kwalitatiewe studie, met behulp van semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude en gepaardgaande observasies is gebruik om data te versamel. Die teoretiese werke van Max Weber, meer spesifiek, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, asook sy onvoltooide werke oor Islam, is gebruik om die navorsingsvrae te beantwoord. Samehangend met Weber se werke, is die deurlopende argument van die studie dat ‘n Egiptiese werksetiek nie alleenlik deur Islam en geloofswette gevorm word nie, maar dat die sosiale-, politiese- en ekonomiese realiteite van Egipte geweldig invloedryk is.

This thesis deals with the recent adoption of the Sudanese curriculum at ‘refugee schools’ in Cairo, Egypt. It is based on material collected through qualitative research methods during two field studies. The aim of this paper is to describe how and why the Sudanese curriculum was introduced in Egypt, to outline refugees’ opinions about the curriculum and its adoption,and to analyze the role it plays in view of the overall context of this urban environment. In the theoretical framework, this thesis presents concepts regarding the phenomenon of ‘waiting’. The paper gives an overview of the specifics that refugees are confronted with in urban settings, and highlights the importance of education. Moreover, the thesis presents background information about refugees living in Egypt and their access to rights, and pointsout the obstacles they face regarding public education. The results of this study show that the new curriculum is valued by students, teachers, and parents, as it offers the opportunity to acquire official school documents that are required to enter university. A number of aspects that refugees criticize about the Sudanese curriculum, such as its contents, are also brought up. This thesis concludes that the Sudanese curriculum plays a significant role for refugees in Egypt, as it gives students perspectives for the future and thus has a positive effect on their experience of waiting.

La redistribution des citadins à l'intérieur du Grand Caire est un phénomène dont l'ampleur ne cesse de croître depuis les années soixante-dix. Les migrations intra-urbaines dépassent aujourd'hui en intensité les migrations campagne-capitale, devenues marginales, et l'observation de l'évolution démographique montre que la ville alimente de plus en plus elle-même sa croissance. Animée par des dynamiques internes complexes, l'agglomération cairote se transforme au gré des stratégies résidentielles mises en œuvre par les citadins autant que par les interventions des pouvoirs publics et des planificateurs.
Fondé sur une démarche résolument qualitative, ce travail s'appuie sur l'analyse des itinéraires ordinaires des habitants de quatre quartiers populaires du Caire dont les modes de constitution et de peuplement diffèrent.
Temps de l'établissement en ville, celui des incertitudes mais aussi des adaptations et des expériences, temps des ancrages, celui des compétences à s'approprier l'espace et à le modeler pour lui donner un caractère résolument urbain, temps des recompositions sociales et spatiales qui portent en germe des mécanismes d'insertion ou d'exclusion urbaine : au-delà des trajectoires, toujours singulières, qui constituent ici un outil de travail plutôt qu'une fin en soi de la recherche, ce sont des processus de territorialisation ainsi que les multiples configurations socio-spatiales qui en découlent qui sont mis au jour pour tenter de comprendre au mieux les relations entre les citadins et leur ville.

This project investigates the role of the built environment in securing our practical and social needs. This is done based on research in the context of Cairo, Egypt. Banati foundation is an organisation established in 2010 which works on the rehabilitation and social reintegration of children in street situations in Cairo. This project takes Banati Foundation as its case study, offering architectural solutions to its process of social and psychological rehabilitation.This project required thorough research methodologies including primary fieldwork such as interviews and site visits, making it a project of co-creation. In building up the programme, the architect’s role was transformed to the additional role of a mediator, gathering information, exposing opportunities and assembling ideas.Banati foundation have existing tangible and intangible infrastructures with different levels of care to offer children a smooth transition into a rehabilitated safe, secure and comfortable life. My project aims to complete the cycle by investigating what being part of the Banati family means, and how Banati’s principles and objectives can extend beyond their institutional care, namely: how can young women moving out of Banati’s home transition smoothly out of their care, while maintaining Banatis role as a forever family?With a careful consideration of the social dimension of architecture, this project hopes to facilitate the final stage of care offered to the young women leaving the foundation upon reaching adulthood. The masterplan tackles questions of how to carve an easier path out of Banati’s care and into society for Banati’s graduates through socially aware architecture.

Cette étude présente, dans le sillage des travaux sur la construction des identités des communautés italiennes à l’étranger, les modalités de rassemblement et d’unification de la colonie italienne du Caire de 1861 à la Première Guerre mondiale et ses vecteurs identitaires. Elle remet en question à cette occasion la vision littéraire du cosmopolitisme égyptien au XIXe siècle, de cet âge d’or dont on déplore la disparition, tout en mettant en évidence le mouvement véritablement cosmopolite des revendications sociales et indépendantistes du début du XXe siècle. Une étude des liens de sociabilités formels de la colonie italienne du Caire et de son discours identitaire permet en effet d’observer de manière approfondie le discours tenu par les associations de la colonie autour du cosmopolitisme et d’en observer l’inadéquation à la réalité. Le cosmopolitisme est surtout employé comme justification de la présence italienne en Egypte et comme moyen de se démarquer face aux colonies françaises, grecques et anglaises. Par ailleurs la colonie cairote à partir des années 1880 se compose d’une majorité d’ouvriers et artisans. L’étude des sociabilités informelles (liens d’amitié, de parenté, relations de voisinage et de travail) permet d’observer les rapports de la colonie au sens large avec le milieu cairote, qui sont caractérisés par des relations s’inscrivant dans une indifférence réciproque ponctuée de désordres imprévisibles plutôt que dans le cosmopolitisme tant vanté par les textes littéraires. Pourtant ce cosmopolitisme a une réalité car il est présent au cours des luttes sociales du Caire du début des années 1900 à travers l’union des ouvriers italiens, grecs et égyptiens dans les premiers mouvements de grève cairote. L’insertion des anarchistes italiens dans ce contexte permet de relier ces évènements à un mouvement plus global de luttes sociales à travers l’Europe et même l’Amérique latine, annonciateur de modernité
In the wake of previous works on the building of identities of Italian communities abroad, this study analyses how the Italian community of Cairo took shape from 1861 until the First World Wide War, as well as its identity factors. In doing so, it questions the litterary claim of a true Egyptian cosmopolitism in the ninetieth century, this much missed golden age, but also highlights the truly cosmopolitan movement of social and independence demands of the early twentieth century. Indeed, the study of formal social ties of Cairo Italian colony and its identity discourse leads to great detail on the official speech of its societies about cosmopolitism and puts it largely into perspective. Cosmopolitanism appears to be mainly claimed as a justification of the Italian presence in Egypt and as a way to stand apart from the French, Greek and English colonies. Moreover, the Cairo colony of 1880 consisted mainly of workers and craftsmen. The study of informal social relationships (friendships, family ties, neighborhood and work bonds) shows the links of the colony as a whole with its Cairo environment were characterized by mutual indifference punctuated by unpredictable disturbances - as opposed to the much touted cosmopolitanism claimed by literary texts. Yet cosmopolitism actually did exist as it was present in Cairo social struggles in the early 1900s through the union of Italian, Greek and Egyptian workers during the first strikes ever to happen in the city. The participation of Italian anarchists in this context made these events part of a global movement of social struggles across Europe and even Latin America that were the promise of a new modern era

Diese Arbeit bietet eine solide theoretische Grundlage zu Philanthropie und religiös motivierten Spendenaktivitäten und deren Einfluss auf Wohltätigkeitstrends, Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und einer auf dem Gedanken der sozialen Gerechtigkeit beruhenden Philanthropie. Untersucht werden dafür die Strukturen religiös motivierte Spenden, für die in der islamischen Tradition die Begriffe „zakat“, „Waqf“ oder im Plural auch „awqaf-“ oder „Sadaqa“ verwendet werden, der christliche Begriff dafür lautet „tithes“ oder „ushour“. Aufbauend auf diesem theoretischen Rahmenwerk analysiert die qualitative und quantitative Feldstudie auf nationaler Ebene, wie die ägyptische Öffentlichkeit Philanthropie, soziale Gerechtigkeit, Menschenrechte, Spenden, Freiwilligenarbeit und andere Konzepte des zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagements wahrnimmt. Um eine umfassende und repräsentative Datengrundlage zu erhalten, wurden 2000 Haushalte, 200 zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen erfasst, sowie Spender, Empfänger, religiöse Wohltäter und andere Akteure interviewt. Die so gewonnen Erkenntnisse lassen aussagekräftige Aufschlüsse über philanthropische Trends zu. Erstmals wird so auch eine finanzielle Einschätzung und Bewertung der Aktivitäten im lokalen Wohltätigkeitsbereich möglich, die sich auf mehr als eine Billion US-Dollar beziffern lassen. Die Erhebung weist nach, dass gemessen an den Pro-Kopf-Aufwendungen die privaten Spendenaktivitäten weitaus wichtiger sind als auswärtige wirtschaftliche Hilfe für Ägypten. Das wiederum lässt Rückschlüsse zu, welche Bedeutung lokale Wohltätigkeit erlangen kann, wenn sie richtig gesteuert wird und nicht wie bislang oft im Teufelskreis von ad-hoc-Spenden oder Hilfen von Privatperson an Privatperson gefangen ist. Die Studie stellt außerdem eine Verbindung her zwischen lokalen Wohltätigkeits-Mechanismen, die meist auf religiösen und kulturellen Werten beruhen, und modernen Strukturen, wie etwa Gemeinde-Stiftungen oder Gemeinde-„waqf“, innerhalb derer die Spenden eine nachhaltige Veränderung bewirken können. Daher bietet diese Arbeit also eine umfassende wissenschaftliche Grundlage, die nicht nur ein besseres Verständnis, sondern auch den nachhaltiger Aus- und Aufbau lokaler Wohltätigkeitsstrukturen in Ägypten ermöglicht. Zentral ist dabei vor allem die Rolle lokaler, individueller Spenden, die beispielsweise für Stiftungen auf der Gemeindeebene eingesetzt, wesentlich zu einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung beitragen könnten – und das nicht nur in Ägypten, sondern in der gesamten arabischen Region. Als konkretes Ergebnis dieser Arbeit, wurde ein innovatives Modell entwickelt, dass neben den wissenschaftlichen Daten das Konzept der „waqf“ berücksichtigt. Der Wissenschaftlerin und einem engagierten Vorstand ist es auf dieser Grundlage gelungen, die Waqfeyat al Maadi Community Foundation (WMCF) zu gründen, die nicht nur ein Modell für eine Bürgerstiftung ist, sondern auch das tradierte Konzept der „waqf“ als praktikable und verbürgte Wohlstätigkeitsstruktur sinnvoll weiterentwickelt.
This work provides a solid theoretical base on philanthropy, religious giving (Islamic zakat, ‘ushour, Waqf -plural: awqaf-, Sadaqa and Christian tithes or ‘ushour), and their implications on giving trends, development work, social justice philanthropy. The field study (quantitative and qualitative) that supports the theoretical framework reflects at a national level the Egyptian public’s perceptions on philanthropy, social justice, human rights, giving and volunteering and other concepts that determine the peoples’ civic engagement. The statistics cover 2000 households, 200 Civil Society Organizations distributed all over Egypt and interviews donors, recipients, religious people and other stakeholders. The numbers reflect philanthropic trends and for the first time provide a monetary estimate of local philanthropy of over USD 1 Billion annually. The survey proves that the per capita share of philanthropy outweighs the per capita share of foreign economic assistance to Egypt, which implies the significance of local giving if properly channeled, and not as it is actually consumed in the vicious circle of ad-hoc, person to person charity. In addition, the study relates local giving mechanisms derived from religion and culture to modern actual structures, like community foundations or community waqf that could bring about sustainable change in the communities. In sum, the work provides a comprehensive scientific base to help understand- and build on local philanthropy in Egypt. It explores the role that local individual giving could play in achieving sustainable development and building a new wave of community foundations not only in Egypt but in the Arab region at large. As a tangible result of this thesis, an innovative model that revives the concept of waqf and builds on the study’s results was created by the researcher and a dedicated board of trustees who succeeded in establishing Waqfeyat al Maadi Community Foundation (WMCF) that not only introduces the community foundation model to Egypt, but revives and modernizes the waqf as a practical authentic philanthropic structure.

Defence date: 31 May 2017
Examining Board: Professor Heba Raouf Ezzat, Cairo University; Professor Anna Triandafyllidou, European University Institute; Professor Jean-Pascal Daloz, CNRS/MISHA Strasbourg; Professor Olivier Roy, European University Institute
As a contribution to the diverse field of cosmopolitan scholarship, engaging with ‘cultural cosmopolitanism’ often understood in a vernacular sense as the capacity to meditate between different cultures, religions and ways of life, the thesis locates and analyses cosmopolitan discourses and cosmopolitan material practices within the cultural and socio-political conditions in which they were uttered in the Muslim majority context of Egypt. While issues concerning religion have been at the crux of contemporary Middle East scholarship, less often addressed are discursive and material spaces in which other types of imaginaries can prosper. As an interdisciplinary study, informed by ethnographic inquiry, the thesis engages in analyzing a cosmopolitan social imaginary as well as expressions of differing aspirations - that were framed in cosmopolitan terms - during the period between the Egyptian revolution in January 2011 and the military coup d’état in summer 2013. Witnessing profound political changes with new actors such as the Muslim Brotherhood entering the political arena, the period constitutes a historically significant moment for the analysis of discourses and practices with a cosmopolitan reference. The research grounds cosmopolitan theories in space and time and reflects on the appropriation of the cosmopolitan concept. Consequently, it casts a critical look at how there was a materialization of cosmopolitan notions of self-reflexivity and detachment – the ability to see the world from the viewpoint of one’s cultural ‘others’. On the one hand, the study discusses how nostalgia for the past, framed in cosmopolitan terms, relates to the present, and on the other, how contemporary cosmopolitan discourses and practices, enabled through global market forces, materialized in the Egyptian context in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Within the political setting of post-2011 revolution Egypt, this research observes how social distinction can be enacted through cosmopolitan references. Viewed in relation to the socio-political realities of the location under study, it points to social hierarchies, which the differentiation ‘global’ and ‘local’ helps to create, and to appropriations of the contextual distinctiveness and specificity of the cosmopolitan imaginary. While discussing social distinction through an analysis of cosmopolitan imaginaries, the thesis contributes to the fields of both elite scholarship and cosmopolitan scholarship.
Chapter 6 ‘The gendered self and the other' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'The gender dimension of the authoritarian backlash' (2015) in the journal ‘Turkish policy quarterly’

This thesis examined the conditions under which taharrush (sexual harassment) has become normalized in Cairo, allowing acts once deemed unethical by Egyptians to become a daily experience. Experiences of taharrush were explored through an ethnographic study of three neighborhoods in Cairo and 20 semi-structured interviews with women from diverse backgrounds and age groups. Through the literature review of key themes and a historical analysis of the Egyptian context, this research explored the rise in sexual harassment over time and under different presidential regimes. The cross-generational aspect of this research highlighted the prevalence of sexual harassment in the past three decades. Furthermore, through the participants’ voices, numerous themes emerged explaining the increase of taharrush, such as: economic difficulties, decline in akhle (sense of community), and violence against women perpetrated by security officials. The interviews showed women’s experiences of sexual harassment, the perceived causes behind the issue of harassment being trivialized and normalized, and ways in which women combat harassment and security issues within Cairo.
February 2016

This study examined the schooling experiences of eleven graduates from the rural south of Egypt with primary community schools in Assiut. The study used individual interviews and focus groups to examine how community school graduates understood their experiences. The community schools were found to have removed previous obstacles of distance and cost. The quality of education that the students received allowed them to flourish in education rather than falter, and that was largely influenced by the quality of their relationship with their teachers. The students learned academic skills, as well as attitudes and dispositions that serve as cultural capital. They have more opportunities than before, yet also face significant challenges as they transition to the public system. The model of community schooling is also facing significant challenges as differences with the public schooling systems are exerting tension on the community school model to converge.