Main entry:

Sims, David.

Title & Author:

Understanding Cairo : the logic of a city out of control / David Sims.

Publication:

Cairo ; New York : The American University in Cairo Press, 2010.

Description:

335 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321) and index.
Imaging Cairo -- Cairo is Egypt and Egypt is Cairo -- A history of modern Cairo : three cities in one -- Informal Cairo triumphant -- Housing real and speculative -- The desert city today -- Working in the city -- City on the move : a complementary informality? -- Governing Cairo -- Summing up : serendipity?

Summary:

Trying to make sense of the urban giant that is Cairo. 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 failed attempts of the State to create the new, modern Egypt in the deserts surrounding Cairo and their unintended consequences as a colossal speculative frontier are given a special focus. 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.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Inhaltsverzeichnis

ISBN:

9789774164040
9774164040

Subject:

Travel
Cairo (Egypt) Description and travel.
Egypt Cairo
Kairo
Kairo sociala förhållanden.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 273688
Call No.: BIB 207374
Status: Available