Commodity Fetishism and Performative Identity: Studying the Effects of Neoliberal Reform on the Work of Non-Governmental Organizations in Cairo

Bauer, Cynthia N (2019) Commodity Fetishism and Performative Identity: Studying the Effects of Neoliberal Reform on the Work of Non-Governmental Organizations in Cairo. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Vivian Ibrahim from History, University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

This paper explores the economic dimension of identity politics, exemplified in the case study of the NGO Safarni in Cairo, Egypt. In doing so, I argue that neoliberal economic reform has led to an expansion of the capitalist mindset to include new subjectivities, one of which is the categorization of identity. By teaching values of "diversity" and "openness," and getting significant international funding to do so, Safarni is participating in a system that is creating a new type of labor and laborer, and where this labor is one in which the self objectifies itself.

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