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A set of studies looking at the history, politics, and sociology of sports in the Arab worldThe sociology of sports in the Middle East has been neglected compared to other world regions. This volume aspires to encourage a greater focus on this topic. Here are assembled papers that discuss various aspects of this subject. As it happens all deal with football (soccer) largely in Egypt but including other Middle Eastern countries. Some are historically or politically oriented while others take a more sociological approach. Papers deal with the relation between organized sports and fans, with the special place of youngsters and women in sports, or with the role of sports in a more general understanding of culture and society as indicators of modernization and other facets of social change. Sportive competitions arouse keen passions around such issues as gender, class, and nationality, while they raise questions about leadership on and off the field, and about the economic impact of the games. The topic needs more research.Contributors:Deena Abdelmonem Zeinab Abul-MagdYasmine AhmedSandrine GamblinEllis GoldbergNicholas S. HopkinsClement M. HenryHans Christian Korsholm NielsenDina Makram-EbeidDavid Sims

"This issue of Cairo Papers takes up the various dimensions of migration and refugees in the Euro-Mediterranean region over different periods in the last two centuries. It looks at both the migration of waves of Italians and Greeks to Egypt from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and at migration from the Arab southern and eastern rims of the Mediterranean to Europe starting in the twenty-first century. The disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, and political science have been mobilized to undertake the research its chapters embody. They address the history of migration in the region, relations between Mediterranean countries of origin and their diasporas, the impact of interest groups on the formulation of migration policies in countries of destination, and the policies for integration of recent flows arriving in Europe. The chapters are based on papers delivered at Cairo Papers 25th annual symposium in collaboration with the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies"--

"In 1957 the public sector in Egyptian cinema was established, followed shortly by the emergence of public-sector film production in 1960, only to end eleven years later, in 1971. Assailed with negativity since its demise, if not earlier, this state adventure in film production was dismissed as a complete failure, financially, administratively and, most importantly, artistically. Although some scholars have sporadically commented on the role played by this sector, it has not been the object of serious academic research aimed at providing a balanced, nuanced general assessment of its overall impact. This issue of Cairo Papers hopes to address this gap in the literature on Egyptian cinema. After discussion of the role played by the public sector in trying to alleviate the financial crisis that threatened the film industry, this study investigates whether there was a real change in the general perception of the cinema, and the government's attitude toward it, following the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war."--

"There is a great deal to be said about ideas and imaginations of the "future" when one does not have the luxury of maintaining a slot in the present. In the midst of acute conditions of precarity and structural violences and vulnerabilities of different forms (political, economic, social, infrastructural) and magnitudes, Egyptians find ways to adapt and adjust, even experiment, with different arrangements and forms of connectedness. By following, tracing, and accompanying friends and networks of friendship in and across Egypt's two biggest cities, Cairo and Alexandria, this ethnographic account aims to highlight some of the contemporary meanings, forms, and purposes of friendship among young Egyptians with the aim of renewing and reviving the question, "What can friendships do?" Against a backdrop of conditions of precarity and the ruins of finance capitalism, this study examines the manifestations of how the relationship of friendship manages to re-invent and re-define itself. Moreover, it asks whether new modes of relationality, companionship, and intimacy can be cultivated and practiced given the current neoliberal conditions of living. The questions that this study attempts to open up are focused on the re-workings, reconfigurations, and re-makings of practices of sociality and intimacy between friends."--

"Founded in 1859, as part of the Suez Canal project and named after Khedive Said, the city of Port Said has always stood at the juncture of global, national, and local networks of forces, the city itself a reflection of many layers of Egypt's modern history, from its colonial past through to the eras of national liberation and neoliberalism. Drawing on Bruno Latour's and Henri Lefebvre's conceptual works, this study examines how the 'social' (encompassing all aspects of human life-the political, the economic, and the social) of the city of Port Said was created, and how its spaces were mutually produced and transformed through the practices of both dwellers and the state. Looking also at the temporality of these processes, Mostafa Mohie examines three key moments: al-tahgir (the forced migration that followed the outbreak of the 1967 war and remained until 1974, when Port Saidians were permitted to return to their homes following the 1973 October War); the declaration of the free trade zone in the mid-1970s; and the Port Said Stadium massacre in 2012."--

"Oral history archives have always been at the forefront of liberatory social movements in general, and of feminist movement in particular. Until the end of the twentieth century in the Arab world, archives of women's oral narratives were almost non-existent with the exception of small documentation efforts tied to individual research. However, since 2011, there has been a marked increase in the documentation of projects. In this context, the Women and Memory Forum organized a conference in 2015 about the challenges of creating gender sensitive oral history archives in times of change. The papers in this collection shed light on documentation initiatives in Arab countries in transitional and conflict situations, in addition to international experiences. They engage with questions around archives and power, the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies to the making and preserving of archives, ethical concerns in the construction of archives, women's archives and the production of alternative knowledge, as well as conceptual and methodological issues in oral history. Contributors: Faiha Abdulhadi, Sondra Hale, Manal Hamzeh, Maissan Hassan, Nahawand El Kaderi Issa, Diana Magdy, Jean Said Makdisi, Noor Nieftagodien, Rafif Saidawy, Lucine Taminian, Stephen Urgola"--

A collection of studies looking at social and political changes following Egypt's 2011 RevolutionEgypt is a country of its people. What has been the effect on its inhabitants of the 2011 revolution and subsequent developments? In 2013, a conference held under the auspices of Cairo Papers in Social Science examined this issue from the points of view of anthropologists, historians, political scientists, psychologists, and urban planners. The papers collected here reveal the strategies that various actors employed in this situation. ContributorsZeinab Abul-Magd, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, USAYasmine Ahmed, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptDeena Abdelmonem, independent scholar, Cairo, EgyptSandrine Gamblin, European Universities in Egypt, Cairo, EgyptEllis Goldberg (d. 2019), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USAClement M. Henry, University of Singapore, SingaporeDina Makram-Ebeid, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, EgyptHans Christian Korsholm Nielsen, Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute, Cairo, EgyptDavid Sims, economist and urban planner, Cairo, Egypt

A study of workers' rights in a non-unionized field in Lebanon This study examines the process of unionizing domestic workers in Lebanon, highlighting the potentialities as well as the obstacles confronting it, and looks at the multiple power relations involved through axes of class, gender, race, and nationality. The author situates this struggle within the larger scene of the labor union 'movement' in the country, and discusses the contribution of women's rights organizations in rendering visible cases of abuse against migrant domestic workers. She argues that the 'death' of class politics has made women's rights organizations address migrant domestic worker issues as a separate labor category, further contributing to their production as an 'exception' under neoliberalism.