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Egyptian Civil Society and Political Education: Opportunities for Resilient Authoritarianism, Or Prospects for a Radical Educational Movement?

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Egyptian Civil Society and Political Education: Opportunities for Resilient Authoritarianism, Or Prospects for a Radical Educational Movement? Egyptian Civil Society and Political Education: Opportunities for Resilient Authoritarianism, or Prospects for a Radical Educational Movement? A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 Nadim N. Mirshak School of Social Sciences Table of Contents Index of Tables ................................................................................................................... 7 Acronyms and Abbreviations .............................................................................................. 8 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 10 Declaration ....................................................................................................................... 11 Copyright Statement ......................................................................................................... 12 Dedication and Acknowledgments ................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 14 1.1 Topic ........................................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 16 1.3 Rationale ..................................................................................................................... 16 1.3.1 Moving beyond the Authoritarianism/Democratisation Paradigms .................... 17 1.3.2 Contentious Politics and Civil Society Resistance Post-uprisings ...................... 19 1.3.3 Political Education and Hegemonic Contestation ............................................... 21 1.4 Overall Argument ....................................................................................................... 22 1.5 Original Contributions ................................................................................................ 23 1.6. Research Methods ..................................................................................................... 25 1.6.1 Towards a Typology ............................................................................................ 25 1.6.2 Sampling .............................................................................................................. 28 1.6.3 Criteria for Selection and Participating Organisations ........................................ 29 1.6.4 Approach to Fieldwork and Data Collection Methods ........................................ 32 1.6.4.1 Semi-structured Interviews ........................................................................... 32 1.6.4.2 Overt Participant Observation ....................................................................... 33 1.6.4.3 Secondary Documents ................................................................................... 35 1.6.5 Data Analysis Methods ........................................................................................ 35 1.7 Thesis Limitations ...................................................................................................... 36 1.8 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 2: The Potentials and Limitations of Literatures on Authoritarianism, Political Education and Civil Society ............................................................................... 42 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 42 2.2 The Context: Uprisings and Beyond .......................................................................... 43 2.3 Moving beyond the Authoritarianism/Democratisation Paradigms ........................... 44 2.4 Bringing the Critical into Education .......................................................................... 46 2 2.4.1 Theories of Social and Cultural Reproduction .................................................... 49 2.4.2 Conceptualisations of Political Education ........................................................... 57 2.5 Contentious Politics and Civil Society Resistance Post-uprisings ............................. 62 2.5.1 An Overview of Egyptian Civil Society .............................................................. 64 2.5.2 The Challenges and Repression of Egyptian Civil Society ................................. 66 2.5.3 The Muslim Brotherhood and Civil Society ........................................................ 70 2.5.4 Limitations of Civil Society Resistance in Egypt ................................................ 72 2.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 73 Chapter 3: Hegemonic Contestation, Political Education and the ‘Travelling’ Gramsci: Rethinking Resistance in Post-uprisings Egypt .............................................. 77 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 77 3.2 Against Economism ................................................................................................... 79 3.3 Hegemonic Contestation, the Integral State and the War of Position ........................ 82 3.3.1 Defining Hegemony ............................................................................................. 82 3.3.2 The Integral State and Civil Society as a Terrain of Hegemonic Contestation ... 86 3.3.3 War of Position and Revolutionary Withdrawals ................................................ 90 3.4 Hegemony as an Educational Relationship ................................................................ 93 3.4.1 Education for Critical Consciousness .................................................................. 95 3.5 Building Alliances and Overcoming Claims of Class Essentialism ......................... 101 3.6 Travelling Gramsci ................................................................................................... 106 3.6.1 Gramsci in the Middle East ............................................................................... 108 3.6.2 Articulating Arab Civil Society ......................................................................... 110 3.6.2.1 Authentic Civil Society ............................................................................... 111 3.6.2.2 A Society of Cities ...................................................................................... 112 3.6.2.3 Hybrid Civil Society ................................................................................... 113 3.6.2.4 Secular Arab Civil Society .......................................................................... 114 3.6.3 Conceptualising a Gramscian Approach to Egyptian Civil Society .................. 115 3.6.4 The Modern Prince and the Diminishing Role of Political Parties in Egypt? ... 118 3.6.5 Conceptualising Political Education under Authoritarianism ........................... 119 3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 121 Chapter 4: The Egyptian State, Formal Education, and Political Socialisation ........ 125 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 125 4.2 Formal Education and the Failure to Provide the Basics ......................................... 126 4.3 Formal Education and Political Socialisation .......................................................... 128 4.3.1 Formal Education under Nasser’s Egypt ........................................................... 131 4.3.2 Formal Education under Sadat’s Egypt ............................................................. 136 3 4.3.3 The Political Economy of Mubarak’s Fractured Hegemony ............................. 140 4.3.4 Weakened Hegemony under Mubarak .............................................................. 143 4.3.5 Formal Education under Mubarak and Contemporary Egypt ............................ 145 4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 150 Chapter 5: Egyptian Civil Society, a Terrain for Political Education? ...................... 153 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 153 5.2 Distinguishing between Direct and Indirect Political Education ............................. 154 5.3 Direct Political Education ........................................................................................ 156 5.3.1 Traditional Pedagogical Approach .................................................................... 156 5.3.1.1 Political Seminars ....................................................................................... 157 5.3.1.2 Political Schools .......................................................................................... 159 5.3.1.3 Summer Camps ........................................................................................... 161 5.3.1.4 Education for Liberation ............................................................................. 164 5.3.2 Facilitating the Solutions Approach .................................................................
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