| ID | 160098 |
| Title Proper | Experimenting with alternative futures in Cairo |
| Other Title Information | young Muslim volunteers between god and the nation |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Sparre, Sara Lei |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article investigates young middle-class Egyptians’ engagement with the religious and national visions of Resala, Egypt’s largest Muslim youth NGO, and how they come to rethink themselves existentially and politically through this commitment, in the context of the 2011 uprising and its aftermath. I show how their volunteering through Resala, shaped by specific sociopolitical circumstances, paved the way for personal hopes to develop into utopian aspirations. Demonstrating the dynamic relationship between the formation of political subjectivities and how utopias emerge, develop and are sometimes shattered, I argue that while utopic aspirations continue to characterise parts of Egypt’s 2011 youth generation, for others, such aspirations have to give way for other more personal concerns to establish a secure adult life. Therefore, activism and experiments with societal alternatives in contexts like the Egyptian continue to depend on inclusive and less risky spaces for civic engagement outside formal politics and institutions. |
| `In' analytical Note | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Vol. 25, No.2; Apr 2018: p.158-175 |
| Journal Source | Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 2018-03 25, 2 |
| Key Words | Nationalism ; Egypt ; Utopia ; Political Subjectivity ; Youth Activism ; Islam |