Understanding Cairo
Author | : David Sims |
Publisher | : American University in Cairo Press |
Total Pages | : 452 |
Release | : 2012-04-01 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781617973888 |
ISBN-13 | : 1617973882 |
Rating | : 4/5 (88 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This book moves beyond superficial generalizations about Cairo as a chaotic metropolis in the developing world into an analysis of the ways the city's eighteen million inhabitants have, in the face of a largely neglectful government, built and shaped their own city. Using a wealth of recent studies on Greater Cairo and a deep reading of informal urban processes, the city and its recent history are portrayed and mapped: the huge, spontaneous neighborhoods; housing; traffic and transport; city government; and its people and their enterprises. The book argues that understanding a city such as Cairo is not a daunting task as long as pre-conceived notions are discarded and care is taken to apprehend available information and to assess it with a critical eye. In the case of Cairo, this approach leads to a conclusion that the city can be considered a kind of success story, in spite of everything.