From Tahrir to the world: The camp as a political public space

Abstract

The year 2011 was when the camp defeated the dictator. At Tahrir Square, the camp was a space of freedom, resistance and liberation, beyond the control of the state and outside the normal political order, in which a more progressive politics was forged and made real. In the months that followed, political protesters across the Middle East, Europe and North America emulated the tactics of the Egyptian protest camp. In light of these transnational events, the protest camp deserves attention as a specific political act and vehicle for political change. The occupation of urban space, and subversion of the normal political order within those spaces, is a key strategy for protesters to articulate an alternative political future.