Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo

Politics, History, and Culture

by Julia Elyachar

What happens when the market tries to help the poor? In many parts of the world today, neoliberal development programs are offering ordinary people the tools of free enterprise as the means to well-being and empowerment. Schemes to transform the poor into small-scale entrepreneurs promise them the benefits of the market and access to the rewards of globalization. Markets of Dispossession is a theoretically sophisticated and sobering account of the consequences of these initiatives. Julia Elyachar studied the efforts of bankers, social scientists, ngo members, development workers, and state officials to turn the craftsmen and unemployed youth of Cairo into the vanguard of a new market society based on microenterprise. She considers these efforts in relation to the alternative notions of economic success held by craftsmen in Cairo, in which short-term financial profit is not always highly valued. Through her careful ethnography of workshop life, Elyachar explains how the traditional market practices of craftsmen are among the most vibrant modes of market life in Egypt. Long condemned as backward, these existing market practices have been seized on by social scientists and development institutions as the raw materials for experiments in “free market” expansion. Elyachar argues that the new economic value accorded to the cultural resources and social networks of the poor has fueled a broader process leading to their economic, social, and cultural dispossession.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Egypt, Economics, Middle East

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Kim Shively · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book does a great job showing the often unrecognized connections between state, NGOs, International organizations bound up in neoliberal projects to "help" the poor in developing countries.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an academic book. Not an easy read, but easier than Nancy Folbre’s, the rise and fall of Patriarchal Systems. It was interesting to me because of the historical and political context it gives to my professional work. I certainly appreciated her points. The problem is that, I get to the end of the book and I know I learned a lot, but I cannot articulate what exactly… at least without trying to write a paper, as if I was back in school. I should probably take time to write up all my notes so that I can remember and process what I learned. But, sadly, I don’t have time for that.