David Sims is an economist and urban planner who has been based in Egypt since 1974. As well as having worked in several Arab, Asian and African countries, he has led studies on urban development, industrial estates, tourism, and other aspects of Egypt’s economic geography and spatial development. He is the author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City out of Control (AUC Press, pbk edition, 2012) and Egypt's Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster (AUC Press, pbk edition, 2018).
"[Sims] is one of Cairo's sharpest observers." --Los Angeles Review
of Books
"This volume describes the urban development of the Egyptian city
of Cairo over the past half century, concentrating on issues of
land and housing use and development, as well as intersecting
issues of economic organization, transport, and governance. The
central theme that arises in nearly every aspect of the proceedings
is the contradiction between the authoritarian (but often
ineffective) state and the vast areas of informality that make
Cairo what it is today, although particularly in the area of
housing and land, where, for example, urban extensions planned by
the state often remain devoid of inhabitants while two-thirds of
the city's inhabitants live in unplanned neighborhoods that have
sprung up since 1950 in contradiction of state policies and laws."
--Reference Book News
"In a rigorous presentation of Cairo s growth and geography in the
last four decades, Sims has done a masterful job to present the
city as an exceptional case of urban logic. While Cairo is often
included in studies of the global south, Sims argues that the city
is in fact one that follows its own logic, often in spite of
deliberate policies of the Mubarak regime to address problems and
issues. This book is an important urban study of the largest city
in Africa." --The Global Ministries
"To get a sense of the magnitude of the challenge and of the
inequalities the Mubarak regime fostered, one need look no further
than David Sims s book . . . . [Understanding Cairo] is a wonderful
new reference." --The National
"Highly recommended to students and scholars looking to further
explore issues relating to contemporary Cairo. It is also useful to
tourists as an alternative to the clutter of superficial narratives
and portraits of the city." --Jadaliyya
"An eye-opening and readable account of Cairo s urban framework."
--Egypt Independent
"Encyclopaedic in scope, structure and information." --Egyptian
Gazette
"The strength of Understanding Cairo stems from the author's
seemingly limitless knowledge of the city and his familiarity with
relevant academic and journalistic texts, census data and Google
satellite images. Tables, charts, photos and maps abound,
complementing the book's content. The time Sims has spent in Cairo
allows him to add anecdotes like the following: "In no sense are
[informal areas] 'no-go zones, ' except perhaps for those of
Cairo's paranoid upper classes." Sims successfully challenges
conventional wisdom throughout the book."--Christopher Reeve,
Journal of International Affairs
"Although individual informal areas of Cairo have been well studied
by anthropologists and sociologists, Sims aims for a more
relational approach among different sectors of the city. This is a
crucial methodological intervention and makes for engaging reading.
Sims's personal experience of the city enhances his analysis, and
he brings a close, critical and yet compassionate eye to local
innovations and the openings caused by the relative failures of
elite-led development. For residents, urban planners and scholars
of Cairo, this book is a welcome and very important addition to
understanding the contemporary city. For urban studies scholars
more generally, it is a model of understanding the role of local
context in broader patterns of late 20th-century and early
21st-century urban growth."--Urban Studies
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