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Supporters (background) of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi clash with anti-government protesters following demonstrations in Cairo on January 25, 2015, marking the fourth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Getty Images (Mohamed El-Shahed)

Journal Article - Perspectives on Politics

The Politics of Ignoring: Protest Dynamics in Late Mubarak Egypt

| December 2015

The concept of "ignoring" refers not only to actions by regime officials but also captures protesters’ perceptions of those actions. Examples of ignoring include not communicating with protesters, issuing condescending statements, physically evading protesters, or acting with contempt toward popular mobilization. Existing conceptual tools do not adequately capture these dynamics. By integrating protesters’ perceptions of the behavior of the targets of mobilization, not just of the security forces, the concept of “ignoring” helps explain protesters’ reactions and their future mobilization, in a way that conventional concepts such as tolerance cannot capture.