Date of Graduation

12-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Anthropology

Advisor/Mentor

Swedenburg, Ted R.

Committee Member

D'Alisera, JoAnn

Second Committee Member

Erickson, Kirstin C.

Keywords

Anthropology; Egypt; Middle Class

Abstract

The Egyptian lower middle class has been declining since the 1970s. Yet since the 2011 uprising and coup d’état the lower middle class has sat in the midst of an economic and political counter-revolution carried out by the police, the military, and Egypt’s intelligence services. In particular, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has responded to Egypt’s economic crisis in 2014 and onward by engaging in a program of austerity has sped the decline of the Egyptian lower middle class significantly. The Egyptian lower middle class is in increasing danger of becoming merely educated working poor. Therefore this dissertation will examine the rapid decline of the Egyptian lower middle class after the 2011 and 2013 coup d’états, how elements of the lower middle class deal with a counter-revolution in Egypt, and the possibility that their income will become insufficient to sustain a middle class lifestyle.

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