Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control

David Sims

ISBN 10: 9774165535 / ISBN 13: 9789774165535

Published by The American University in Cairo Press, 2012

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control
• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9774165535
• ISBN 13: 9789774165535
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Bon

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

David Sims is an economist and urban planner who has been based in Egypt since 1974. As well as having worked in several Arab, Asian and African countries, he has led studies on urban development, industrial estates, tourism, and other aspects of Egypt’s economic geography and spatial development. He is the author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City out of Control (AUC Press, pbk edition, 2012) and Egypt's Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster (AUC Press, pbk edition, 2018).