Global Dreams
Subtitle: Space, Class, and Gender in Middle-Class Cairo
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2009
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
ISBN-13: 9789774162497
Subjects: Egypt, economic conditions; Middle class, africa; Globalization
Description: "At the start of the twenty-first century, Cairo's cityscape has acquired a spectacular global touch. Its luxurious five-star hotels, high-rise office buildings, immaculately clean malls, and swanky coffee shops serving cafe latte and caesar salad, along with the budding gated communities in the city's desert expanses, exemplify three decades of economic liberalization. In the surrounding social landscape, the gradual abrogation of the Nasser-era structures that provided many with low-cost goods and services is dearly felt. This new study examines Cairo's experience of economic liberalization in an era of globalization. It asks what happened to a postcolonial middle class that was once the carrier of national aspirations and dreams. It explores how young middle-class professionals navigate Cairo's increasingly divided landscape and discusses the rise of a young upper-middle class presence in the work, leisure, and public spaces of the city."--Jacket.