- Launching event March 22, 2021
On March 22nd, 2021, EGYCLASS members gathered for the first time, in a hybrid online/in-person event in Cairo, for the kick-off meeting of the network. It was attended by about 40 persons. Check this video. -
Annual Conference December 5-7, 2021
Egyclass held its first annual conference in Cairo in December 2021. It consisted in a Public event, held at the CEDEJ on December 5th and titled “Studying the Social Classes in Egypt”. It was attended by more than one hundred people, both on line and in person. The program is available here.
On December 6th, an important roundtable gathering eminent guest speakers was organized by OIB and CEDEJ on the theme “Statistics and the social classes”. We were honoured to welcome: Hanan Girgis (Executive Vice President of Baseera, the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion research), May Gadallah (Statistics Manager at Economic Research Forum, Associate Professor at Cairo University), Ahmed Atif (Data Scientist, Founder & CEO at Daftar Ahwal Data Research Institute), Luca Fedi (Employment specialist, International Labour Organization), Yahia Shawkat (co-founder and research coordinator of 10 Tooba, Built Environment Deprivation Index).The second part of the conference was dedicated to internal workshops during which members of the network met and discussed different topics:
Wednesday December 6, 2021
Axis 1 : Socio-history of classifications (coord: Malak Labib and Pierre France)
| 2:00 –3:00 | Roundtable with participants : how the issues of social classifications/ social representations arise in their own works ? |
| 3:00 – 4:00 | Malak Labib : Literature review around social classifications and their history |
| 4:00 – 5:00 | Figures and representations : how to link questions of social classifications and representations ? |
Axis 2 : Mapping the social classes (coord: Deena Khalil and Agnès Deboulet)
| 2:00 –2:15 | Introduction to Axis-2 members |
| 2:15 – 3:15 | Defining Axis 2, its goals, and preliminary thoughts on social classes in Egypt and their spatial distribution, reflecting on Cairo versus the rest of Egypt.
Short summaries of on-going researches on class and spatial issues are welcome |
| 3:15 – 4:00 | Florian Bonnefoi: The link between Spatial and Social Mobility
Mina Ibrahim : Trams, Parishes, and Language Schools: Class Struggles in Cairo‘s Shubra“ |
Axis 3 : Ethnography (coord: Nada El Kouny, Chaymaa Hassabo and Aymon Kreil)
| 2:00-3:30 | Presentation of the book project Making it Work: Economies of the Male body in Egypt (eds. Karen Ahlberg and Carl Rommel) |
| 3:45 – 5:00 | Presentation of the book Methodological Approaches to Societies in Transformation: How to Make Sense of Change (eds. Y. Berriane, A. Derks, A. Kreil and D. Lüddeckens) (Aymon Kreil, Daniele Cantini, Giedre Sabaseviciute) |
Axis 4: Elites and Dominant Classes (coord. Giedre Sabaseviciute and Marine Poirier)
| 2:00 –2:15 | Introduction. |
| 2:15 – 2:30 | Marine Poirier: Defining the Elite: from Charles Wright Mills to Pierre Bourdieu. |
| 2:30-4:00 | Cosmopolitanism, Social Reproduction and Distinction.
Aymon Kreil: The Reproduction of Symbolic Capital: A Reading of Niloofar Haeri. Farah Ramzy: French School as Elite Schools: Change and Continuity in a Schooling Model (A Reading of Frédéric Abécassis). Noha Roushdy: Revisiting the Notion of “Cosmopolitan Elite”. Sarah Smierciak: Cosmopolitan Capital in Egypt’s Political Economy: From Mubarak to Sisi. Discussion |
| 4:15-5:00 | Roundtable discussion: Elites in the Globalized World. |
Thursday December 7, 2021
Axis 2 : Mapping the social classes (coord: Deena Khalil and Agnès Deboulet)
| 9:15–10:00 | Salma Khamis : Housing the Middle Classes in Egypt – Tracing Cooperative Housing in Egypt
Gaétan Du Roy: Social services, religious reformism and clientelism in informal neighbourhoods, the case of the zabbalin |
| 10:15–11:15 | Spatializing Egypt’s classes: Mapping, indicators, and CAPMAS statistics
Short presentations from Yahia Shawkat ; Agnès Deboulet; All members are welcome to display examples |
| 11:30-13 :00 | New research questions and methodological orientations |
Axis 3 : Ethnography (coord: Nada El Kouny, Chaymaa Hassabo and Aymon Kreil)
| 9:00-10:30 | Common analysis of three interviews of the project Les soucis du citoyen |
| 10:30-12:00 | Brainstorming about outcomes and future activities of the axis |
Axis 4: Elites and Dominant Classes (coord. Giedre Sabaseviciute and Marine Poirier)
| 9:00- 9:50 | Elite Groups in Academic Literature on Egypt: What Makes Them “a Class”?
Businessmen |
| 10:35-12:00 | Bureaucrats Neil Ketchley: Empirical Ways of Studying Bureaucratic Elites. Mohamed Fahmy Menza: The Formation of the Alternative/Neo-Politically Relevant Elite. A Reading of Hanna Batatu and Salwa Ismail. Giedre Sabaseviciute: Class and Elite in Bureaucracy: A Reading of Nazih Ayubi and Robert Springborg. |
| 12:00-13 :00 | Roundtable discussion. Organisation of the workflow for the next phase of the project |
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Group meetings (2021-2022)
