Salafism in Modern Egypt: Panacea or Pest?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to introduce the reader to the nature of Salafism in Egypt and its growing influence on the population. It sets out to explore the degree to which Egypt's current Salafi networks may justifiably be described as a Saudi Arabian phenomenon, and as promoting behaviours that clash with Egyptian religious and cultural traditions. The paper is divided into three sections: (1) It begins with an overview of what Salafism means in the modern global context; (2) It briefly describes Salafism's development in Egypt since the early twentieth century; (3) It explores the ways in which Salafism acts in concert with, as well as confronts, Egypt's cultural and religious traditions.     

Potemkin Portals or the Real Revolution? The State of E‐Government in Egypt

Effective and optimized e‐government in Egypt faces daunting challenges that are less technical in nature and more over the issues of institutional resistance and of political will. A review of the state of e‐government in Egypt is presented with analysis focusing on the state of service implementation in 2012. The points of discussion on e‐government covered here include:

• E‐subjugation in the guise of e‐government via information control and cyber‐snooping;
• Institutional resistance to the transformation of routine functions into automated systems;
• Institutional resistance to transparency of government operations;
• Analysis of the state of Egyptian ministry websites on six dimensions of e‐government development;
• Discussion on implementation of Egypt's e‐government master plan;
• Commentary on the revolutionary potential of e‐government augmented by vision, competence, and leadership; and
• Caveats that are important to note in moving the vision of e‐governance from concept to practice.

     

The oldest handaxes in Europe: fact or artefact?

Hominin presence is well documented in a number of Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene European localities. However, the evidence currently available indicates that Acheulean handaxes spread in the fluvial basins of Western Europe during MIS 11, ～400 kyr ago, associated with Homo heidelbergensis, although a number of early Middle Pleistocene Acheulean assemblages have been dated from MIS 16 onwards. For this reason, the magnetostratigraphic dating in Southeast Spain of two archaeological localities, the open-air site of Solana del Zamborino (SZ) and the rock-shelter site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Quípar (EQ), that put back the appearance of handaxes to the Early-Middle Pleistocene limit (Scott and Gibert, 2009) is of particular interest, as the new ages suggest that H. heidelbergensis was a contemporary of H. antecessor that had the ability to produce Levallois debitage and to control fire during the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. However, we have detected a number of errors in the interpretation of the archaeological assemblage from the first site as well as striking discrepancies with the original faunal lists published for both localities, with several large mammal species that are omitted or arbitrarily changed to make the assemblages consistent with the new ages deduced from magnetostratigraphy. For this reason, we suggest that: (1) the finding of reverse polarity in the sediments sampled for paleomagnetism in SZ may simply record one of the polarity reversals that took place during the Brunhes Chron, although the use by Scott and Gibert (2009) of a composite stratigraphic column precludes correlating these levels with a specific reversal; and (2) the fauna and tools of EQ correspond to the late Middle Pleistocene sedimentary infillings of this karst site, while the samples taken for paleomagnetism belong to a previous sedimentary cycle during the Matuyama Chron. Such interpretations would be in better agreement with the age estimates provided by biostratigraphy and also with the currently accepted chronology for the appearance of Acheulean industries in Western Europe.     

The Cultural Turn: Fashion or Progress in Human Geography?

The cultural turn marks a reorientation of human geography's interdisciplinary concerns toward the wide field of cultural studies. It is argued that this reorientation has been mediated by distinctive forms of commercial academic book publishing. These have been the medium for the internationalisation of cultural studies upon which human geography'sserious engagement with the field has depended. It is argued that the combination of a greater reliance upon work drawn from the humanities and the imperatives of publishing have led to the contemporary proliferation of cultural theory being associated with new forms of academic celebrity. The critical questioning of the cultural turn is therefore located in relation to the formsof authority and evaluation that it has the potential to promote.     

The Creative Economy: Vision or Illusion in the Structural Change?

This contribution discusses the hopes associated with the rise of the creative industries and gives explanations for the debates in politics, science and the media. In doing so, our underlying thesis is that the culture and creative economy is a virtual sector and that a uniform promotion—also by means of staged events that attract a lot of media attention—needs to be challenged. In a further step, the scientific implications will also be outlined on the basis of the term's “career” in the public debate. A brief analysis of the empiricism of the creative economy will provide further insight into its real significance and demonstrate possible definitional weaknesses of the term. The creative industries are an essential element of modern economic infrastructure. They will play an important role in the future, especially for cluster strategies. However, the scientific research so far is not able to reach more accurate conclusions regarding the effects of governance on the culture and creative industry. Therefore, this contribution shows future research fields. We will conclude by venturing an outlook on the further development of the sector and demonstrate its social and economic effects using the example of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia.     

The Single Individual in Kierkegaard: Religious or Secular? Part 1

The critical issue that I examine in my study, which is divided into two parts, is how we are to interpret, within what Kierkegaard regards as “the present age,” his concept of the single individual when viewed in light of the hermeneutical distinction that he makes between Christianity and Christendom. Since the distinction between Christianity and Christendom is not one between the religious and the secular or between faith and reason but one between what he calls indirect (i.e., truthful) communication and direct (i.e., idolatrous) communication, we find that the single individual of the present age of modernity is at once religious and secular.     

The Single Individual in Kierkegaard: Religious or Secular? Part 2

In Part 2 of my study I focus on Works of Love of Kierkegaard in analyzing his concept of the single individual in light of what I call the hermeneutics of the relationship of the religious and the secular. I continue to emphasize that the hermeneutical distinction that Kierkegaard critically makes between Christianity and Christendom is the distinction, not between the religious and the secular but between, rather, a true understanding of the relationship of the religious and the secular, on the one hand, and an idolatrous conception of that relationship, on the other.     

The Evolution of Biotechnology in Three Continents: Schumpeterian or Penrosian?

This Editorial introduces the Special Issue on ‘Biotechnology Clusters and Beyond’. Drawing on the interventions of five commissioned articles from Canada, Germany, Israel, the UK and the US it suggests that biotechnology clusters are interesting and important intellectually and for policy deliberation. They pose questions about basic cluster theory because localized networks, though intense, may not be as extensive as global ones in firm practices, especially as these evolve over time. Moreover, innovation is more deeply embedded in the publicly funded science base than for ‘Porterian’ clusters. Regarding innovation, biotechnology is also less obviously Schumpeterian, there being little market-driven ‘creative destruction’, and is arguably, with its strong emphasis on both large- and small-firm ‘capabilities’—Penrosian—an emphasis in clustering research and applications that warrants further investigation. Finally, at the specific technology-exploitation phase, market interactions assert themselves over milieu characteristics because scientists know the value of their discoveries and there is accordingly high appropriability associated with such knowledge capabilities.     

The Great Terror: Suicide or Murder?

Article reviewed:
Getty, J. Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov, The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939 Translations by Benjamin Sher.     

Staple or famine food?: ethnographic and archaeological approaches to nut processing in East Asian prehistory

Recent archaeobotanical studies in East Asia show that the use of wild food plants, particularly nuts, was important for not only hunter–gatherers but also early farmers. For example, recent archaeobotanical work has identified large quantities of nut remains from early Chinese rice farming sites dating 5,000–4,500 BC. In Japan, which introduced rice farming from China around 1,000–500 BC, archaeobotanical data have shown continued exploitation of nuts even after the introduction of rice farming. Therefore, the first appearance of farming does not appear to have immediately impacted the subsistence system, although it may have changed cultural perceptions of food plants, eventually rice replacing nuts as a staple food. To explain the cultural implications of this shift in emphasis, it is necessary to investigate people’s routine subsistence activities with reference to available ethnographic information on non-mechanised plant processing. The ethnographic data provide insights into ancient nut processing, including possible methods, tools, choices of working locations and labour scales. Conceptual modelling based on ethnographic observations of the range of nut-processing practices will also aid interpretations from newly developed methods, such as starch residue analyses. The resulting archaeobotanical, archaeological and ethnographic picture may help to further explore past social organisation and social perceptions of plant foods.     

The dynastic triangle in international relations: Modena,England, and France, 1678–85

This article is a case study of how dynastic marriages in the early-modern period were wont to disappoint the participants. In this era, ruling dynasties frequently sought to marry suitable members of their family networks to well-placed clients in other states. These marriages were frequently intended to cement friendship or bind political wounds caused by previous conflicts. In 1673, the marriage between James Stuart, Duke of York, and Maria Beatrice d’Este, sister to the Duke of Modena, was sponsored by Louis XIV, King of France, thus giving rise to what one might term a ‘dynastic triangle’. This article, written from the Este perspective, demonstrates how the Duke of York and the King of France each subsequently failed, on two occasions, to support Francesco II d’Este's geopolitical objectives in northern Italy. For York, and his brother King Charles II, the failure to assist the Duke of Modena was as a result of their political inability to do so. On the other hand, Louis XIV's refusal to help Modena was because of conflicting French objectives in Italy. The negative Este reaction was both an indication of the Italian states’ fear and distrust of France, and a reminder that small states had ambitions and goals which were difficult to attain when not sponsored by a larger power. But these goals were often pursued when such sponsorship appeared likely, and were often unrealistic. The strains in dynastic relationships usually resulted from realisation that certain goals were irreconcilable.     

The Merovingian nobleman's home: castle or villa?

The physical appearance of the Merovingian villa has been ignored by most archaeologists and historians, largely because of the paucity of information. Three radically different images can be found in the sparse literature; something akin to a Roman villa, a forerunner of the medieval castle, or a village settlement such as the excavated site of Warendorf, Germany, to which a number of analogous sites have been found in the recent past. This article argues for the continuity of Roman traditions, if not the actual physical buildings. In particular the absence of fortification is discussed. Traditionally, violence and the development of castles are accepted as cause and effect, yet endemic insecurity did not give rise to a Merovingian castle. The common enclosures of Merovingian villas, far from being defensive, are seen as having symbolic meaning which was actively employed to define propriety, legal rights, and social relations. The maintenance of peace and personal safety depended on the adequate understanding by individuals of local politics and the ordering of their social world; an understanding expressed in the physical world of architecture.