Cairo Cosmopolitan: Politics, Culture, and Urban Space in the New Middle East

563 Pages·2006·9.03 MB·English

by  Diane Singerman

Cairo
Cosmopolitan
POLITICS, CULTURE, AND URBAN SPACE
IN THE NEW GLOBALIZED MIDDLE EAST
Edited by
Diane Singerman
and Paul Amar
The American University in Cairo Press
Cairo New York
Copyright © 2006 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com
An earlier version of chapter 3 appeared as “Dimensions nouvelles de la
métropolisation dans le Monde arabe: le cas du Caire.” Les Cahiers de la Méditerranée.
Université de Nice, No. 64, 119 66. Reproduced by permission.
Material in chapter 8 is drawn from Farha Ghannam, Remaking the Modern: Space,
Relocation, and the Politics of Identity in Global Cairo. The Regents of the University
of California, 2002.
An earlier version of chapter 15 appeared as “When the Lights Go Down in Cairo:
Cinema as Global Crossroads and Space of Playful Resistance.” Visual Anthropology
10 (1998): 413 42.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Dar el Kutub No. 2828/05
ISBN 977 424 928 3
Designed by Fatiha Bouzidi/AUC Press Design Center
Printed in Egypt
To the courageous, hopeful, and creative people of Cairo
who have all taught us so much about their city.

Contents
Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction
Contesting Myths, Critiquing Cosmopolitanism, and
Creating the Cairo School of Urban Studies 1
Diane Singerman and Paul Amar
Cairo: The City Cosmopolitan
1 Cairo as Neo Liberal Capital? From Walled City to Gated
Communities 47
Eric Denis
2 Cairo as Capital of Socialist Revolution? 73
Omnia El Shakry
3 Cairo as Regional/Global Economic Capital? 99
Leïla Vignal and Eric Denis
4 Cairo as Global/Regional Cultural Capital? 153
Said Sadek
Cairo Consumer and Investor Geographies
5 Egyptianizing the American Dream: Nasr City’s Shopping Malls,
Public Order, and the Privatized Military 193
Mona Abaza
6 Café Latte and Caesar Salad: Cosmopolitan Belonging
in Cairo’s Coffee Shops 221
Anouk de Koning
7 From Dubai to Cairo: Competing Global Cities, Models,
and Shifting Centers of Influence? 235
Yasser Elsheshtawy
8 Keeping Him Connected: Globalization and the Production
of Locality in Cairo 251
Farha Ghannam
Cairo Heritage and Touristic Globalization
9 Reconstructing Islamic Cairo: Forces at Work 269
Caroline Williams
10 Urban Transformations: Social Control at al Rifa‘i Mosque
and Sultan Hasan Square 295
Yasser Elsheshtawy
11 Pyramids and Alleys: Global Dynamics and Local Strategies
in Giza 313
Petra Kuppinger
12 Belle Époque Cairo: The Politics of Refurbishing the Downtown
Business District 345
Galila El Kadi and Dalila ElKerdany
Cairo Subcultures and Media Contestation
13 Upper Egyptian Regionally Based Communities in Cairo:
Traditional or Modern Forms of Urbanization? 375
Catherine Miller
14 Place, Class, and Race in the Barabra Café: Nubians in
Egyptian Media 399
Elizabeth Smith
15 When the Lights Go Down in Cairo: Cinema as Global
Crossroads and Space of Playful Resistance 415
Walter Armbrust
16 A Round Trip to Isma‘iliya: Cairo’s Media Exiles, Television
Innovation, and Provincial Citizenship 445
Fanny Colonna
viii
Cairo Celebratory Spaces and Vernacular World-Crossing
17 Mulids of Cairo: Sufi Guilds, Popular Celebrations,
and the ‘Roller Coaster Landscape’ of the Resignified City 465
Anna Madoeuf
18 The Giza Zoo: Re Appropriating Public Spaces, Re Imagining
Urban Beauty 489
Vincent Battesti
19 Egypt’s Pop Music Clashes and the ‘World Crossing’ Destinies
of Muhammad ‘Ali Street Musicians 513
Nicolas Puig
Afterword
Whose Cairo? 539
Nezar AlSayyad

ix