Books
On the Semicivilized
Coloniality, Finance, and Embodied Sovereignty in Cairo
On the Semicivilized
Coloniality, Finance, and Embodied Sovereignty in Cairo
On the Semicivilized is a sweeping analysis of the coloniality that shaped—and blocked—sovereign futures for those dubbed barbarian and semicivilized in the former Ottoman Empire.
Drawing on thirty years of ethnographic research in Cairo, family archives from Palestine and Egypt, and research on Ottoman debt and finance to rethink catastrophe and potentiality in Cairo and the world today, Elyachar theorizes a global condition of the “semicivilized” marked by nonsovereign futures, crippling debts, and the constant specter of violence exercised by those who call themselves civilized.
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Markets of Dispossession
NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo
Markets of Dispossession
NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo
What happens when the market tries to help the poor? In many parts of the world today, neoliberal development programs are offering ordinary people the tools of free enterprise as the means to well-being and empowerment. Schemes to transform the poor into small-scale entrepreneurs promise them the benefits of the market and access to the rewards of globalization. Markets of Dispossession is a theoretically sophisticated and sobering account of the consequences of these initiatives.
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Select Articles
See my CV for a full list of articles, chapters in edited volumes, collections, and other publications.
NGOs, Development, Governmentality
“NGOs: Anthropological and Historical Aspects.” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed, December 2015.
NGOs, Development, GovernmentalityView article“Mappings of Power: The State, NGOs, and International Organizations in the Informal Economy of Cairo.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 45, no. 3 (Jul. 2003): 571–605.
NGOs, Development, GovernmentalityView article“Empowerment Money: The World Bank, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Value of Culture in Egypt.” Public Culture 14, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 493–514.
NGOs, Development, GovernmentalityView article“Finance internationale, micro-crédit et religion de la société civile en Égypte” Critique Internationale 4, no. 13 (Novembre 2001; Paris): 139–52.
NGOs, Development, GovernmentalityView article“Striking for Debt: Power, Finance, and Governmentality in Egypt.” Anthropological Notebooks (Drustva antropologov Slovenije) 10, no. 1 (June 2004; Ljubljana).
NGOs, Development, GovernmentalityView article
Political Economy and History of Thought (and Ethnography too)
“Public Wealth, Public Enemies, and the Right to Existence: Thinking about Wealth with the Earl of Lauderdale in Cairo and Split.” Current Anthropology, Volume 66, August 2025.
Political Economy and History of Thought (and Ethnography too)View article“Relational Finance: Ottoman Debt, Financialization, and the Problem of the Semi-Civilized.” Journal of Cultural Economy 16, no. 3 (February 2023): 323–36.
Political Economy and History of Thought (and Ethnography too)View article“Before (and After) Neo-Liberalism: Tacit Knowledge, Secrets of the Trade, and the Public Sector in Egypt.” Cultural Anthropology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 76-96, February 2012.
Political Economy and History of Thought (and Ethnography too)View article“Neoliberalism and the Savage Slot: Rationality, Irrationality, and Calculating Value 1920-2020.” In The Neoliberal Present? Political Economies in Flux, William Callison and Zachary Manfredi, editors. Fordham University Press, 2019, pp. 177-195.
Political Economy and History of Thought (and Ethnography too)View article“Rethinking Neoliberalism in the Middle East.” A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East, First Edition. Edited by Soraya Altorki. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, Chapter 20, pp. 411-433.
Political Economy and History of Thought (and Ethnography too)View article
Banking/Debt/Finance/Financial Crisis
“Relational Finance: Ottoman Debt, Financialization, and the Problem of the Semi-Civilized.” Journal of Cultural Economy 16, no. 3 (February 2023): 323–36.
Banking/Debt/Finance/Financial CrisisView article“Morals and Emotions of Money.” With Nina Bandelj, Tyler Boston, Julie Kim, Michael McBride, Zaibu Tufail, and James Owen Weatherall. In Money Talks: Explaining how Money Really Works. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Banking/Debt/Finance/Financial CrisisView article“Comprehending and Regulating Financial Crisis.” With Nina Bandelj, Gary Richardson, and James Owen Weatherall. Perspectives on Science 24, no. 4 (July–August 2016): 443–73.
Banking/Debt/Finance/Financial CrisisView article“Regulating Crisis: A Retrospective Ethnography of the 1982 Latin American Debt Crisis at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.” Valuation Studies 1, no. 2 (December 2013): 147–60.
Banking/Debt/Finance/Financial CrisisView article
Neoliberalism
“Empowerment Money: The World Bank, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Value of Culture in Egypt.” Public Culture, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 493-514, Fall 2002.
NeoliberalismView article“Neoliberalism and the Savage Slot: Rationality, Irrationality, and Calculating Value 1920-2020.” In The Neoliberal Present? Political Economies in Flux, William Callison and Zachary Manfredi, editors. Fordham University Press, 2019, pp. 177-195.
NeoliberalismView article“Rethinking Neoliberalism in the Middle East.” A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East, First Edition. Edited by Soraya Altorki. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, Chapter 20, pp. 411-433.
NeoliberalismView article
Embodiment/Proprioception/Mobility
“Anthropology of Proprioception: Endurance and Collectivity on Unstable Grounds in Post-Revolutionary Cairo.” American Anthropologist 124, no. 3 (September 2022): 525–35.
Embodiment/Proprioception/MobilityView article“Phatic Labor, Infrastructure, and the Question of Empowerment in Cairo.” American Ethnologist 37, no. 3 (July 2010): 453–64.
Embodiment/Proprioception/MobilityView article
Infrastructure
“Thinking Infrastructures: Introduction.” With Martin Kornberger, Neil Pollock, Geoffrey Bowker, and Joanne Nucho. In Thinking Infrastructures (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 62), co-edited with Martin Kornberger, Neil Pollock, Geoffrey Bowker, and Joanne Nucho (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019).
InfrastructureView article“Upending Infrastructure in Times of Revolt.” In Distributed Agency, edited by Paul Kockelman and Nick Enfield (Oxford University Press, 2017), 49–56.
InfrastructureView article
Palestine/Israel: Public Facing
“They Tell Me This Is Jerusalem: Grammars of Belonging in Palestine.” In Naseej, Life-Weavings of Palestine, edited by Arpan Roy and Noura Salahaldeen (Pluto Press, 2024).
Palestine/Israel: Public FacingView article“They’re Palestinians Facing Eviction in East Jerusalem. They May Have Helped Save My Family.” Editorial, Forward, April 29, 2021.
Palestine/Israel: Public FacingView article“For Anthropology, Decolonizing Knowledge Means Supporting the Academic Boycott of Israel.” Mondoweiss June 26, 2023.
Palestine/Israel: Public FacingView article