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This dissertation covers the emergence of a tradition of the fine arts in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century and its relationship to discourses of nationalism. Taking as a starting point the canon of the ‘pioneer’ generation as it is defined in the historiography, I follow the careers of the sculptor Mahmud Mukhtar and the painters Ragheb ‘Ayyad, Muhammad Nagi, and Mahmud Sa‘id, each of whom is treated in a full chapter. Narratives surrounding the life and work of these artists have tended to emphasize the ways in which the images they created participated in the definition of a single cohesive nation – through the use of Pharaonic imagery, which anchors the nation in a distant past, through rural symbolism, which ties the nation to the land and the Nile, and through a female iconography that links the nation to ideas of virtue and purity – what I term here, following Timothy Mitchell and Homi Bhabha, a pedagogical narrative of the nation. However, I suggest that the process of imagining the nation as a unified whole necessarily involves a negotiation of difference, sometimes that of the peasant or the woman who pose a challenge to the assumption of an unproblematic national collectivity, sometimes that of the artists themselves, who, for reasons of foreign education, religion, or social identity, are unable to fully identify with definitions of the nation that were themselves constantly contested. This negotiation of difference – what Mitchell has termed the performative - and how it appears within works of visual art, constitutes the main subject of this dissertation.

This thesis is an ethnographically grounded description and interpretation of a variety of writing practices observable in an Arabic speaking community, primarily on the Internet. Working with, or in reaction to, the concept of diglossia, of which Arabic sociolinguistic setting is often cited as a textbook example, the majority of scholars have focused their attention on speech as a major site of language variation and mixing. Writing has been largely neglected. This thesis is a contribution to what I hope will become a growing number of works aimed at filling that lacuna. I examine linguistic features of a number of, mostly non-literary, texts in contemporary Egypt where Modern Standard Arabic (Fuṣḥa) and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ˤAmmiyya) constitute the theoretical poles of the diglossic continuum. The Egyptian sociolinguistic setting, however, is here understood as being defined and reconfigured by the increasing socio‑economic importance of yet another linguistic variety – English. The analysis of linguistic details is conducted with reference to a broader socio‑cultural context and local language ideologies surrounding the production and reception of a rapidly growing number of texts that employ a variety of features and draw on different linguistic resources, thus often defying, in the outcome, the hegemonic ideological projection that writing is the domain of Fuṣḥa. In order to offer an account of a dynamic, changing and diversified character of writing practices in present‑day Egypt, illustrative examples are drawn from a number of different texts and domains of writing, including Wikipedia Masry, Twitter, Facebook, advertisements, online campaigns for political and social causes, as well as books. The inventory of linguistic resources variously employed by various writers in various circumstances is identified to contain re-combinations across three linguistic varieties, Fuṣḥa, ˤAmmiyya and English, and two scripts, Arabic and Latin.

This thesis aims to understand the relative influence of institutional, cultural and organizational factors on the adjustment of the United Nations’ (UN) and multinational companies’ expatriates in Egypt. The research makes a contribution to the field of expatriate research through its application of the institutional lens in examining the factors impacting on adjustment; and through testing a traditional adjustment model in an under-researched host context. As a result of the research this thesis proposes a new framework for understanding the factors impacting on adjustment which adopts a contingency perspective and incorporates a stronger focus on institutional determinants and the organisational infrastructure supporting the management of expatriates. The study relies, for its theoretical basis, on certain cultural and organizational factors borrowed from the expatriate literature, in addition to introducing other factors (mainly institutional factors) which have not been previously examined in the literature as predictors of adjustment. The research questions the utility of these organizational, cultural and institutional factors, especially those from traditional models, when applied to relatively new national and organizational contexts, the Egyptian national context and the United Nations organizational context. Both contexts are under-researched areas in the expatriate adjustment literature and in the international human resources management literature in general. The Arab cultural context introduces many differences to the Anglo-Saxon and European context, more traditionally the subject of research studies and thus it provides an opportunity for testing the wider application of expatriate models. Equally the UN is a highly multicultural organisational context with a socio-political mission which is highly distinct from the ‘for profit’ based multinational. Thus both these contextual factors offer fertile ground for the further development of a framework for understanding expatriate adjustment during contemporary times. In addition, the novelty of the context brings to the fore the opportunity for examining the utility of institutional theory as an alternative or complement to cultural theory as a way of understanding the factors influencing expatriate adjustment. In terms of the method, the research relies mainly on quantitative data obtained by surveying expatriates in multinational and United Nations organizations working in Egypt. In addition a qualitative technique (interviews) was used to aid questionnaire development and data contextualization. The results highlight the role of institutional measures in explaining expatriate adjustment. The evidence suggests that the institutional variables provide additional explanatory power beyond that provided by traditional factors studies. However, the research also demonstrates that the institutional measures do not replace the cultural measures and therefore there is not a substitution factor at work. Rather, we would argue that the institutional lens provides additional understanding and is tapping into other factors not already captured through measures of culture. The research puts forward a contingency model incorporating additional organisational and institutional variables which are often overlooked or underemphasised in some of the traditional organisational focused models.

Dans la religion égyptienne ancienne, l'association de trois divinités pour former une triade locale est répandue. Composées de deux dieux (le père et le fils) et d'une déesse (la mère), ces triades forment un schéma "familial", à l'image de la triade constituée d'Osiris, D'Isis et d'Horus. Parallèlement à ces triades "classiques", il existe des groupes divins plus inhabituels avec comme particularité d'avoir pour troisième membre une déesse et non un dieu, sans que celle-ci soit une déesse enfant ; ce sont les groupes gravés dans des scènes d'offrande qui ont été étudiés. Quel peut être alors le sens à donner à la présence de ces deux déesses ? Quelles relations entretiennent les divinités entre elles ? Plusieurs types de structure sont mis en lumière dans le cadre de cette étude. Si certains groupes sont un simple regroupement d'un dieu avec deux parèdres locales, d'autres réflexions, plus abouties encore, soulignent la volonté des théologiens de décrire des idées complexes de la pensée égyptienne. La triade d'Eléphantine (Khnoum, Satis et Anoukis) est probablement l'exemple le plus clair de ce type d'organisation théologique : les trois divinités de la région contrôlent la crue du Nil. Le dieu contrôle l'inondation et est aidé par les deux déesses : la première lance les eaux de l'inondation tandis que la seconde provoque le reflux. Dans plusieurs groupes, les théologiens ont réparti sur deux déesses deux fonctions complémentaires qui s'additionnent pour aider dans sa tâche le dieu principal. La complémentarité des rôles féminins n'est qu'un des nombreux outils utilisés par les prêtres pour se représenter et illustrer plus clairement l'univers qui les entoure. / In Egyptian theology, the association of three deities in order to create a local triad is widely spread. Gathering two gods (the father and the son) and one goddess (the mother), this triad then defines a divine family, as the well-known triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus. More rare groups are structured as one god and two goddesses, a second goddess (who is never the daughter) replacing the divine child. In this work, we focus on groups that are represented on offering scenes carved in various Egyptian temples. What could explain the presence of these two goddesses in those scenes ? How are the relationship between the deities structured ? Different organisations of these groups are analysed in this study. part of these groups represents the association of a main god with two local goddesses. Others try to represent more elaborate cosmological principles. The triad of Elephantine (Khnum, Satet and Anuket) is a relevant example : the three deities control the flood of the Nile. the god commands the inundation and is helped by two goddesses ; one initiating the flow while the other one initiates the ebb. In several triads, the goddesses have complementary functions and assist the god in his task. The addition of the goddesses' functions is only one of the numerous tools used by theologians to describe their universe.

This thesis provides an empirical case study as to whether, and, how the macro political dynamics might lead to the micro organisational changes of cost management practices in public sector organisations. It draws on Dillard et al.'s (2004) version of institutional theory complemented by Burns and Scapens' (2000) model. Empirical data for the thesis came from an extended case study (Burawoy, 1998) of a state-owned enterprise in the Egyptian Electricity and Energy (E&E) Sector, in which semi-structured interviews, field observations and documentary analysis were deployed as the data collection methods. The thesis highlights the necessity of seeing cost management change, especially in the politically sensitive public utilities in less developed countries, as an institutional political change that brings together the wider political objectives of the state and the narrower economic objectives of the firms. Accordingly, it provides a political theorisation for cost management change in the public sector. There, the dynamics are the fact that the E&E costs in the Egyptian business environment are historically managed at three distinct but interrelated institutional levels: political level, field level, and organisational level. For example, with the failure of re-privatisation attempts, new forms of periodic control reports have emerged including a 'cost report' which has been instrumental in changing managerial actions and behaviours. With modernisation programmes accompanied by reprivatisation attempts, initiated by the Egyptian government and supported by the international development agencies such as the World Bank and the European Union, advanced ERP technologies have been brought in to institutionalise costing rules and routines. With ERP, the organisational management under what are effectively military practices has re-defined cost management processes into a single procedural protocol.

This project seeks to trace the power of social media in serving as a virtual civil society in the Arab world, focusing on Egypt as a case study. This study aims to explore the role of social media in mobilising Egyptian activists across generations, and particularly in reaching out to people under the age of 35 who constitute around 50 per cent of the population. Studies preceding the 2011 uprising reported that young Egyptians were politically apathetic and were perceived as incapable of bringing about genuine political changes. Drawing on a range of methods and data collected from focus groups of young people under the age of 35, interviews with activists (across generations and gender), and via a descriptive web feature analysis, it is argued that online action has not been translated into offline activism. The role of trust in forming online networks is demonstrated, and how strong ties can play a pivotal role in spreading messages via social media sites. Activists relied on social media as a medium of visibility; for those who were not active in the political sphere, social media have been instrumental in raising their awareness about diverse political movements and educating them about the political process, after decades of political apathy under Mubarak’s regime. The most important benefit of using social media is the increased political knowledge and information available regarding the political situation in Egypt, despite many young people still confining their political activities to passive acts of ‘share’, ‘like’ or ‘post’ on social media. Activists have used social media to ensure visibility of their actions, not only nationally, but also regionally and internationally. There remains a strong need for offline organization and activism by using social media as a communication avenue, not necessarily as a catalyst for changing the political process. A number of problems associated with the use of such media in political deliberations concerning Egypt are highlighted, notwithstanding the positive effects of social media on the political socialisation of young Egyptians. One such problem is the lack of sustainability in online campaigns which should ideally convert into offline collective action. It can be argued that a sustainable civil society and a truly diverse public sphere rests on more sustainable, offline action, which can indeed bring about significant changes in the Egyptian political sphere.

Comment l’Egypte ancienne s’inscrit-elle dans la mémoire collective ? La constitution d’un imaginaire de l’Egypte ancienne est à inclure dans un courant culturel et artistique parfois fait d’emprunts sélectifs au répertoire antique, tout en étant simultanément redevables à d’autres traditions artistiques et notamment à l’égyptomanie. L’égyptomanie acquiert alors dans la bande dessinée une dimension propre, caractérisée par des codes et un vocabulaire tout à fait spécifiques, favorisant l’invention narrative et graphique. Saisir les mystères de l’Egypte ancienne dans la bande dessinée revient à composer une « grammaire de la civilisation » des pharaons. Ainsi, la construction d’un cadre signifiant permet de dresser les lieux de mémoires (signifiants, significatifs, moins évocateurs ou carrément absents), le topos exotique (mytho-géographie, image de l’autre, références bibliques comme marqueur d’une distinction), l’image d’une société hiérarchisée (prédominance de Pharaon et des puissants sur le peuple de la vallée) et le tableau d’une religion et de croyances fascinantes (attraction du polythéisme et de l’univers des mythes égyptiens, illustration des rites funéraires, de la mort et de l’au-delà) comme autant de rouages structurels dans l’agencement d’une mémoire de l’Egypte ancienne. Cependant, il convient de ne pas négliger l’intégration dans la fabrique de l’imaginaire de l’Egypte ancienne des processus dynamiques qui s’opèrent dans la constitution d’un laboratoire d’imageries plus ou moins stéréotypées. Réfléchir sur la généalogie des images et distinguer les sources d’influences sur lesquels s’appuient les auteurs (sources héritées de l’Egypte ancienne et/ou sources puisées dans l’histoire des arts) démontre que les représentations qui nourrissent l’imagination des artistes ne naissent pas ex-nihilo mais sont le fait d’un long cheminement historique. Les auteurs recréent et réinterprètent l’Histoire avec des référents et des attitudes mentales qui leur appartiennent tout en laissant libre cours à des fantasmes parfois difficiles à décrypter. / How does ancient Egypt remain etched on the collective memory ? The construction of an imagination of ancient Egypt is to be included in an artistic and cultural trend which is sometimes made of selective borrowings from the repertoire of antiquity as well as being indebted simultaneously to other artistic traditions, in particular egyptomania. Egyptomania acquires, then, in comics, a dimension of its own which is characterized by codes and very specific vocabulary, favouring narrative and graphic inventiveness. Grasping the mysteries of ancient Egypt in comics comes down to working out a “ grammar of the civilization” of Pharaohs. Thus, the construction of a signifying framework allows us to list places of memories (which are signifying, significant, less evocative or altogether lacking ), exotic topos (mytho-geography, image of otherness, biblical references as marker of distinction), the image of a society organized into a hierarchy ( the predominance of the Pharaohs and the mighty over the people in the valley) and the depiction of a religion as well as fascinating beliefs ( attraction to polytheism and to the universe of Egyptian myths, illustrations of funerary rituals, death and the beyond), all these structuring the construction of a memory of ancient Egypt. However, one must not neglect the integration of dynamic processes in the construction of the imagination of ancient Egypt. Those dynamic processes are at work in the building up of more or less stereotyped imagery. Reflecting on the genealogy of images and distinguishing the sources of influence on which the authors rely (sources inherited from ancient Egypt and / or sources out of the history of the arts) demonstrate that the representations that nurture the artists’ imagination are not born out of nothing but are the result of long historic development. Authors re-create and reinterpret History with reference points and mental attitudes of their own while giving free rein to a fantasy world which is sometimes difficult to decipher.

Research on existing actor-networks has focused traditionally on outcomes, achievements and success at the expense of a detailed consideration of their formation and ability to function. In recognition of this lacuna, this study examined the formation and functioning of tourism-related actor-networks involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism in the coastal city of Hurghada, Egypt. More specifically, it applied the actor-network theory (ANT). In particular, the study applied its four moments of translation – problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization – and used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyse the influencing factors, whether positively or negatively, and the degree to which the creation and operations of such collaborations were successful. This study employed a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods design, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 510 employees of tourism-related organizations involved in managing tourism’s environmental impacts on Hurghada. Also, the researcher conducted fourteen semi-structured interviews with the managers and assistant managers of tourism-related organizations involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism. The SEM’s findings revealed the existence of a number of tourism-related actor-networks which were attempting to safeguard local community livelihoods through environmental protection, and of four key factors – trust, coordination, commitment, and communication – which were damaging their formation, functioning and outcomes. This study contributed to theory since it enhanced our knowledge and understanding of the relationships between four previously unconnected bodies of literature. These were, namely, ANT, tourism-related organizations, environmental governance, collaboration, and environmental protection. The study highlighted, also, the factors, both positive and negative, which influenced the formation and functioning of tourism actor-networks involved in managing tourism’s environmental impacts on Hurghada. In practical terms, this study analysed the role of tourism-related organizations in order to identify their main strengths and weaknesses In addition, the researcher considered how partnership networks could consolidate the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of the tourism-related organizations involved in environmental protection and the management of tourism in Hurghada. Also, this study will help these tourism-related organizations, through such networks, to adopt suitable activities, policies, strategies and laws for protecting the assets relating to the local community’s livelihoods. Therefore, knowing the key success factors of collaborative networks and good governance will help these networks of tourism-related organizations to improve their performance in terms of assisting Hurghada’s local community and the poor people in particular.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / David A. Graff / Cotton was the most important commodity in the economy of the industrialized Western world in the mid-nineteenth century, as vital then as petroleum is today. It was widely believed that a prolonged interruption of the cotton supply would lead not merely to a severe economic depression, but possibly to the collapse of Western Civilization. Three quarters of the world’s cotton supply came from the Southern states of the United States. When the American Civil War erupted and cotton supplies were cut off, the British Cotton Supply Association was faced with the difficult task of establishing cotton cultivation in other locations. In order for the effort to succeed, the British had to obtain and distribute millions of pounds of American cotton seeds. The United States government, the Illinois Central Railroad, and a number of organizations and individuals cooperated to obtain the necessary seeds that the British had to have. American farm equipment manufacturers assisted by designing, making, and distributing portable cotton gins and other implements needed by cotton growers overseas. U.S. consuls overseas sometimes assisted the Cotton Supply Association with seed and equipment distribution. This dissertation is about the implementation of the grand economic strategies of the United States and Great Britain. It is also about the people who implemented those strategies on the ground, people as diverse as Union agents who went into Confederate territory to procure cotton seeds, farmers in Illinois, British consuls who distributed seeds grown in Illinois to farmers in the Ottoman Empire, and English colonists who flocked to Fiji with high hopes of becoming cotton planters. It attempts to measure the impact of the cotton boom and subsequent bust that resulted from the American Civil War on societies around the world.