The Housing And Construction Industry In Egypt

A provocative analysis of the roots of Egypt’s housing crisis and the ways in which it can be tackled Along with football and religion, housing is a fundamental cornerstone of Egyptian life: it can make or break marriage proposals, invigorate or slow down the economy, and popularize or embarrass a ruler. Housing is political. Almost every Egyptian ruler over the last eighty years has directly associated himself with at least one large-scale housing project. It is also big business, with Egypt currently the world leader in per capita housing production, building at almost double China’s rate, and creating a housing surplus that counts in the millions of units. Despite this, Egypt has been in the grip of a housing crisis for almost eight decades. From the 1940s onward, officials deployed a number of policies to create adequate housing for the country’s growing population. By the 1970s, housing production had outstripped population growth, but today half of Egypt’s one hundred million people cannot afford a decent home. Egypt's Housing Crisis takes presidential speeches, parliamentary reports, legislation, and official statistics as the basis with which to investigate the tools that officials have used to ‘solve’ the housing crisis—rent control, social housing, and amnesties for informal self-building—as well as the inescapable reality of these policies’ outcomes. Yahia Shawkat argues that wars, mass displacement, and rural–urban migration played a part in creating the problem early on, but that neoliberal deregulation, crony capitalism and corruption, and neglectful planning have made things steadily worse ever since. In the final analysis he asks, is affordable housing for all really that hard to achieve?

This guide is the perfect companion for the international business traveller who wants to have the best of both worlds - business and leisure. It offers comprehensive info which is either difficult to find or simply doesn't exist elsewhere. All sections include full contact info (telephone, fax, email, website, postal addresses).

First published in 1987, Shelter, Settlement & Development presents a comprehensive and authoritative reappraisal of shelter, settlement and development policies and programs in third world countries. Drawing on the considerable research and advisory experience of an internationally distinguished group of contributors, it introduces new ideas on many themes such as spatial strategies, land policy, shanty town settlements, infrastructure standards and construction obstacles, intricacies of housing finance and household behaviour and preferences. Each facet of the study sums up what can be inferred from past experience: what worked and what did not, and why; what ideas are in currency; what policy choices lie ahead; and most important of all, what further changes are needed to achieve feasible and effective solutions, not quick fixes, or one-shot remedies. There is a special focus on the necessary learning processes so that whatever action is taken is likely to be self-correcting in the light of subsequent experience, reflection and changing circumstances. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of development studies, urban studies and planning, and public policy.

Intentionally excluded from formal politics in authoritarian states by reigning elites, do the common people have concrete ways of achieving community objectives? Contrary to conventional wisdom, this book demonstrates that they do. Focusing on the political life of the sha'b (or popular classes) in Cairo, Diane Singerman shows how men and women develop creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals, despite the dominant forces ranged against them. Starting at the household level in one densely populated neighborhood of Cairo, Singerman examines communal patterns of allocation, distribution, and decision-making. Combining the institutional focus of political science with the sensitivities of anthropology, she uncovers a system of informal networks, supported by an informal economy, that constitutes another layer of collective institutions within Egypt and allows excluded groups to pursue their interests. Avenues of Participation traces this informal system from its grounding in the family to its influence on the larger polity. Discussing the role of these networks in meeting fundamental needs in the community--such as earning a living, reproducing the family, saving and investing money, and coping with the bureaucracy--Singerman demonstrates the surprising power these "excluded" people wield. While the government has reduced politics to the realm of distribution to protect itself from challenges, she argues that the popular classes in Cairo, as consumers of goods and services, have turned exploiting the government into a fine art.