The politics of rurbanization and The Egyptian society of the Muslim Brothers

Abstract

The essay explores what a new peasant politics could look like in the 21st century through the lens of the category of the "rurban"—a category encompassing both migrants from saturated and unlivable metropolises, and peasants displaced by mechanization and industrialization from their lands, turning towards small towns. The rise to and fall of the Muslim Brothers from the reins of government in post-revolutionary Egypt is analyzed from the lens of urban-rural migration dynamics, and provides a clear example of the nature, scope and importance of the politics of rurbanization. Through a mixture of political biography, analysis of migration and urbanization data, as well as social network structure and data on voting patterns, the primary role of “rurbanization” comes to the fore both as a category of interest decentering the primarily urban-biased accounts of recent Egyptian history, but also in emphasizing the role of such provincial and marginalized actors in writing contemporary global history. In particular, their capacity to formulate a viable and pragmatic political alternative to market society, and to birth political subjects capable of mutuality and collective action from within market society, makes them vitally appealing to these rurban spaces across the world, whether in Egypt or in the USA.