The Making of Tahrir Paradigm: Space and Protest in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011

• In Event: 366 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 12. Social Movements

Abstract

In this paper, I study the Cairo’s famed Tahrir Square as both a political space and a lens for understanding the successes and failures of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. I identify and explore a seeming paradox: on the one hand, the emergence of Tahrir as the central voice of the revolution amplified the event, drew attention to it, and assisted in mobilization, but on the other hand, the centralization of the revolution in one place also delimited further mobilizations, marginalized certain voices and issues within Tahrir itself, and possibly prevented a more radical revolutionary agenda from developing. To investigate this paradox, and building upon and expanding the sociological literature on repertoires of contention, spaces in contention and revolutions as a processes, I develop spatio-historical analysis in which I link the square’s historical constitution as a political space to the long history of political protest in Egypt. I examine how Tahrir Square emerged as the central space and voice of the revolution where multiple repertoires of revolution converged. I study the Tahrir sit-in relation to important modes of action such as labor strikes and popular committees in other urban centers in Egypt. I give attention to the marginalization of certain voices and agendas within Tahrir itself. These include issues related to radical voices and issues of gender in Tahrir for example. Through a close analysis of the interconnected forces of space, class, and social media, I show how the goals and demands of the revolution were distilled and, ultimately, defanged.

Author

• Atef S. Said, University of Illinois-Chicago