Escape into Time: A Virilian Analysis of The Politics of Digital Transformation in Egypt

Magdy, Ramy

doi:10.21608/jwadi.2025.371492.1194

Escape into Time: A Virilian Analysis of The Politics of Digital Transformation in Egypt

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Ramy Magdy

Assistant Professor of Political Science Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University

10.21608/jwadi.2025.371492.1194

المستخلص

How can one understand Egypt’s major shift towards digitalization from a political point of view? As one feature the paper discerns, in the post-spring Egyptian politics, is the keenness of the state apparatus to shift the medium of discipline from space to time. That is to focus more on speeds, movements, digital transactions, watch and control them rather than the traditional method of sufficing with imposing physical discipline in geography. By going into the depth of this shift-to-time one can see the escapist nature it shows, as it tries to avoid any physical friction with citizens .What could be the political implications of this shift and how could they be seen in line with the studies on digital technology and its role in dematerializing and de-territorializing the processes of discipline, and how they might pose immense challenges for politics. Using Paul Virilio’s theory on real-time politics that explores interlinkages between speed, war, technology and their impacts on politics, this paper argues that the Egyptian case of digitalization bases its consolidation of authority heavily on a policy of shifting discipline from space to time, a process that amounts to an ‘escape into time’ so as to avoid risks and friction between authority and subjects. Using document analysis, the paper explores this ‘escapism into time’, situates it within the scholarship on political digitalization and explain its impacts on politics. This is to be done by studying the three pillars of the Egyptian digital transformation policy (from 2016-2024: digitalization of services, financial inclusion, and digital media regulation.

الكلمات الرئيسية