Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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I must admit that I can barely keep up with the stream of books published by the American University in Cairo Press. No sooner do I finish reading one of their books than I find myself immersed in another one. Thanks to AUC Press, there is never a shortage of books in English, though this does not mean that there is a dearth of books in Arabic. Egyptian publishers, like Dar Al-Shorouq, Merit and the General Egyptian Book Organisation, are constantly churning up titles on different subjects.

One would, therefore, expect a movement in criticism that would go parallel to this boom in the publishing industry. Unfortunately, however, books are published, advertisements appear, then everything ends with a whimper.

But I do not intend to criticise critics here; instead, I want to introduce a book I've just finished reading. It is Cairo Cosmopolitan, a volume of essays edited by Diane Singerman and Paul Amar, published by AUC Press. The book, which lies in five sections, comprises 19 chapters, an introduction and an afterword. The contributors -- Egyptian, American, English, French and Dutch -- reflect the international interest in our capital.

According to the introduction this volume was completed in 2005 and, what is important it "brings together the newly coined 'Cairo School of Urban Studies'". The volume explores what happens when new forms of privatisation meet collectivist pasts, and when "public space is sold off to satisfy investor needs and tourist gazes" and the state plans for Egypt's future in desert cities while stigmatising and neglecting Cairo's popular neighbourhoods. It comes as no surprise that the book is dedicated "To the courageous, hopeful, and creative people of Cairo who have all taught us so much about their city."

The first chapter, "Cairo as Neoliberal Capital, from Walled City to Gated Communities", presents "some of our research collective's findings on the novelty and complexity of globalizing Cairo." The writer, Eric Denis, a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Paris, concludes that there are two kinds of legitimating arguments about the intersections of neoliberal risk and justifications.

The new exclusivist neoliberal Cairo represents, on the one hand, a world showcase for a certain kind of liberalisation, which stimulates praise and affirmation far from Egypt. On the other hand, this gated city geography imposes a redefinition. The so-called urban renaissance, goes on the writer, "justifies and bears witness to the performativity of liberalization policy and to the new delegation of competences that will remake Egypt for transnational business people." In this context it is acceptable from the perspective of urban studies to define today's city, the very big globalising city in particular, as a combination of mixed elements, of diversity and of density, favouring cosmopolitanism and innovation.

The book makes fascinating, albeit difficult reading, moving from such intriguing subjects as "Cairo as Neoliberal Capital", "Cairo as Capital of Socialist Revolution", Cairo as Regional/Global Economic Capital", "Cairo as Global/ Regional Cultural Capital", to such subjects as "Egyptianising the American Dream," Nasr City's shopping malls, Cafe Latte and Caesar Salad, Cairo Heritage and Touristic Globalisation.

Apart from the highly scholarly essays in the book there are chapters of more general and maybe even lighter nature. These deal with Upper Egyptians and Nubians in Cairo and the work of the Nubian Heritage Association and the Bowabra Cafe, the Cinema, Television, the moulids of Cairo, Sufi guilds and popular celebrations.

In chapter 18, Vincent Battlesti, researcher in social anthropology at the Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation Economique, Jurisdique et Sociales in Cairo, describes a day at the Cairo Zoo, underlining the efforts to reappropriate public spaces and reimagine urban beauty. He describes the newly established public gardens like the international garden in Nasr City and the Azhar Park.

The final, fascinating chapter is about Egypt's pop music clashes and the destinies of Mohamed Ali Street musicians. But this needs another column.