The Arabic term for them al-madun al-‘ashwa’iyyah might be rendered ‘haphazard city’ the root means ‘chance’. Since the late 1970s, the regime’s liberalization policy- infitah, or ‘open door’-combined with the collapse of the developmentalist model, a deepening agrarian crisis and accelerated rural–urban migration, have produced vast new zones of what the French call ‘mushroom city’. The population of this megalopolis has swollen to an estimated 17 million, more than half of whom live in the sprawling self-built neighbourhoods and shantytowns that ring the ancient heart of the city and its colonial-era quarters. O nce the cultural and political beacon of the Arab world, Cairo is now close to becoming the region’s social sump.
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