This is a longitudinal study of the identity process through times of dramatic social change. Using a narrative psychological approach this research follows the life stories of five Egyptian bloggers as they write their stories on online blogs over the course of the three years following the 2011 revolution, at which time Egypt has witnessed major social and political changes. The aim is to understand the identity process of individuals as they develop and adapt through changing social contexts and how they create alternative social relations as they engage in prefigurative politics. The findings shed light on how ruptures trigger a process of reflexivity, adaptive learning, and sense-making that facilitates coping and the reconstruction of a positive identity after ruptures. It also suggests that the narration of the experience of rupture through storytelling creates a heightened sense of agency in individuals’ ability to create new meanings of their world in spite of the socio-cultural and political constraints. This study presents narratives as an informing methodological resource that connects identity process with social representations and emphasizes the value of storytelling as an integral part of the adaptation process.
The role of social psychology is to help us understand humans’ flexibility in creating and relating to their social worlds (
Revolutions fundamentally disrupt the lives of the individuals taking part in them as they engage in a process of prefiguration creating alternative social relations to their surroundings through imagining a better future and working with others to create grassroots social movements challenging established order (
As an Egyptian the impact of the revolution on my own life triggered my interest to examine how the social change was a personally transformative experience for many who shared the aspirations for a better future but then struggled to make sense as events unfolded in a different direction than they had expected. To understand this transformation, this research looks closely at the life course of five individuals who took part in the revolution as a case study. The rupture of the revolution had not only impacted their shared social context but also had direct consequences on their personal lives. Although the recent revolutions have taken much attention in research, the focus has been mostly on the collective social and political level. This research focuses on the micro level of individuals, looking at how those ruptures have impacted their identity process, their capacity to imagine an alternative reality for their society, and more importantly their coping strategies when the reality they imagined failed to happen in the years following the start of the revolution. This micro interpersonal analysis could help in the understanding of the dynamics leading to prefigurative political and social action.
To follow the lives of the five cases, a longitudinal narrative approach (
This paper builds on Identity Process Theory (
Looking at identity process in times of obstacles, change, and loss gives a perspective into humans’ fundamentally evolving nature where such life ruptures are seen as calls for individuals to use resources from their environment to support their evolving process of transformation (
According to IPT, ruptures are the social changes that threaten the identity process demanding change to content or value dimensions of identity (
Different ruptures have been proven to lead to significant psychological turmoil. Social unrest and conflict, for example, disrupt the status quo and call for a reconstruction of national identities and social representations (
Coping mechanisms allow the core that defines oneself to be maintained to sustain a consistent melody of one’s lives even under such radical changes. Coping can be any conscious or unconscious thought or action that succeeds in eliminating an identity threat (
Identity process theories require the incorporation of the socio-cultural context into their analysis to be able to make any predictions (
Investigating social representations is linked closely to the identity process in times of rupture. For any rupture leading to identity changes, there are competing social representations. IPT helps determine which social representations an individual adopts and which ones individuals countervail with other social representations (
Human psychology has an essentially narrative structure (
A qualitative longitudinal research design was chosen as it is useful in interpreting biographical data and is highly sensitive to contextual issues and micro-social processes such as the way individuals subjectively negotiate changes occurring in their lives (
The choice of an in-depth analysis of five life stories was chosen over a general analysis of a bigger pool of data because sense-making is idiographic by its nature and understanding the uniqueness of each story offers a psychological understanding that can be generalized (
Data comprised blog entries of five Egyptians who took part in the Egyptian revolution in 2011. The data track their entries from January 2011 just before the Egyptian revolution to March 2014 marking the course of over three years. Blogs as a data source are treated as an external expression of their flow of thought manifested through the artistic form of storytelling. Blogs as well as social media channels played an important role as an alternative news source during and after the revolution and as a social documentation tool. The relative freedom of expression created a virtual community of people who share their own stories of the revolution and report on the authorities’ violations.
The writers are upper middle class Egyptians, two females and three males, and their age range is between 30 to 40 years old. These blogs were specifically chosen because their writers wrote regularly (at least once a month) sharing their personal stories as well as their political perspectives on the social context in a rich and open manner. What further distinguishes those five stories is that they didn’t associate themselves with any specific political party. Their stories reflect how they were affected by the social change and they all shared a sense of loss of the revolution they were aspiring for as events unfolded. Additionally, they all experienced personal ruptures during the course of the three years, such as loss of a loved one, divorce, imprisonment, or unemployment.
The data from the five blogs combined comprise more than 90 thousand words, mostly written in English with few Arabic entries and few supplementing photos. There are many other blogs of Egyptians who were part of the revolution, but they were either too short and not covering the whole period of research, or they were mostly political. The blogs chosen shared a similar exposure to events and experienced a parallel wave of emotions, they also shared similar political and social views. This made analyzing their timelines together meaningful. However, there was the limitation that they are only representative of a certain minority cluster of the Egyptian society, due to a lack of similar online narratives of other groups of the society with different economic background or political views. Another limitation to the data set is that its availability in the public domain might have affected the writers’ free flow of consciousness in writing, influencing how they represented themselves and their social context to local as well as international audiences.
The thematic framework’s main themes follow the rationale of the research of looking at the ‘sociocultural context’ where ‘psychological experience of the self’ occurs, exploring individual’s process through ‘ruptures,’ and how it is externalized in ‘narratives.’ The five bloggers will be referred to in the analysis as AD, MS, EN, RO, and AM followed by the date of the blog entry.
The blogs provide a rich lively account of their surroundings. They expressed dominant social representations, the social and cultural changes they witnessed, the influence of other cultures, significant symbols in their society, and the revolution as the most significant event in the course of the three years on the social level.
Egypt is presented as a beloved home and a place of belonging in spite of its “chaotic and unjust” reality (EN, January’11). With a deteriorating economy and “clear signs of a social crisis that has been in the making for decades” (MS, June’11), its traditional image taught in schools as “the center of the universe” is changing (MS, May’13). Egyptian community is presented as torn between loving Egypt and finding living in it to be extremely difficult, continuously complaining about “political environment, corruption, and chaos” (AD, Jan’11).
Narratives involved references to and comparisons with other cultures that have influenced the writers. Cultural diffusion is evident among the writers who are active users of the Internet and have travelled to different places. In the context of the revolution, the writers connected what is happening in Egypt to the regional Arab Spring and found inspiration in the Tunisian revolution:
Exposure to other cultures also influenced questioning of dominant social representations about issues such as authority and religion:
The cultural intercommunication was evident not only in what they learned from other cultures but also what they offered. The writers used their blogs at certain periods of time as mass media platforms to voice what is happening in Egypt to international media opposing what the government-owned media was portraying.
Witnessing socio-cultural changes was a common theme in the data that other experiences revolved around. The social changes expressed can be illustrated in three distinct stages: (1) Beginning of the revolution from January 2011 to Mubarak’s removal 11 February 2011; (2) after Mubarak’s removal till Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood was elected (June, 2012) and Morsi’s one year of presidency; (3) after Morsi’s removal (July, 2013) to March 2014 just before ex-military Field Marshal El-Sisi becoming the president.
The beginning of the revolution marked a very positive change in cultural dynamics: “No one can argue that the Egyptian street has witnessed a leap in behaviors and attitude... we thought we live in our own bubble but since the beginning of the revolution we all decided to hold hands” (EN, Jan’11). It was also described as a time of euphoria and pride for many Egyptians and a promise for a new beginning: “On the 25th we woke up to a new Egypt (…) a country that was in labor for 30 long obnoxious years” (AD, Jan’12). These changes exposed the corruption of the old regime and called for a societal restructuring. However, not all Egyptians shared the writers’ perception of this period; “Many Egyptians were either perplexed, astounded, suspicious or outright against the demonstrations“ (MS, August’11).
The period after Mubarak’s removal witnessed much of the chaos following the revolution, involving military aggression, slow trials of old regime figures, deteriorating economy, and increasing sexual harassments in the streets. People didn’t seem as united as during the first days of the revolution; each group started expressing different demands and expectations. The ruling of the Muslim Brotherhood through Morsi further deepened the divide in the society especially in terms of ideologies and religious tolerance.
The period after Morsi’s removal and military take-over triggered further division and confusion. This stage is described by one writer as “the most complicated since 2011. It is quite volatile, volcanic and sensitive” (MS, August’13). Another writer makes sense of how the situation has evolved in the following description:
The urban city space has also transformed during the three years further impacting the routine life of the writers “The first post-Jan25 change noticeable is that in many streets you can see murals and graffiti honoring the martyrs, government buildings surrounded by army, and empty streets due to the curfew enforcement” (AM, April’11).
The life story naturally evolves around the person writing it as he/she externalizes feelings, experiences, and perspectives.
The writers’ emotions fluctuated over the course of the three years. The data comprised a unique coexistence of many different feelings through the changing contexts. Emotions expressed the most among the five stories were those of pain and anger from “oppression, violence, and injustice” (MS, May’11), and experiencing loss:
The fluctuation of emotions over the three years is evident most in relation to the revolution progress. In the beginning, there was a great sense of achievement in succeeding to remove the Mubarak regime: “For me it's a great personal triumph and that was one of the best moments of my life!" (AM, February’11). This feeling was followed by hope for the future and aspiration for change, and at the same time fear of the unknown. At later stages, there were feelings of frustration with the Muslim Brotherhood presidency period, followed by further disappointment with the military take over. The coexistence of many diverse emotions is captured here:
Looking at the actors’ background and life experiences helped in the analysis of their identity and the resources available for their adaptation. All five bloggers had access to good education, strong social network, and employment opportunities. Their participation in the revolution was one common key experience among them: “There are very few moments in time that decide the course of history. Our generation’s Moment was January 25, 2011” (AM, January’14). In their narratives, they have detailed accounts of their participation in different protests and their confrontation with the security forces and how this has shaped their personality and resilience.
In a direct and indirect manner, the stories presented how the writers identify themselves. They negotiated their association to certain groups (opinion groups, national groups, professional groups) and reflected on the value they attribute to those groups, which constitutes their construction of a social identity (
The narratives emphasized the value of memories in shaping their identity and how writing their stories was a way of reconstructing those memories. They were keen to document the revolution, not only for themselves, but also in resistance to how the official media was documenting the revolution:
Those memories were presented as shaping their imagination of the future, especially those relating to the revolution. There was a sense of hope in that even if the revolution did not turn out as they wanted, just documenting it and remembering it will keep it alive for the next generation to continue the journey:
Following the journeys in the five stories yielded some common patterns in how the writers experienced ruptures and their process of reflection and sense-making.
Changing moments are those that define a life story and create a sense of rupture: “I remember there being a heightened sense of realization that this was about to become a defining moment; that I would describe incidences from then on as ones who had occurred before or after it” (RO, August’12). On the social level, the revolution was a major change in how everything was structured: “the realization that the country we knew is indeed forever changed, that a massive chapter of our lives has truly been turned” (MS, August’11). On the personal level, ruptures disrupted daily routines and expectations: “It is very difficult for a divorced parent to wake up in the morning to an empty house… There’s nothing like a home full of rowdy children suddenly growing lifeless by their absence” (AD, February’12).
Narratives allow a space for self-reflection and re-evaluation (
Data coded as progressive adjustment to change were those revolving around coping strategies (
Among the coping strategies captured from the narratives was the ‘exit option’ (
There was also coping by attempting to restore normality to maintain the ‘continuity’ principle of the IPT: “I find myself longing for normality. But I try to find my personal definition for what normality really is for me” (RO, September’13). There also was coping with, in terms of IPT, intra-psychic acceptance strategies: “Maybe it did leave a scar that will always live with me in one way or another. But I learned to accept that” (EN, March’14).
Other forms of coping utilized the IPT intergroup strategies of dissociating oneself from certain groups:
Intergroup strategies were also used to protect their threatened identities as activists. Some of them chose to dissociate themselves from politics in the later stages of the revolution: “I will close my eyes and ears off to anything related to politics” (AD, September’13). While others chose to attribute more value to other group memberships such as that of work and parenthood: “I will focus on being good at the jobs that I do. I will try to raise my children to be productive members of the society but I’m done with reading about politics” (MS, December’13).
One underlying characteristic among all the previous examples of coping strategies was a strong sense of persistence to adapt: “In the midst of all of life’s agony, we still find that survival is our primary instinct. Something inside of us does not want us to let go” (MS, November’11). This dedication seems to stem from hope “I still have a true conviction that there is so much to be hopeful for” (RO, October’11) and the realization that ruptures have added value to them as human beings: “And yet, I am now a more complete human being having experienced those emotions” (EN, July’13).
Reflecting on dominant social representations seemed to be triggered by the fact that the overthrowing of the regime was in itself breaking many of the previous notions about authority, “For the first time, we will break tradition with our region’s dark history, where leaders either rule for life or die of assassination” (MS, August’11). This reflection led to their agency in reconstructing and reevaluating previous dominant representations in the society such as those relating to religion, women’s presence in public space, and personal freedoms.
The theme of sense-making is most central to the focus of this study. It refers to connecting the past, present, and future into a coherent life story, which appears to be a natural outcome of narrative externalization and key to coping (
This sense-making process also involves internalization of new meanings and values into one’s life (
In spite of the constraining social and political context, narrators still found an outlet of the reality in future imagination, which is a space facilitated by narratives (
In this research, blogs have been regarded as an artistic form of storytelling that manifests the writer’s identity. Technology is opening up new resources of expression, which facilitates the easiness of externalization but might affect the quality and depth of it. Writers expressed the benefit they felt from writing their stories: “an incredible opportunity to reflect” (MS, February’14). They also referred to their writing as a tool to guide oneself: “to give myself a renewed sense of my direction” (AM, March’13). The act of publishing their blogs and sharing it with others was seen as a way of “tying (themselves) to (their) true self,” as one writer expresses it (EN, December’13). On the social level, their shared stories created a dialogue and a space for communication within the society. In all five blogs, writers asked readers about their opinions and opened space for the exchange of ideas whether about personal issues or shared social struggles.
Certain limitations and risks to this form of externalization were shared. Bloggers expressed concerns in relation to publishing their stories and exposing themselves to societal judgments: “this blog post is not an open invitation to some of you cruel people to dissect, analyze, judge, or criticize my personal life choices” (AD, January’13). In many instances writers chose not to share part of their stories because they felt it was too personal to be shared publicly, in other instances they concealed some identifying information of their friends for security reasons.
Though the research framework has been presented in three interrelated sections of self, social context, and narratives, the narrated life stories actually presented an ‘inter-experience’ where it was hard to separate between the personal and the social realms of experience (
The findings illustrated how the individuals’ experiences, emotions, identity associations, and relationships with others have shaped their development through ruptures. The five cases have negotiated their identities through a continuous process of self-reflection, adaptive learning, and sense-making (
These findings support the understanding of humans as flexible evolving beings: once their routine is disrupted by the unexpected, they persistently search for meanings and resources in their environment to restore consistency and transform from one point in time to the next. The extent of adaptation is therefore dependent on the resources available to the individual and the outcome of the sense-making process, which either facilitates or limits adaptation (
Ruptures played a crucial role in triggering a heightened sense of agency for the bloggers that aided their creation of adaptive new relationships with their worlds. The revolution was for many an unimaginable dream after so many years of living as disempowered citizens incapable of shaping the future of their own society. It shook the ground of many givens, calling many of the social representations into question. The writers mobilized their sense of agency in resisting certain dominant social representations and choosing which ones to incorporate into their identity. Even when individuals experienced a sense of loss in their control over the progress of the revolution, their sense of agency still influenced their personal life choices. The narratives illustrated the continuous power struggle between self and society, where individual’s agency in transforming their worlds prevails sometimes and the disempowering circumstances prevail at other times. Externalizing the narratives in storytelling seemed to impact this power relation providing more space for the writers to document their own perception of the socio-cultural context that is in contrast to what the state propaganda portrays. Their narratives gave them agency in reconstructing history and defending their identities (
Consistent with literature on narratives and rupture the findings emphasized two important roles for narratives: First, narratives as an informing methodological resource for the study of identity process through ruptures in connection with social representations. Following the five life stories captured the transition process as writers expressed it at different points in time. This naturally occurring data provided a rich source of data that would have been hard to capture by other methodologies such as self-reported interviews at one point in time. This emphasizes the value of inter-disciplinary research that connects narrative studies with different fields such as social psychology, anthropology (e.g.,
Second, the findings also emphasized the value of narratives – storytelling in particular – in the adaptation and agency of individuals. Narrative externalization aids the reconstruction of an individual’s shattered sense of identity as they cope with personal and socio-cultural changes (
Tracing the five stories offered valuable insights into the more general ways in which individuals experience ruptures. Understanding their transformation on an individual level could inform how collective social change happens and how it could lead to prefigurative politics promising more sustainable changes. This study found that ruptures have the ability to produce novelty into people’s lives that could deeply transform their identity. Narrative externalization has not changed the life events individuals have been through, but it did affect their perspective on what happened and their ability to cope. All through their stories coping was a mechanism to sustain continuity in their identity rather than a passive acceptance of the reality.
The revolution in Egypt is still fresh material for research. Understanding the capacity for resistance by individuals and the impact that social changes have on them informs the complexity of social movements. The case study in this research reflects the revolution supporters, a group that is gradually becoming a minority as the popularity of the revolution decreases under the current regime. It is questionable whether this minority can succeed in presenting an alternative future. According to
On the political level, it is negotiable whether the Egyptian revolution was a success, a failure, or a revolution in progress. The toppling of the regime was a major achievement, but the change in the social values and perceived agency of individuals is a much more complicated task that if achieved could promise a more sustainable prefiguration of the politics of the country and prevent the thriving of a similar regime for another thirty years. This study argues that on the individual level of the cases observed, the revolution made an irreversible positive effect on the bloggers’ self-perception and empowered them with a sense of agency in the reconstruction of their realities – an effect that supports the hope that another world is possible.
The author has no funding to report.
The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
I would like to thank Brady Wagoner, Caroline Howarth, Menna Reda, Radwa Shoukry, Rola Tarek, Shaimaa ElSadek, Sherifa Abdel Razek, and the editors and reviewers of the journal for their careful readings and insightful critiques of earlier versions of this article