Description
Book SynopsisInvestigating key features of contemporary Egypt, this volume includes Egypt's modern history, politics, economics, the legal system, environment, and its media and modes of cultural expression. It examines Egypt's capacities to meet developmental challenges, ranging from responding to globalization and regional competition to generating sufficient economic growth and political inclusion to accommodate the interests and demands of a rapidly growing population.
The macrohistory of Egypt is complemented by the microhistories of specific institutions and processes that constitute separate sections in this handbook. The chapters revolve around political economy: it is shaped by the people and their abilities, political and legal institutions, organization of the economy, natural and built environments, and culture and communication. Politics has been overwhelmingly authoritarian and coercive since the military seized power in 1952; consequently, the contributions address both the
Trade Review
"Dr. Robert Springborg, is a respected American scholar of the Middle East who has published or co-authored many books on Egypt and the region. For this volume, he has assembled a team of thirty-six other authors, all of whom have excellent credentials [...] The reader [...] will come away with the impression that the authors all know their individual topics extremely well. As someone who has lived in Egypt and followed developments there for decades, I learned many new facts from this book. [...] This volume presents a wealth of accurate information on a variety of topics related to Egypt."
William A. Rugh, Arab Media & Society, July 2021
Table of ContentsIntroduction; PART I History Introduction: Occupation, independence, revolution; 1 Building the Egyptian state? Infrastructural systems, education, and urbanization (1919–2011); 2 The ideological roots of authoritarianism in Egypt; 3 Egypt’s foreign policy from Faruq to Mubarak; 4 Activism and contentious politics in Egypt: The case of the student movement; 5 Framing the past: Historian, state and society; PART II Politics Introduction: The evolution of military rule in Egypt; 6 Genesis of coup-proofing in Egypt: Civil–military relations under King Faruq and beyond; 7 The fingers of the "invisible hand": Egypt’s government institutions; 8 Islamism in Egypt; 9 Civil society and revolution (2000–present); 10 Egypt’s post-uprising foreign policy; PART III Economy Introduction: A brief history of nation, state, and market; 11 State–business relations in neoliberal Egypt: The global political economy of subordinate integration; 12 Why Egypt’s trade policy failed to improve its external competitiveness; 13 Egypt’s foreign direct investment regime: Evolution and limitations; 14 The political economy of workers’ remittances in Egypt; 15 Encroachments: Land, power and predation; PART IV Law and human rights Introduction; 16 Judges, elections, and constitutional politics after the 2011 Revolution; 17 Lawyers and politics: Lawyering and counter-lawyering in Egypt; 18 Law, exceptional courts and revolution in modern Egypt; 19 The Egyptian human rights movement: Between political autonomy and accommodation of authoritarianism; PART V Natural and built environments Introduction: Visions and realities of the struggle for development; 20 Sustainable water resource management in Egypt; 21 Egypt’s conflicting urbanism: Informality versus new desert development; 22 Livability of Egyptian cities; 23 The cultural heritage of Egypt’s cities: Burden or resource?; PART VI Media and popular culture Introduction: Divergent trajectories of creativity and coercion; 24 The culture police: Manning the barricades of allowable art and culture; 25 Media ownership in Egypt (2000–2020): Categories and configurations; 26 Tweeting the revolution: The evolution of social media use in Egypt’s turbulent times; 27 Ring-fenced religion? Egypt’s religious media between faith and politics; 28 Cooperativism, revolution and the ‘digital turn’: Assessing recent Egyptian film collectives; 29 The rise of indie music from the heart of Tahrir Square: Politics and popular music in Egypt
