Urban anthropology

Minor mode - Public spaces in Cairo and in Khartoum: Downtown and public gardens (parks).

– Urban anthropology of public spaces of the Egyptian capital: the Downtown area (wast el-balad) and parks.


20041116000300: Le Caire, Wast al-Balad (Donwtown Cairo), Egypte, le 16 nov. 2004, à minuit 03.

This anthropology is interested in particular spaces of the metropolis: public spaces, and especially those of the Downtown area and the parks. These two types of spaces, even if they obviously differ, share however a common fate: they were born at the same time (middle of the 19^th century) and knew the same trials and tribulations (a progressive “popularization” of their frequenting).

The issue here is to focus primarily on the study of the evolution (observed and said by its actors) of the framework of public space itself, but above all its uses, the norms, and manners of behaving in a situation of urban anonymity. Contrary to the anthropological work on the field in Siwa Oasis, it is not mainly a matter of relations with individuals/actors here, but the observation of a crowd and its individuals.

– The research led to Cairo, since 2002, is on:

The uses of public spaces of the parks (with a special attention to the Zoological garden of Giza — Giza Zoo),

The public uses of spaces of the Downtown area,

The nature in the city and urban landscapes.

– Prolongation of these researches on the park spaces in Khartoum (Sudan).

Cairo (Egypt)

Regarding Cairo, the objective is to define the terms of use and behavior in public spaces and especially in public parks and the downtown, both “invented” in the nineteenth century by an urban reformist movement (this work therefore addresses also the morphology of places and their history).

Urban spaces

An anthropology of urban public spaces, and especially Cairo: downtown (Wast el-Balad) and public gardens.