This talk focuses on labour protests in Egypt, before and after the fall of Hosni Mubarak. It argues that repression and radicalisation do not fully capture the dynamics of social movements in authoritarian contexts. Instead, it suggests to expand the contentious politics approach, the dominant theoretical framework used to study collective action.
The focus is on the political economy context in Egypt and on its impact on the redefinition of politics and state action. It shows that the redefinition of politics is part of strategies of regime survival, but is also embedded in emerging social movements that aim to alter political norms. Through the study of labour action in Egypt the aim is to move away from approaches apprehending social movements as linear processes, and to explain why they can lead to revolutionary situations as well as hinder them.
This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.
Event Details
Speaker: Dr Marie Duboc, University of Tübingen
Chair: Dr John Chalcraft, LSE
Date: Wednesday 25 February 2015
Time: 16.30-18.30
Location: Room 9.05, Tower 2, Clement's Inn, LSE
Attendance: This is a registration only event. Please register using our online booking form.
Speaker
Marie Duboc is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Her research interests focus on social movements in the Middle East. In 2012-13, she served as a postdoctoral researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and was previously an academic visitor at St Edmund Hall, university of Oxford. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the EHESS in Paris.