Process In Egypt Research Articles

Informal settlement upgrading policies in Egypt: towards improvement in the upgrading process

The problem of informal settlements in Egypt is one of the most serious problems due to its economic, social and security impacts which influence the safety and stability of the Egyptian society. Due to inadequacies in planning, management and provision of basic urban infrastructure and services, the urbanization process is taking place in a haphazard manner with no control and regulation. The growth of informal areas has become a natural indicator of the process of the country’s urbanization. It is essential that at least 40% of the urban population lives in informal areas. This paper aims to evaluate the urban upgrading process in Egypt by taking the policy issue of upgrading the informal settlements as an instance in order to provide some practical actions and strategies that could help to advance effectively urban upgrading process towards achieving more improvements in the upgrading process.

Sustainable community and user-controlled housing processes in Cairo, Egypt: ‘no-harm’ principle as a regulatory mechanism

Sustainable communities cannot be achieved without genuine community participation, especially in housing decision-making processes. User-controlled housing is increasingly perceived as a credible means for community involvement in housing processes. User-controlled housing needs a regulatory mechanism that is qualitative, socio-culturally responsive, adaptive and proscriptive. In the case of social housing in Cairo, the research questions the potential of the traditional housing principle of ‘no-harm’, which simply means that ‘residents’ initiated action which is considered harmful to others should be prevented if those affected ask for its discontinuation’, act as this regulatory mechanism for residents’ actions. A qualitative/quantitative research method was applied to undertake the investigations in case studies representing three distinctive patterns of urban poor communities in Cairo: public housing, transformed public housing and informal housing. Both the current application of the ‘no-harm’ principle in these three urban housing contexts and the attitudes of their residents towards its application were investigated. The principle has proved to be significantly relevant nowadays in a way that opens the door for (re)integrating the principle in the legislative system for social housing processes in Egypt.

A LANDSCAPE PLANNING APPROACH FOR CREATING A RECREATION PARK OPEN SPACES SYSTEM (RPOSS): A Study of Wadi - El-Arish Sinai Region in Egypt

This paper will focus on elaborating the idea of the Recreational Open Space System, and how to implement it in Egypt as a new product in the planning process in Egypt, taking Wadi Al-Arish in North Sinai region as an example. The main objective of this research is to introduce this concept that will help to ensure that the Regional landscape remains healthy and responds to growing demands on its resources and facilities in the Egyptian planning process. “Open space,” is defined as public and private land that is generally natural in character. It may support agricultural production, or provide outdoor recreational opportunities, or protect cultural and natural resources. It contains relatively few buildings or other humanmade structures. Depending on the location and surrounding land use, open space can range in size from a small city plaza or neighborhood park of several hundred square feet, corridors linking neighborhoods of several acres to pasture, croplands or natural areas and parks covering thousands of acres. (Fabos, J. 2004) “Recreation Park Open Space System” (RPOSS) means land and water areas, or interests therein, and facilities determined by the metropolitan council to be of regional importance in providing for a balanced system of public outdoor recreation for the metropolitan area including but not limited to park reserves, major linear parks and trails, large recreation parks, and conservatories, zoos, and other special use facilities. Parks and open space are vital to the quality of life of residents in the region. Parks and open space benefit the individual by providing opportunities for recreation, fitness, self-discovery, and education. (Opdam, P et al., 2002) They benefit communities by serving as public gathering places, and they have been shown to reduce juvenile crime rates and increase community pride. Parks and open space have economic benefits as well, with increased values of land adjacent to parks and trails, as a stimulus for tourism, as a factor in curbing health care costs, and as a quality of life factor for retaining and attracting business to the region. Parks and open space also provide significant environmental benefits by preserving natural habitat, and by protecting and improving air and water quality.

The Arab Summer and Its Discontents

The paper looks at the roots of the Arab Spring, the subsequently contentious political landscape, which emerged in post-revolutionary Middle East, and the series of conflicts and dizzying challenges, which have gripped much of the region. Principally, it examines, historically, the distinct combination of (structural, agential, and triggering) factors, which led to the Arab uprisings as well as the role of moderate, mass-based Islamist movements, principally the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (mb) and its offshoots, which managed to rise to power, in certain countries, after the downfall of Arab strongmen across the region. But, shortly after, to be followed by the unceremonious demise of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (mb), and the ensuing region-wide backlash against its offshoots in 2013. The paper argues, after a careful examination of the structural roots of the 2010–11 Arab uprisings, that one of the principal pitfalls of the ruling Islamist parties was their inability to establish a credible mode of governance, which could decisively mark a break with the old order. They failed to provide an alternative economic agenda to address the structural maladies of the crony capitalism, which emerged on the heels of accelerating market-oriented reforms in the 1990s. The influence of Arab Sheikhdoms on Arab Transition Countries (atcs), and their support for ultra-conservative Salafi groups, further diluted the process of democratic transition, leading to, among other things, the breakdown of the political process in Egypt.

Urban Egypt: On the Road from Revolution to the State? Governance, the Built Environment, and Social Justice

Three years after the Egyptian revolution, demands for social justice continue to be articulated but remain largely unfulfilled. Many of those demands revolve around the need for urban development, including more equitable spatial distribution of public services, further democratization of planning processes and local government, and urban development policies which serve the general public, rather than wealthy residents, foreign investors, or real estate speculators. Unfortunately, the current urban local administrative system lacks representativeness and does not allow for local participation. More recently, there have been a growing number of mobilized initiatives that are searching for ways to build a more reciprocal relationship between urban communities and the state. Yet the government remains ambivalent to further democratize local administration and local politics and increase representation at the local level, and continues to design and implement plans that do not address the urban challenges affecting the daily lives of millions of Egyptians. Building on the work of “TADAMUN: The Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative,” and in light of global experiences in participatory local governance, this article argues that reforming local government through institutionalizing communication channels between citizens and the state and broadening their engagement through coalitions, creating new channels for government accountability and responsiveness, and providing more equitable services, may help meet the demands for social injustice generated by the 2011 Revolution and consolidate the democratic process in Egypt.

Reflections on (Counter) Revolutionary Processes in Egypt

Reflections on (Counter) Revolutionary Processes in Egypt

Dis/playing power and the politics of patriarchy in revolutionary Egypt: the creative activism of Huda Lutfi

This paper explores how creative activism, or art activism, promotes culture and gender transformation as an intrinsic part of the overall ongoing revolutionary process in Egypt. Simultaneously it examines how archiving is crucial to extending ways of keeping the revolution alive, especially in the face of endless efforts to eradicate its traces and impact. The paper focuses on visual art and in particular the work of Huda Lutfi who produced a stunning body of work deconstructing gender in the context of a porous yet stubborn patriarchal culture in the years prior to the outbreak of the revolution. Against the background of this early work the paper conducts a reading of Lutfi's exhibition in Cairo on the eve of the third anniversary of the outbreak of the revolution at a moment when re-invigorated patriarchal forces are ascendant. Lutfi presents a powerful display of both the bravado and the fragility of patriarchal culture, especially uniformed patriarchy, and of the insistent revolutionary counterpoise. Thus far visual art is able to sustain its public presence in Egypt and as such operates as a powerful tool in the creation and sustaining of revolutionary ethos in the midst of the current patriarchal resurgence that is inimical to the revolutionary project.

Transnational Politics, Women & the Egyptian Revolution: Examples from Paris

The revolutionary process in Egypt since 2011 has not only mobilized masses in Egypt, but has also led to a massive politicization and polarization of Egyptian communities abroad. Women from different generations became active in the protests claiming their agency to participate in changing their country. Cyberactivism became a particularly important vehicle for women to participate politically in the revolutionary process. This paper looks at transnational political networks in Paris working to influence politics in Egypt in the (post)-revolutionary phase between 2011 and 2013 with a special focus on women. An analysis of 30 informative-narrative interviews and several popular Facebook pages of diaspora networks reveals how women participated alongside men in transnational mobilizations in Paris, and how they experienced and lived these moments as they took part in their struggle. Several factors shape the political participation of women in this diasporic context, the gendered character of Egyptian migration to France itself, an inner fragmentation and politicization among women and finally, women's broader understanding of politics blurring the traditional boundary of public and private. Contrary to assimilation theory, most participating women are not marginalized or poorly educated immigrants, but are on the contrary well educated and socially well connected.

Political Representation and Legitimacy in Egypt: The Making and the Reception of Claims during the Parliamentary Elections 2011

In times of transformation and extreme fluidity in which the sources of legitimate political representation like elections, constitutions etc. are contested, alternative theoretical understandings of political representation and legitimacy need to be developed in order to explain change. Starting from the assumption that elections are only a snapshot that show acceptance at a certain moment, the article explores the making and the reception of claims during the parliamentary elections 2011/12 in Egypt. The following questions are raised: How can we think about legitimate political representation for a better understanding of the transformation process in Egypt? How can we explain the changes and developments concerning political representation during the parliamentary elections 2011? The provided data are the result of a field research started in December 2010 containing in-depth interviews with a wide range of actors.

Assessment of the mutual impact between climate and vegetation cover using NOAA-AVHRR and Landsat data in Egypt

The objective of the current study is to use satellite data to assess the mutual influence between vegetation and climate. The Ismailia Governorate was selected as a case study to investigate the impact of vegetation cover expansion on both land surface and air temperature from 1983 to 2010 and vice versa. This observation site was carefully selected as a clear example of the high rate of the reclamation and vegetation expansion process in Egypt. Land surface temperature (LST) was estimated through the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (a space-borne sensor embarked on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) data while air temperature (T air) was collected from ground meteorological stations in the study area. Irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater resources. However, consistent information on irrigation water use is still lacking. Relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and T air data were inserted in the Penman–Monteith equation to calculate potential evapotranspiration (ETo), while both LST and T air were used to observe the relative water status of the study area as a result of the water deficit index (WDI). Then, both WDI and ETo were used to calculate actual evepotranspiration (ETC.). The results showed that LST decreased by about 2.3 °C while T air decreased by about 1.6 °C during the study period. The results showed also that the vegetation cover expanded from 25,529.85 ha in 1985 to 63,140.49 ha in 2009 with about 147 % increase. This decrease in LST and air temperature was according to the expansion of the cultivated land that was proved through the processing of three Landsat TM and Landsat ETM+ imageries acquired in June 19, 1985, June 7, 1998, and June 29, 2009. The vegetation water consumption was affected by the decreasing surface and air temperature. The results showed that the water deficit index decreased by about 0.35, and actual evapotranspiration increased by about 2.5 mm during the study period.

Integration as a Significance Factor in Effective Coastal Management: Egypt as a Case Study

In the last two decades, integration and collaboration have become common themes in coastal management. They are advocated for their holistic approach that considers management outcomes rather than narrow jurisdictions of individual issues. Being more specific; Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is a complex process with various issues to be covered and requiring a network of agencies and policies to be integrated. Furthermore, ICZM as a tool of effective planning and management encompasses different dimensions. Simultaneously, the integration should be territorial (comprising a delimited space), and temporal (long-term oriented), as well as being horizontal (cross-sectoral) and vertical (involving various administrative bodies) Hence, Multi-dimensional integration is essential for ICZM to succeed. However, achieving effective integration in coastal management is always difficult, especially in developing countries. Egypt provides an excellent case study of this experience. Since the mid-1990s several attempts have been made to promote ICZM in Egypt, although none have, as yet, achieved their goal of having an ICZM plan in operation. This paper reviews ICZM process in Egypt focussing on discussing the integration between all actors to plan and implement ICZM based on interviews with key ICZM actors as well as documentary analysis and participant observation in ICZM meetings. It seeks through a critical evaluation to provide recommendations that could help to enhance the implementation of ICZM in Egypt and other developing countries.

Towards an advanced mechanism to benefit from information systems in issuance of building permits

Issuing building permits process in Egypt faces many problems and difficulties. These difficulties are a result of many causes which maybe lack of experience in examining documents, the municipal personnel are not suitable to the tasks assigned to them, multiplicity of agencies taking approval on building permits, lack of databases and using traditional methods of accomplishing the work. In order to overcome most of these difficulties, the local government should utilize the new technologies because it has many capabilities and advantages. Geographic information system is a powerful technology that can support the municipalities in implementing their duties. Many municipalities today are using this powerful technology to improve the quality of decision-making, facilitate information sharing among officials and with the public, making municipal information and transactions easily accessible via the internet and make dramatic change in public presentations, reports and municipal web sites. In order to implement and manage the GIS system, some steps must be done to insure the success of the information system. The key factor in developing management strategies for the introduction, implementation, integration, and operation of GIS in any organization is to determine the appropriate role of GIS in the organization and to understand the implications of that role. This paper will discuss and demonstrate the importance of urban development control, the difficulties facing the process of issuing building permits, the importance of GIS in issuing permits and finally importance of developing strategies for the success of implementing and managing GIS in the organization.

The Limited Impact of the USA on Political Liberalization in Egypt during the Mubarak Era

Among all authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle Eastern and North African region, Egypt can be considered as a crucial example which has attempted to take a number of steps toward political liberalization since the 1970s. As an external actor through its aid programs, bilateral agreements, direct grant programs, and partnership initiatives, the United States seemed to be working towards economic and political liberalization and democratization in Egypt. However, in spite of this seemingly fervent endeavor, particularly during the rule of President Mubarak, the US governments have failed in their attempts to liberalize Egypt. This article attempts to explain why the USA was not able to succeed in its initiatives to liberalize Egypt, despite its serious economic assistances and political efforts by referring to two research traditions within comparative politics: structuralist analysis and rational choice theory. It argues that the USA, due to the problems concerning the structure of USAID, MEPI and BMENA, and the rational choices made by the same organizations had a limited impact on political liberalization process in Egypt.

The Role of the Internet in Shaping the Political Process in Egypt

There has been a growing debate about the extent to which the Internet influenced the Arab World’s recent revolutions described as the “Arab Spring”. This belief that the Internet had a contribution is supported by several events and evidences that occurred prior to these revolutions and provided clear indications about the Internet’s power. This paper investigates the effect of the Internet on shaping politics in Egypt. Research was conducted a few months before the revolution (January 25, 2011) covering the relevant literature, and the news and events that took place. A questionnaire was sent to a sample representing different segments of Internet users in Egypt to recognize their perceptions towards the value of the Internet in politics. Findings indicate a high interest among Egyptians in accessing news online, especially international and privately owned media. In addition, survey participants recognize the Internet’s potential for committing political change. Survey results show that the Internet is perceived in Egypt as a strong tool that political candidates could use to communicate with citizens; however, it is still used primarily for mobilization and information dissemination. Moreover, it was proven that age, gender, education and reading frequency of online news all have varying effects on civic engagement and perception of the role the Internet can play in politics in Egypt.

Constitution-Making Gone Wrong

With the recent wave of regime change in the Middle East, the process of constitution-making must again become a central concern for those interested in comparative law and politics. The conception of constitutional politics associated with Jon Elster and Bruce Ackerman views constitution-making as a potentially higher form of lawmaking with different dynamics than ordinary politics and states that ideally, constitution-making should be designed so as to be a relatively deliberative process where the role of group and institutional interests is deemphasized. I argue that a focus on achieving deliberation and transformation through constitution-making is unrealistic in certain situations and that theorists should instead often focus on avoiding worst-case scenarios of authoritarian regimes or breakdowns of order. Constitution-making moments must not be idealized; they are often traumatic events. In these situations, the central challenge of constitution-making is not to achieve a higher form of lawmaking but rather to constrain unilateral exercises of power. I use two recent Latin American examples where the constitution-making process was problematic to illustrate the difficulty. If political forces in assemblies are left unconstrained or poorly constrained, they can reshape politics to create a quasi-authoritarian regime (as occurred in Venezuela), or their attempt to impose a constitution on a reticent minority may create a constitutional breakdown (as nearly occurred in Bolivia). Some of the normative recommendations of followers of the dominant model – for example, that constitution-making should be highly participatory and should be undertaken in a specialized constituent assembly – emerge as problematic under this reconceptualization because they may increase the likelihood of a worst-case outcome. Finally, I apply my theory in order to get some analytic leverage on the current constitution-making process in Egypt. Contrary to most observers, I argue that the military may be playing a pro-democratic role by helping to constrain otherwise dominant electoral groups.

Fight or Acquiesce? Religion and Political Process in Turkey's and Egypt's Neoliberalizations

ABSTRACT The Polanyian expectation that disruptive marketization will lead to movements and policies that seek to ‘embed’ the market in society needs to be tempered by closer scrutiny to historical, religious and political contexts. This article studies how movements respond to marketization. The analysis proceeds through a comparison of the Turkish and Egyptian neoliberalizations, religious movements of the last decades, secular opposition, and finally recent processes, which have led to generally different social takes on neoliberalism. The irony of the Turkish case is that with the empowerment of the Islamists, religious opposition to neoliberalism was muted and secular opposition further marginalized and labelled as ‘anti‐democratic’. As a result, free market policies were not only sustained, but deepened and intensified, turning Turkey into a neoliberal ‘success story’. The (thus far) sustained mobilization of youth and labour in Egypt makes a direct imitation unlikely. Another major factor that would prevent a ‘Turkish’ solution to Egypt's crisis is the contrasting structure of the religious fields. Moreover, while the passive revolution has further solidified the professional and unified religious field in Turkey, the revolutionary process in Egypt seems to reinforce the fragmentation of the religious field. The article points out that making Islam compatible with neoliberalism would be more difficult in a country with a fragmented religious field, such as Egypt. Although neoliberalism was imposed from above and resisted from below in both nations, in Turkey it came to be embraced in the name of Islam and democracy, whereas in Egypt it remains an imposition and popular struggles against it persist. It is suggested that this process and field‐based approach to a Polanyian problem can also shed new light on discussions about ‘actually existing neoliberalisms’.

Analysing the fiscal process under a stochastic environment: evidence from Egypt

This paper investigates the sustainability of the fiscal budgeting process for Egypt, for both stochastic and non-stochastic environments. Note that persistent deficits and the accumulation of debt do not necessarily imply that the debt is unmanageable, and hence, that fiscal processes are unsustainable. It is possible for a government to change the historical pattern it has been following so that it will not continue to borrow and run a ‘Ponzi’ scheme in the future. This implies that the standard cointegration approach to testing whether a government adheres to its intertemporal budget constraint does not provide sufficient criteria for determining whether the fiscal process is truly sustainable. Consequently, we also use a more encompassing set of criteria under more realistic assumptions for determining whether the fiscal process in Egypt exhibits a sustainable budgeting process. These criteria for sustainability are based on the multicointegration approach. Therefore, both cointegration and multicointegration methodologies were used to evaluate these processes. It was found that the fiscal budgeting process in Egypt is sustainable in neither a stochastic nor a non-stochastic environment. Furthermore, the earlier and recent nationalisation of foreign trade resulted in an increase in deficits-GDP ratio. Adopting an austerity budget in 1967 and paying an additional cost of living allowance to government employees since 1975 were the only two policy regime changes which reduced the deficit per GDP.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Gender Agenda: Reformed or Reframed?

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has been hailed as an example of a reformist Islamist movement whose role is key to the democratisation process in Egypt. This article examines the extent to which first, the Muslim Brotherhood's agenda has been reformed, and second, the extent to which it recognises women's full and equal citizenship and third, the interface between agency and ideology. The multiple standpoints on gender matters existing within the movement is more than a manifestation of heterogeneity; its political function is to enable the movement to adopt different faces (framings) for multiple audiences. The article argues that the fundamental gendered construction of division of roles and power has not been reformed but reframed through the instrumentalisation of various discourses, despite the active agency of women in support of the movement.

Rethinking urban informality and the planning process in Egypt

The question of urban informality today concerns the majority of the inhabitants and policy makers of regional metropolises and secondary cities. The first aim of this article is to show that there are diverse mechanisms behind the complexity of urban housing informality in Egyptian cities. It explores the process of an Action Plan and it improves the understanding of the implementation process within informal housing areas. Secondly, it shows how the conditions of informal housing can be formulated at the local level with 'technical enablement', enabling governance of informal housing that facilitates cooperation among various actors. Understanding the built environment of informal housing developments would enable state and housing professionals to accumulate, eliminate, and integrate informal housing areas within formal planning zones, and the value of informal properties should be harnessed to promote development and alleviate poverty. It concludes that the role of the government should be changed from provider or facilitator into enabler.

Egypt's political economy: power relations in development

This is a new assessment of the impact of power relations on economic development.This new study deals with the unfolding of the great political and economic transformations of the modern Egyptian state from the appointment of Muhammad Ali as governor of Egypt in 1805 to the era of President Mubarak, with a special focus on the period 1990-2005, which witnessed a rigorous implementation of structural adjustment policies, the acceleration of economic privatization and liberalization, the emergence of a group of neo-conservatives within the ruling National Democratic Party, and the consolidation of business interests and representation in parliament and government. The author asserts that the modernization process in Egypt over the last two centuries has been determined by power relations and their articulation, and so she investigates in depth the impact of power relations on development strategies, on political liberalization, on politicized Islam as a hegemonic ideology adopted by the state since the beginning of the 1970s, and on gender relations in development.