Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of Cairo (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics Book 54)

Intentionally excluded from formal politics in authoritarian states by reigning elites, do the common people have concrete ways of achieving community objectives? Contrary to conventional wisdom, this book demonstrates that they do. Focusing on the political life of the __sha'b__ (or popular classes) in Cairo, Diane Singerman shows how men __and__ women develop creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals, despite the dominant forces ranged against them. Starting at the household level in one densely populated neighborhood of Cairo, Singerman examines communal patterns of allocation, distribution, and decision-making. Combining the institutional focus of political science with the sensitivities of anthropology, she uncovers a system of informal networks, supported by an informal economy, that constitutes another layer of collective institutions within Egypt and allows excluded groups to pursue their interests. __Avenues of Participation__ traces this informal system from its grounding in the family to its influence on the larger polity. Discussing the role of these networks in meeting fundamental needs in the community--such as earning a living, reproducing the family, saving and investing money, and coping with the bureaucracy--Singerman demonstrates the surprising power these "excluded" people wield. While the government has reduced politics to the realm of distribution to protect itself from challenges, she argues that the popular classes in Cairo, as consumers of goods and services, have turned exploiting the government into a fine art. Intentionally excluded from formal politics in authoritarian states by reigning elites, do the common people have concrete ways of achieving community objectives? Contrary to conventional wisdom, this book demonstrates that they do. Focusing on the political life of the shab (or popular classes) in Cairo, Diane Singerman shows how men and women develop creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals, despite the dominant forces ranged against them. Starting at the household level in one densely populated neighborhood of Cairo, Singerman examines communal patterns of allocation, distribution, and decisionmaking. Combining the institutional focus of political science with the sensitivities of anthropology she uncovers a system of informal networks that constitutes another layer of collective institutions within Egypt and allows excluded groups to pursue their interests. She documents the extensive presence of the informal economy and argues that these financial resources further enhance the informal and invisible organizational grid of the shab. Avenues of Participation traces this informal system from its grounding in the family to its influence on the larger polity. IN URBAN QUARTERS of Cairo, 'id-dallalaat (female peddlers) organize extensive networks of women who collect ration cards from neighbors and kin, bribe local employees of government food cooperatives, and endure raucous crowds outside cooperatives in densely populated areas in order to obtain a large volume of government-subsidized and distributed food. Focusing on the political life of the popular classes (the sha'b) of Cairo, this study demonstrates how people have developed creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals. Starting at the household level, it examines communal allocation, distribution and decision-making.