Description
Book SynopsisIn
Politics in the Crevices, Sarah El-Kazaz takes readers into the world of urban planning and design practices in Istanbul and Cairo. In this transnational ethnography of neighborhoods undergoing contested rapid transformations, she reveals how the battle for housing has shifted away from traditional political arenas onto private crevices of the city. She outlines how multiple actors—from highly capitalized international NGOs and corporations to city dwellers, bureaucrats, and planning experts—use careful urban design to empower conflicting agendas, whether manipulating property markets to protect affordable housing or corner luxury real estate. El-Kazaz shows that such contemporary politicizations of urban design stem from unresolved struggles at the heart of messy transitions from the welfare state to neoliberalism, which have shifted the politics of redistribution from contested political arenas to design practices operating
within market logics, ultimatel
Trade Review“In this brilliant, theoretically astute, and thoughtful multisited ethnography, Sarah El-Kazaz explains how the markets for housing in Cairo and Istanbul have been forged by historical and political forces. She shows how the displacement of urban politics onto the ostensibly apolitical milieus of tourism, heritage, and community affects struggles over housing and the right to the city in these two world metropolises. This book is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the politics of urban planning under neoliberalism.” -- Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics, Queen Mary University of London
“In this rich political ethnography Sarah El-Kazaz asks how neoliberal modes of government have reshaped forms of urban politics in ways that challenge common assumptions about neoliberalism. The key terms of neoliberal politics—private ownership, value, interest, and property—are not, as it turns out, fixed and uniform concepts but in each case open to contestation and redefinition. With an innovative argument, superior research, and broad appeal,
Politics in the Crevices offers a detailed and convincing account of these dynamics at work.” -- Timothy Mitchell, author of * Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil *
Table of ContentsNote on Transliteration ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part I. The Making of Property Markets
1. Cairo 21
2. Istanbul 65
Part II. Redistributive Markets
3. Heritage 107
4. Community 148
5. Visible Publics 183
Conclusion 207
Notes 217
References 233
Index 241
