Exploring Individual Motivation for Social Change: Mobilization of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Youth in Pre-Revolutionary Egypt

Doctoral dissertation · Published (2012)

Complete citation

Emin Poljarević. Exploring Individual Motivation for Social Change: Mobilization of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Youth in Pre-Revolutionary Egypt. Doctoral dissertation. Florence: European University Institute, 2012.

Publication status and type

Published (2012); Doctoral dissertation.

Overview

This doctoral dissertation investigates why young Egyptians became involved in the Muslim Brotherhood before the 2011 revolution and how they understood their participation in projects of social and political change. Rather than treating Islamist mobilisation solely as an organisational strategy or ideological commitment, it examines the meanings activists attached to religious conviction, collective belonging, personal responsibility, and public engagement. The study situates these motivations within the political constraints of pre-revolutionary Egypt and the internal dynamics of a major Islamic movement. Its central contribution is to connect individual experiences of commitment with broader processes of mobilisation, showing how religious ideas and social relationships acquire political significance in everyday activist life. The dissertation establishes an empirical foundation for later research on Islamic movements, moral agency, political theology, and collective action.

Research question or central concern

What motivated young Muslim Brotherhood activists to pursue social and political change in pre-revolutionary Egypt, and how did they understand their religious and collective commitments?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The dissertation examines youth activism through the experiences and motivations of Muslim Brotherhood participants in Egypt. It connects individual commitment, religious meaning, organisational belonging, and political mobilisation, contributing a participant-centred account of Islamist collective action before 2011.

Keywords

Muslim Brotherhood; Egypt; youth activism; mobilisation; social movements; political participation.