Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control

By David Sims

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9774165535
• ISBN13: 9789774165535
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 9.0"