Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control

by David Sims

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 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.

Genres: Egypt, Nonfiction, Middle East, Urban, Cairo

365 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

David Sims is an economist and urban planner with forty years of experience in Arab, African and Asian countries. He is the author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control.

Reviews

[Karlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we visited Cairo this fall, I had lots of questions about the growth of the city I had known over 40 years ago. Professor Sims has written a very readable examination of the huge building boom. After reading this book, I was reassured about several aspects of the construction problems. His photographs add to the portrayal, too. Now I will look forward to an update with all the change in Egypt.

[Kariem El zaghberry]

looking forward and excited

[Nancy Husari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had lived in Cairo during the summer of 1978. This book covers the time period approximately between my summer there and the Arab Spring (with a great postscript covering the year after the revolution). Mr. Sims analysis helped me understand my own experience there and how Cairo has progressed since then. He also cautions against applying the stereotypes of the misery and slums of Third World megacities to Cairo. He reinforced my own impression that there is something about Cairo's chaos that works well in spite of its challenges. Great book. I hope Mr. Sims writes a new book to cover the Arab Spring through the present.

[Lisa]

I'm going to visit Cairo soon and I wanted to get a sense of the modern city and not just the history. This is very much a sociological and urban studies kind of book, arguing persuasively that the government-led growth of Cairo (it was published in 2007/8, so things may have changed) has not been as successful as the "informal" city. In fact, it seems like the city has grown appropriately and stays pretty dense due to the desert all around. It isn't a book for most people, lots of urban detail and maps that are for specialists, but I enjoyed it.

[Michael Pepe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially enjoyed Sims's discussion of informal housing.

[Doris Hobbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very informant easy to read and interesting all in one. It makes total sense!

[Adham Kalila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening. There's a lot we think we know about the slums of cairo that is just plain wrong