Conflict and reconciliation: on the cultural dynamics in the Cairene public space

• Main Author: Nagati, Omar Kamal
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7966

The informal regulations governing the patterns of inhabiting the public spaces of contemporary Cairo result in the chaotic appearance of the use and imagery of these spaces. Through the documentation and analysis of some of these patterns and their spatial implications, one could identify two sets of cultural values with two possible frameworks, or models. The one is ascribed to an institutional and formal framework while the other is a non-codified, yet culturally agreed upon, set of values. The dynamics between the two cultural models, as this study argues, involve different modes of interaction. In Cairo, modes of either a confrontation or of a denial are apparent in the public space, as they are manifest in the cultural discourse in general. By tracing the origins and the evolution of these models, the formal and the informal, two processes of cultural change are identified. The one embraced by the cultural elite is an abrupt, rapid and more responsive to external forces. The other, undertaken by the society at large, is gradual and slower in pace. It also requires wider span of time to absorb external cultural impulses. To the former, I refer as a 'High' culture, embraced by a culturally 'Ruling' group; while for the latter I use the term 'Popular' culture. Through the study of selected periods of urban/cultural history of the city, I argue for three stages of transition from one civilizational model to another. Each phase involves different dynamic between the two cultural groups, and in the nature of their distinctive role in the process of change. From the perspective of this 'bifurcation', two issues I consider essential, and should be addressed. The first, a theoretical one, is that the process of change undertaken by the popular group, which I define here as an 'indigenous' process of change, needs to be revealed, understood and acknowledged. It must be both culturally and physically incorporated in any developmental scheme. Secondly, is that most conventional planning approaches, which attempt to promote the physical conditions of the public space by restoring its absent 'order' while ignoring these indigenous processes eventually fail. In short, it is seen as imperative to develop a reconciliatory approach between the two apparently conflicted models rather than to subdue one by another.