Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance

This study investigates local activism in politically challenging contexts, focusing on Cairo. In such contexts, active resident groups strive for urban improvement, while governance arrangements often disregard citizen involvement in urban and public affairs. Cairo presents an exemplary case of lo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aya Elwageeh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Delft University of Technology 2023-06-01
Series:A+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment
Online Access:https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/abe/article/view/7074
_version_ 1797793820057796608
author Aya Elwageeh
author_facet Aya Elwageeh
author_sort Aya Elwageeh
collection DOAJ
description This study investigates local activism in politically challenging contexts, focusing on Cairo. In such contexts, active resident groups strive for urban improvement, while governance arrangements often disregard citizen involvement in urban and public affairs. Cairo presents an exemplary case of local activism in a politically challenging and under-researched context. The study explores the characteristics, roles, and interrelations of active resident groups with local governance arrangements and their deviations from existing literature. It employs a qualitative methodology with observations and semi-structured interviews with local officials and active residents from nine different districts. The study uses Facebook to select, observe, and analyze the activities of multiple active resident groups and contributes to theoretical frameworks for analyzing local activism in complex contexts. It reveals the dominant and absent roles and the governance dimensions (un)attainable by active residents. It also traces the sources of limited local activism in the existing governance arrangements in Cairo, highlighting the importance and difficulty of changing governance arrangements in Egypt. The study broadens our understanding of local activism in the Global South beyond dominant forms of activism. 
first_indexed 2024-03-13T02:53:52Z
format Article
id doaj.art-b58fd775f0d44f8b807d2b1eee2cd4d6
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2212-3202
2214-7233
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-13T02:53:52Z
publishDate 2023-06-01
publisher Delft University of Technology
record_format Article
series A+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment
spelling doaj.art-b58fd775f0d44f8b807d2b1eee2cd4d62023-06-28T08:24:49ZengDelft University of TechnologyA+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment2212-32022214-72332023-06-01131210.7480/abe.2023.12.7074Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood GovernanceAya Elwageeh0Delft University of Technology This study investigates local activism in politically challenging contexts, focusing on Cairo. In such contexts, active resident groups strive for urban improvement, while governance arrangements often disregard citizen involvement in urban and public affairs. Cairo presents an exemplary case of local activism in a politically challenging and under-researched context. The study explores the characteristics, roles, and interrelations of active resident groups with local governance arrangements and their deviations from existing literature. It employs a qualitative methodology with observations and semi-structured interviews with local officials and active residents from nine different districts. The study uses Facebook to select, observe, and analyze the activities of multiple active resident groups and contributes to theoretical frameworks for analyzing local activism in complex contexts. It reveals the dominant and absent roles and the governance dimensions (un)attainable by active residents. It also traces the sources of limited local activism in the existing governance arrangements in Cairo, highlighting the importance and difficulty of changing governance arrangements in Egypt. The study broadens our understanding of local activism in the Global South beyond dominant forms of activism.  https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/abe/article/view/7074
spellingShingle Aya Elwageeh
Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance
A+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment
title Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance
title_full Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance
title_fullStr Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance
title_full_unstemmed Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance
title_short Local Activism in Urban Neighborhood Governance
title_sort local activism in urban neighborhood governance
url https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/abe/article/view/7074
work_keys_str_mv AT ayaelwageeh localactivisminurbanneighborhoodgovernance