The Non-Contentious Politics of Labour Protests in Egypt

Speaker: Marie Duboc, University of Tübingen Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE This talk focuses on labour protests in Egypt, before and after the fall of Hosni Mubarak. It argues that repression and radicalisation do not fully capture the dynamics of social movements in authoritarian contexts. Instead, it suggests to expand the contentious politics approach, the dominant theoretical framework used to study collective action. Through the study of labour action in Egypt Duboc moves away from approaches apprehending social movements as linear processes, explaining why they can lead to revolutionary situations as well as hinder them. Recorded on 25 February 2015. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'. Image Credit: Hossam el-Hamalawy, Flickr. Egyptian workers protest against state-backed Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions.