Contesting Myths, Critiquing Cosmopolitanism, and Creating the New Cairo School of Urban Studies

Bibliographic Data

ID23246972
AuthorsDiane Singerman (corresponding author)
Year2009
Pages3-42
Publication date2009-10-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenuePapa Sartre (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherAmerican University in Cairo Press (PUBLISHER • EG)
DOI10.5743/cairo/9789774162893.003.0001
OpenAlexW2488746028
ISBN9789774162893
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This introductory chapter presents some collective findings on the novelty and complexity of globalizing Cairo. It launches a set of questions that will lead to more productive, critical, and democratic approaches for producing knowledge about the Middle East. It lays out the specificities of the Cairo School of Urban Studies' agenda and methods, and, in particular, the book's critique and careful appropriation of cosmopolitanism. In brief, the chapter recognizes that cosmopolitanism has often been imbedded in transnationalist, normative, universalist, and imperialist discourses. Nevertheless, when reworked through critical scholarship and public action, cosmopolitanism may inform an emancipatory counter-ethic beyond the limits of nationalism, fear, and narrow identity politics, one that complements the Cairo School's experiments with post-positivist research methodologies. However, first, the chapter returns to the events that confirmed Cairo's reemergence as a critical site for action and inquiry, and which made the release of this book timely.

Appropriation · Cosmopolitanism · Democracy · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Positivism · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Philosophy

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