Social reform and poverty measurement in (post)colonial Egypt

Econometric interpretations of the effects of modern colonial domination based on colonial statistics, and research questioning the interactions between colonial empires, colonized populations and international institutions, are sparking renewed interest in imperial statistical production. However, little is known about it.

Discover the sixth session of "Encrypting and deciphering empires, XVIII-XXIth centuries” seminar: "How can we assess the material damage caused by the 1947 Malagasy uprising and its repression? " with Malak Labib, a research associate at the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo. Her current research focuses on the history of quantification and development policies in Egypt in the second half of the 20th century. She recently published Recenser l'Égypte. Dette publique et politiques de quantification à l'ère impériale (1875-1922) (IFAO-CEDEJ, 2024).

This presentation traces the first debates on poverty and living standards in Egypt between 1900 and 1950, through the analysis of family budget and household consumption surveys. It will examine the simultaneous construction of measures, policies and discursive frameworks around poverty, at a time of decolonization marked by the first debates on the role of the state in taking charge of social issues, and by the emergence of “population” as a central economic and political problem. The presentation reconstructs the interactions between the various players involved in the production of this knowledge - statisticians, economists, doctors and social reformers - and draws on state documentation, social science works by contemporaries and press sources.