Abstract

This thesis explores the social and cultural dynamics of a grassroots boycott of American and Israeli goods and products that took shape in Egypt in the year 2000. The boycott is analyzed both as a consumer movement and a forum for populist political expression and participation. It was fueled by political discontent with United States' foreign policies in the Middle East in general, and Egypt in particular, and also constituted a reaction to the policies of the Israeli government in the occupied Palestinian territories and U.S. inaction towards such policies. The aim of the thesis is to develop an empirical, socio-cultural, historical, and politically informed case study of current trends in the politicization of consumption in Alexandria, Egypt. The thesis presents consumers as simultaneously constrained by the forces of modernization and the globalization of market society, and as agents who consciously appropriate and rework existing systems and conditions for their own benefit. It is commonly thought that cultural diversity is in the process of disappearing and that the homogenizing effects of globalization and westernization are inescapable. This case study shows that globalization has made significant inroads into Egyptian society creating many tensions and difficulties, yet these very difficulties have also served as the occasion for resistance to take shape, as evidenced by the Boycott.