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Lecture by Jannis Grimm on "Contentious Politics in Post-Coup Egypt"

Nov 07, 2019 | 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM

BGSMCS doctoral researcher Jannis Grimm will talk about "Harnessing Hegemony: Contentious Politics in Post-Coup Egypt". His presentation is part of the Citizenship Lectures at Potsdam university, which this winter focus on "Social Movements, Protest and Contention in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa".

In September 2019, after a long period of awfully quiet streets, small anti-government protests rocked Cairo and other Egyptian cities that demanded an end to government corruption and adopted several of the infamous slogans of the 2011 uprising that lead to the ouster of Husni Mubarak. Albeit small and scattered, these protests were highly mediatized and not only took observers but also the Egyptian government by surprise. After all, in the previous years public shows of dissent against strongman President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi effectively became a rare phenomenon in a country where all shows of opposition are brutally repressed by a vicious security state. The protests were, however, reminiscent of a previous episode of contention: In early 2016 the transfer of the archipelago of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia became a catalyst for oppositional subject formation and the emergence of an unlikely protest coalition between leftists, liberals and nationalists, and thus enabled the articulation of broader socio-political demands in an otherwise closed context. Both cases illustrate how dissonance between the discourse and practices of seemingly stable repressive regimes can trigger spontaneous mobilisation and create opportunities for change. In the aftermath of the 2013 coup, Al-Sisi seemed to have struck a “winning formula” by deriving his legitimacy from a nationalist discourse. However, as the most recent episodes of contention in Egypt show. such a strategy may: When certain events make it apparent that authorities do not walk their talk, social movements are provided with an opportunity for resistance.

Time & Location

Nov 07, 2019 | 04:00 PM - 06:00 PM

Universität Potsdam
Campus Griebnitzsee
Haus 7, Raum 227