The politicized café: explaining the politicization of the ahwa in contemporary Egyptian social movements
Date
2023-03-31
DOI
Authors
Amin, Hanadi
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
The Arab Spring uprisings (2010-11) have inspired a recent outpouring of critical scholarship examining the logic of protests. Scholars have emphasized the role of information technologies, the experiences of particular social groups, and comparative political transformations. Less consideration has been given to the contributions of everyday spaces in this period of popular revolution. However, during the 2011 protests, Egyptian cafés facilitated political activity by providing activists space in which to organize campaigns, shelter from law enforcement, and cultivate solidarity networks among demographics traditionally segregated from one another by gender and socioeconomic class. In exploring the politicization of the Egyptian café at the onset of the Arab Spring, I pose the question: under what conditions are seemingly apolitical spaces rendered political in periods of social unrest? In my analysis, I prioritize the processes which facilitated the Egyptian café’s transformation from an everyday space into a setting for political mobilization. I argue that the ahwa’s politicization in the lead-up to the revolution reflected a shift in ordinary Egyptians’ experience of political repression from atomized and particularistic to general and collective. I demonstrate further that this collectivism served to ‘activate’ the ahwa within a broad network of politicized everyday spaces that facilitated ‘hidden in plain sight’ mobilization along Egypt’s periphery.