The notion that we have much to learn from those who were "not there" seems somewhat counterintui... more The notion that we have much to learn from those who were "not there" seems somewhat counterintuitive; nonetheless I argue that there is much to learn about the Egyptian revolution from the experiences of those too young or too sheltered to take part in it in a conventional way. Considered children at the time (eleven to thirteen years old) and today in their early twenties, my interlocutors-Amer, Ahmed, Osama, Farida, Youssef, and Maha-describe themselves as having "missed out" on a unique experience. We can understand their sense of absence given the privileged place that street protests, social movements, and high politics have played in accounts of the 2011 revolution. The final decade of Hosni Mubarak's thirty-year rule was marked by vocal public opposition and challenges to his authority and policies (see El-Mahdi and Marfleet 2009). On National Police Day, January 25, 2011, an uncertain and loosely defined coalition of Egyptians took to the streets to protest systematic police brutality in cities across the country, emboldened by the dramatic ousting of the Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali just ten days earlier. By the end of the first day, thousands had taken to the streets throughout the country, two protestors had been shot dead in the port city of Suez, and in Cairo, at the heart of the government district, Tahrir Square had been occupied. In the coming weeks, the
Gender and development research in Egypt tends to frame questions about men solely in terms of ba... more Gender and development research in Egypt tends to frame questions about men solely in terms of barriers to women’s economic advancement. Only recently have questions been raised about men’s own gendered experiences and attitudes, and how they experience the changes in gender relations created by women’s empowerment. This brief is based on a larger study (that also includes Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine), which explores how transition in different countries has been experienced by different groups of men, and its impacts on gender relations. It aims to assist the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other stakeholders to consider ways of engaging men as agents of positive change for gender equality – alongside women and girls – as well as to complement women-focused projects and investments to enhance both the resilience of transitions and equality of opportunity.يستند هذا الملخص إلى دراسة أكبر ) والتي تشمل أيضًا كازاخستان وتركيا وأوكرانيا( والتي تستكشف كيف كانت تجرب...
This thesis is based upon eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in London undertaken between ... more This thesis is based upon eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in London undertaken between January 2006 and July 2007. It explores the discourses and practices which (re)produce notions of gender, race, ethnicity and class among young people born or raised in London to migrants from Arab states. Instead of taking the existence of an Arab community’ in London as self-evident, this thesis looks critically at the idea of Arab-ness in London and the ways in which it is signified, reiterated and recited. Taking the theorising of performative gender as a starting point I explore the possibilities of a sequential reading of ‘gender’ and ‘race’ and the practices and discourses which produce that which they name ‘Arab woman,’ Arab man,’ ‘British- Arab’. By looking at discourses, practices and political context, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘race’ appear to be less about an inner fixity or even multiple identities, instead they can be significantly attributed to a discursive and corporeal project of...
The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 2017
's book is the first autoethnographic account of contemporary cultural practices of Arab Londoner... more 's book is the first autoethnographic account of contemporary cultural practices of Arab Londoners. The study focuses on theorizing "Arabness" from the ground up, mapping the racial landscape of London and ethnographically exploring various "projects of cultural survival and intelligibility" (p. 70) in which young British Arabs engage. Aly's theoretical approach draws heavily on Judith Butler's (1990) work on performativity, positing "Arabness" as "doing" rather an a priori essence of personhood. In doing so, his work attempts to expose the hegemonic norms of "being raced" and "being gendered" (p. 9) in the day-today settings, activities, objects, and identifications through which Arabness is done in present-day London. Aly's first chapter chronicles local and transnational processes and discourses that have produced "the Arab" as a cultural object. In tracing the ebbs and flows of migration patterns, emerging Arab state systems, and British geopolitics and governmentality, Aly demonstrates how the category "Arab" has been incorporated into the multiculturalist paradigm through processes of racialization and through the logic of ethnonormativity. He defines ethnonormativity as a form of liberal population management whereby different ethnic or racial groups are homogenized by state discourses and institutions to become "knowable objects"-in this case, "'the Arabs' who are wealthy and exotic, dissimilar and suspicious, dangerous, violent and homicidal" (p. 69), distinct from their "white," "black," or "Asian" counterparts. The remaining chapters in the book present different settings that ethnographically showcase how young British Arabs negotiate being hailed and subjected by "social institutions, hegemonic gendered norms, and national and international politics and media representations" (p. 70). Chapter 2 focuses on the differential ways that young boys and girls do Arabness in academic settings, where they are often "the only Arab" in their class or school. Through narratives and informal histories, Aly explicates the complex
It should be stressed that the consequences that can be drawn from France’s post-colonial history... more It should be stressed that the consequences that can be drawn from France’s post-colonial history, notably in terms of the national policies adopted and the influence of the French media, show an influence on the observations and conclusions from our focus group sessions conducted in Paris. In fact, many members of these communities – irrespective of their age or degree of integration – face two kinds of paradoxical situation: it is difficult to feel integrated because what is required from them is, in fact, assimilation; moreover, they feel that they do not really belong to their countries of origin or of adoption, ‘falling between two stools’. In reaction, they choose to see themselves as citizens of the world.
This paper compares the content, context and facilitation of discussions about religion and polit... more This paper compares the content, context and facilitation of discussions about religion and politics on contrasting types of Internet forum in English and Arabic, comparing forums linked to the current affairs output of the BBC World Service (BBCWS), Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya between 2007 and 2010. It examines how these forums are structured by a range of technological and political factors, reflecting the postcolonial context of encounter. It demonstrates that the consequences of deploying these technologies in this context are ambivalent. On the one hand, they enable participation in discussion in contexts where political debate is restricted, allow conversation between individuals that would be impossible in embodied form, and strengthen diasporic connectivity. On the other, they are used behind a rhetoric of free speech which masks exclusionary power relations. Comparison between types of BBC forum further demonstrates the importance of how new technologies are deployed for forms of communication and community construction.
The notion that we have much to learn from those who were "not there" seems somewhat counterintui... more The notion that we have much to learn from those who were "not there" seems somewhat counterintuitive; nonetheless I argue that there is much to learn about the Egyptian revolution from the experiences of those too young or too sheltered to take part in it in a conventional way. Considered children at the time (eleven to thirteen years old) and today in their early twenties, my interlocutors-Amer, Ahmed, Osama, Farida, Youssef, and Maha-describe themselves as having "missed out" on a unique experience. We can understand their sense of absence given the privileged place that street protests, social movements, and high politics have played in accounts of the 2011 revolution. The final decade of Hosni Mubarak's thirty-year rule was marked by vocal public opposition and challenges to his authority and policies (see El-Mahdi and Marfleet 2009). On National Police Day, January 25, 2011, an uncertain and loosely defined coalition of Egyptians took to the streets to protest systematic police brutality in cities across the country, emboldened by the dramatic ousting of the Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali just ten days earlier. By the end of the first day, thousands had taken to the streets throughout the country, two protestors had been shot dead in the port city of Suez, and in Cairo, at the heart of the government district, Tahrir Square had been occupied. In the coming weeks, the
Gender and development research in Egypt tends to frame questions about men solely in terms of ba... more Gender and development research in Egypt tends to frame questions about men solely in terms of barriers to women’s economic advancement. Only recently have questions been raised about men’s own gendered experiences and attitudes, and how they experience the changes in gender relations created by women’s empowerment. This brief is based on a larger study (that also includes Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine), which explores how transition in different countries has been experienced by different groups of men, and its impacts on gender relations. It aims to assist the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other stakeholders to consider ways of engaging men as agents of positive change for gender equality – alongside women and girls – as well as to complement women-focused projects and investments to enhance both the resilience of transitions and equality of opportunity.يستند هذا الملخص إلى دراسة أكبر ) والتي تشمل أيضًا كازاخستان وتركيا وأوكرانيا( والتي تستكشف كيف كانت تجرب...
This thesis is based upon eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in London undertaken between ... more This thesis is based upon eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in London undertaken between January 2006 and July 2007. It explores the discourses and practices which (re)produce notions of gender, race, ethnicity and class among young people born or raised in London to migrants from Arab states. Instead of taking the existence of an Arab community’ in London as self-evident, this thesis looks critically at the idea of Arab-ness in London and the ways in which it is signified, reiterated and recited. Taking the theorising of performative gender as a starting point I explore the possibilities of a sequential reading of ‘gender’ and ‘race’ and the practices and discourses which produce that which they name ‘Arab woman,’ Arab man,’ ‘British- Arab’. By looking at discourses, practices and political context, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘race’ appear to be less about an inner fixity or even multiple identities, instead they can be significantly attributed to a discursive and corporeal project of...
The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 2017
's book is the first autoethnographic account of contemporary cultural practices of Arab Londoner... more 's book is the first autoethnographic account of contemporary cultural practices of Arab Londoners. The study focuses on theorizing "Arabness" from the ground up, mapping the racial landscape of London and ethnographically exploring various "projects of cultural survival and intelligibility" (p. 70) in which young British Arabs engage. Aly's theoretical approach draws heavily on Judith Butler's (1990) work on performativity, positing "Arabness" as "doing" rather an a priori essence of personhood. In doing so, his work attempts to expose the hegemonic norms of "being raced" and "being gendered" (p. 9) in the day-today settings, activities, objects, and identifications through which Arabness is done in present-day London. Aly's first chapter chronicles local and transnational processes and discourses that have produced "the Arab" as a cultural object. In tracing the ebbs and flows of migration patterns, emerging Arab state systems, and British geopolitics and governmentality, Aly demonstrates how the category "Arab" has been incorporated into the multiculturalist paradigm through processes of racialization and through the logic of ethnonormativity. He defines ethnonormativity as a form of liberal population management whereby different ethnic or racial groups are homogenized by state discourses and institutions to become "knowable objects"-in this case, "'the Arabs' who are wealthy and exotic, dissimilar and suspicious, dangerous, violent and homicidal" (p. 69), distinct from their "white," "black," or "Asian" counterparts. The remaining chapters in the book present different settings that ethnographically showcase how young British Arabs negotiate being hailed and subjected by "social institutions, hegemonic gendered norms, and national and international politics and media representations" (p. 70). Chapter 2 focuses on the differential ways that young boys and girls do Arabness in academic settings, where they are often "the only Arab" in their class or school. Through narratives and informal histories, Aly explicates the complex
It should be stressed that the consequences that can be drawn from France’s post-colonial history... more It should be stressed that the consequences that can be drawn from France’s post-colonial history, notably in terms of the national policies adopted and the influence of the French media, show an influence on the observations and conclusions from our focus group sessions conducted in Paris. In fact, many members of these communities – irrespective of their age or degree of integration – face two kinds of paradoxical situation: it is difficult to feel integrated because what is required from them is, in fact, assimilation; moreover, they feel that they do not really belong to their countries of origin or of adoption, ‘falling between two stools’. In reaction, they choose to see themselves as citizens of the world.
This paper compares the content, context and facilitation of discussions about religion and polit... more This paper compares the content, context and facilitation of discussions about religion and politics on contrasting types of Internet forum in English and Arabic, comparing forums linked to the current affairs output of the BBC World Service (BBCWS), Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya between 2007 and 2010. It examines how these forums are structured by a range of technological and political factors, reflecting the postcolonial context of encounter. It demonstrates that the consequences of deploying these technologies in this context are ambivalent. On the one hand, they enable participation in discussion in contexts where political debate is restricted, allow conversation between individuals that would be impossible in embodied form, and strengthen diasporic connectivity. On the other, they are used behind a rhetoric of free speech which masks exclusionary power relations. Comparison between types of BBC forum further demonstrates the importance of how new technologies are deployed for forms of communication and community construction.
Uploads
Papers by Ramy Aly