Report on participation to a conference in Rome
L’essor de la « société civile » dans le monde musulman contemporain, paradoxes et convergences, organized by Pierre-Jean Luizard, GSRL (Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, Laboratoire CNRS/EPHE) and Anna Bozzo, Università Roma Tre, DSSGA (Dipartimento di Studi Storici Geografici Antropologici)
14. - 16.05.2009, Rome
Main goal of the conference was the study of contemporary deep transformations affecting Muslim societies. Particular relevance was given to social movements. The conference has been the kickoff of a four-year interdisciplinary research project launched by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Project’s main focus is the analysis of civil society development in Muslim countries.
Paper title: Aux origines du phénomène associatif en Egypte (1888-1952). Sondages dans les fonds d'archives et pistes de recherche". (Social movements’ origins in Egypt (1888-1952): archival survey and possible research paths)
I delivered my speech on May 16 within a panel entirely dedicated to Egypt. In my paper I presented the results of a survey about available archival sources on the theme: “Associations in Egypt”. The time span taken in to consideration was the so called “liberal age” since 1888 (date of the oldest document found in the Egyptian National Archives concerning associations) till the Free Officers revolution (1952). I privileged an empirical approach avoiding theoretical definitions of the terms “associations” and “civil society”. Archival documents review was not only a way to check the available sources; it rather let me estimate an early evaluation about the way competent authorities (Ministry of Culture in this case) deal with this issue: how they classified the documents and which ones they deemed relevant. Documentation about associations is divided in twenty-seven folders. Under the general definition gamaeyyat we find documents concerning every type of association: political parties, sporting clubs, religious groups, trade-unions, music bands and so on. This variety discloses association’s world in Egypt and gives an idea of the phenomenon complexity in liberal age. Lack of organization of this huge amount of material can be interpreted as a mirror of the contradictions and power relations in a colonial society. Associations were in fact deeply influenced by foreign presence in the country, becoming at the same time an effective independence instrument.