Neoliberal Networks & Authoritarian Renewal. A Diverse Case Study of Egypt, Jordan & Morocco

Abstract

This thesis focuses on social entrepreneurship as a development and a political tool in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. Although social entrepreneurship came into the focus already in the early 2000s, it was only after the Arab uprisings of 2011 that we could observe an “entrepreneurship boom”. Societal actors, international support organizations as well as authoritarian elites in business and politics have embraced social entrepreneurship. This thesis scrutinizes the contribution of these “social entrepreneurship networks” (SENs) to authoritarian renewal through a social network analysis as an actor-centered analysis focusing on actors, the social ties among them and on the resources generated as an output of these social ties. The main contribution (i) in relation to neoliberalism and authoritarian renewal is to provide a clearer picture of the role and interaction of the regime, elites and societal actors, and to demonstrate how both societal actors and regimes adapt and capitalize on neoliberal ap-proaches to socio-economic development; (ii) in relation to social relations is to reveal new and inclusionary mechanisms and patterns of co-optation that have emerged as outputs of these neoliberal approaches, and thus, to provide a better understanding of inclusionary co-optation; and (iii) in relation to social entrepreneurship is to flesh out the peculiarities of social entrepreneurship in authoritarian systems and to discuss the implications of different political systems for social entrepreneurship. This thesis has argued that SENs are novel and innovative networks that draw on neoliberal approaches and ideas and in so doing combine tried-and-tested patterns of relations with new ones. However, this new appearance masks patterns and mechanisms of co-optation of a new societal constituency and young elites. Therefore, what we see is a new or different “packaging” rather than a new content. In so doing, SENs contribute to authoritarian renewal. What emerges, therefore, is not only an incubation of social enterprises and entrepreneurs, but the “incubation of authoritarianism”.