لحظات الميدان : مفهمة الحيز و الوجدان و المشاركة السياسية في الميادين المحتلة

Abstract EN

In this article, we introduce the Midan Moments concept in order to analyse the link between space, affect and mass protest and the occupation of urban squares as spaces of political contestation and transformation.

Drawing on our fieldwork on the uprising in Egypt in 2011, we first offer a thick reading of Tahrir square as an affective and material space.

We then introduce our concept of Midan Moments to conceptualize the affective dynamics during the 18 days of occupation in January 2011.

With Midan Moments we conceptualize periods of rupture on a delineated space that are characterized by intense affective relationality through the bodily copresence of protesters and their practices on this space.

The concept of the Midan Moments allows for an analysis of space, affect and political participation that can account for the non-linear and at times contradictory developments during and after mass mobilizations on public squares.

We argue that the sustained practices of protest on the occupied square are embedded in a complex web of ‘affective arrangements’ that are marked by capacity and potentiality which enable - at least momentarily - to override deeply ingrained gendered, political, economic, religious or ethnic cleavages.

Yet while Midan Moments do hold the possibility for political transformation, they are also marked by ambiguity and limitations.