The Youth, Emotional Energy, and Political Violence: The Cases of Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This project intends to explore and explain the values and sociopolitical and cultural attitudes of young Egyptians and Saudis. In order to gather this information the project focuses on four general areas of values. The first area looks at the sources of epistemic authorities that the youths rely on in forming opinions about various social and cultural issues and deciding their career. The second area looks at the extent to which the youth are aware of developmental ideas. The third area looks at the youths’ orientations toward such issues as the relationship between religion and politics, forms of government, Western culture, and social status of women. Finally, the fourth area looks at the youths’ religiosity and attitudes toward religion. To analyze these four areas researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with 18 to 25 year old youths from Egypt (in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria, and El-Minya) and from Saudi Arabia (in the cities of Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam/Khobar). The research was supported by the United States Institute of Peace, the Mellon Foundation, and Eastern Michigan University