Maspero Triangle

Cairo, Egypt holds 4 of the 30 largest “mega-slums” in the world with nearly 60 percent of Cairo’s population inhabiting informal settlements (Davis, 2007; Khalifa, 2013). Two of these settlements, Ramlet Bulaq and the Maspero Triangle in Cairo’s Bulaq District, consistently experience evictions inflicted by state and private developers since the mid-2000s due to its prime and strategic location on the Nile River. The central question orienting this research is: How do Ramlet Bulaq and Maspero inhabitants develop insurgent planning practices to resist state and private developer forced removals? The paper builds on Beard’s (2003) nuanced model of radical planning to address “how citizens [under authoritarian rule] acquire skills, experience and political consciousness necessary to bring about significant social and political change” (p.13) and Miraftab’s (2009) conceptualization of insurgent planning as “counter-hegemonic, transgressive, and imaginative” to explain for the different planning insurgencies under authoritarian contexts.  The study shows how insurgents foment direct planning action through an “organizational infrastructure” to establish networks of collective action and solidarity across the city; the factors that contribute to the development of two different insurgencies and the degree of organizational formalization; and the factors responsible for derailing both insurgencies and different ties to power elites. Using insurgent planning as its theoretical framework and integrating some social movement literature, the study employs semi-structured interviews, observational analysis and archival analysis to examine how insurgencies unfold in Ramlet Bulaq and Maspero.

If those in power claim to be concerned with sustainable urban development, then why is the urban condition not improving? What is desired through urban planning decisions/objectives versus what is achieved in reality present two dependent and interlinking spheres of action. The missing link between policies at the national level and practices in Egypt triggered this research. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between urban policy making and implementation. The research is based on a master thesis under the same title. The paper studies both the national and local levels through understanding national policies of urban development in Egypt and tracking what is happening in the case study of Maspero at the lower level. Then, the relationship of policy making and implementation is investigated, theoretically, in Egypt and in Maspero. The research follows a qualitative exploratory approach derived by the notion of ‘beneficial knowledge’ in Islam. Hence, a cyclic research methodology is adopted to enhance the credibility and deliverability of research findings. The date is collected through literature review, interviews, field visits and round table discussion.