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At the Intersection of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Movements: The Case of Egypt and the Arab Spring

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Abstract

With a history of civic associations turned political, and an ongoing sociopolitical transformation in Egypt, social entrepreneurship (SE) has proliferated as an alternative to traditional forms of civic engagement such as charities on one hand and open activism on the other. Yet, situated between a desire for change, and the overpowering state and market logics, SE has been both limited and shaped by neoliberal and local-authoritarian visions. Using Egypt as the case, this study combines in-depth interviews with civil society practitioners, and field observation at an SE incubator, to examine how SE came to embody a desire for change using publicly sanctioned logics, all while enacting practices that preserve/revitalize a social movement in abeyance. By examining SE as part of a larger phenomenon in this particular moment of transition, this timely research allows us to investigate a link between social movements and SE not as two separate phenomena but as different ways of approaching the same thing: creating social transformation.

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Notes

  1. RISE is a social enterprise incubator that provides support and mentorship to social enterprises through training, networks, and business support.

  2. I use pseudonyms for all organizations’ and participants’ names.

  3. “Abeyance” refers to “a holding process by which movements sustain themselves in non-receptive political environments and provide continuity from one stage of mobilization to another” (Taylor 1989).

  4. All participants understood that research was my primary goal and that volunteering had the double goal of me being useful while aiding my understanding of their process and structure.

  5. There were many other youth-led organizations that worked toward the January 25th uprising such as Kefaya, the Ultras and Kolena Khalid Saeed. The April 6th Youth Movement is highlighted only as an example of a crossover from civil society work to politics.

  6. “Awqaf is an Arabic word meaning assets that are donated, bequeathed, or purchased for the purpose of being held in perpetual trust as ongoing charity (sadaqah jariya) or for a general or specific cause that Islam regards as socially beneficial” (https://www.amanahawqaf.org/what-is-awqaf/).

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  1. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, USA

    Yomna Elsayed

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  1. Yomna Elsayed
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Correspondence to Yomna Elsayed.

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Elsayed, Y. At the Intersection of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Movements: The Case of Egypt and the Arab Spring. Voluntas 29, 819–831 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-017-9943-0

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