Civil committees during the January Revolution in Egypt: Youth safeguarding their neighbourhood

Abstract

Children and adolescents have long been treated as the products of the socialization process they experience through their families and surrounding communities. They are rarely perceived as ‘social actors’ who can affect their surroundings or the way the society operates. This ethnographic research aims to investigate the role played by a group of children and adolescents who voluntarily formed a civil committee (a term propagated during the January Revolution in Egypt) to defend their neighbourhood against thugs’ attacks. In the absence of law enforcement, they volunteered to defend their homes, families and personal belongings. The research argues that through their interaction together and the development of their peer culture, children were able to develop skills and defence mechanisms to protect their neighbourhood. It concludes that children’s peer culture, in addition to creating social cohesion among the group, helped them to develop their abilities and skills to overcome threats.