Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, ModernityCan one explain the power of global capitalism without attributing to capital a logic and coherence it does not have? Can one account for the powers of techno-science in terms that do not merely reproduce its own understanding of the world? Rule of Experts examines these questions through a series of interrelated essays focused on Egypt in the twentieth century. These explore the way malaria, sugar cane, war, and nationalism interacted to produce the techno-politics of the modern Egyptian state; the forms of debt, discipline, and violence that founded the institution of private property; the methods of measurement, circulation, and exchange that produced the novel idea of a national "economy," yet made its accurate representation impossible; the stereotypes and plagiarisms that created the scholarly image of the Egyptian peasant; and the interaction of social logics, horticultural imperatives, powers of desire, and political forces that turned programs of economic reform in unanticipated directions. Mitchell is a widely known political theorist and one of the most innovative writers on the Middle East. He provides a rich examination of the forms of reason, power, and expertise that characterize contemporary politics. Together, these intellectually provocative essays will challenge a broad spectrum of readers to think harder, more critically, and more politically about history, power, and theory. |
Contents
Can the Mosquito Speak? | 25 |
Principles True in Every Country | 60 |
The Character of Calculability | 86 |
The Invention and Reinvention of the Peasant | 129 |
Nobody Listens to a Poor Man | 159 |
Heritage and Violence | 185 |
The Object of Development | 215 |
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Abbud acres Agrarian agricultural Ahmad Hasan al-Ahram American Arab Aswan Aswan Dam Ayrout British building cadastral Cairo calculation Cambridge capitalism capitalist chapter claims colonial construction cotton country's countryside Critchfield crops cultivation culture Development economic Economist Intelligence Unit Egyptian Egyptian pound estates expertise exports farm farmers Fathy Fathy's feddan Finance forces forms funds global Gurna Harik Hassan Fathy household houses human Ibid income industry International irrigation labor land reform landowners London Luxor malaria ment Middle East military million Ministry misr modern mosquito nomic official organized Oxford peasant percent Policy Political Economy population Princeton problems production projects relations Report rural Egypt sector Shahhat social statistical subsidies sugar sugarcane survey Taqwim al-nil tion tourist transformation United University Press Upper Egypt USAID village violence wheat World Bank York
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