Cairo Securitized: Reconceiving Urban Justice and Social Resilience

The book "Cairo Securitized" explores how repressive policies affect the everyday lives of citizens in Cairo, showing how city crime, violence, and fear are created by specific means of extraction, production, and control. It proposes new ways to reverse, reengineer, and replace securitizing processes with a participatory and equitable urban order.

Format: Hardback
Length: 500 pages
Publication date: 23 January 2024
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press

Cairo, once a model megacity, has witnessed a significant shift in recent decades. Once known for its thriving public culture, safe streets, and vibrant street life, the city has faced a dismantling of public education and jobs, reversing land reforms, and depriving its citizens of social rights, goods, and educational capital. This volume explores how repressive policies shape the everyday lives of citizens, highlighting the political nature of urban security crises and their connection to extraction, production, and control.

The contributors to Cairo Securitized challenge simplistic binaries and propose new ways to reverse, reengineer, and replace securitizing processes with a participatory and equitable urban order. They address a range of issues, including public health, transportation, labor safety, housing, and property distribution, aiming to create a city that can live again.

The African Leadership Centre's Sara Soumaya Abed, Zeinab Abul-Magd of Oberlin College, USA, Mohamed Ahmed of Political Scientist and historian, Cairo Egypt, Rania Ahmed of Independent Researcher, Cairo Egypt, and Nicholas Si of the University of California, Berkeley, contribute their expertise to this important examination of Cairo's security challenges and potential solutions.

ISBN-13: 9781649031716