URBAN THEORY AND PRACTICE: THE CAIRO CASE STUDY

Throughout history, urban societies have had to find ways to achieve social integration and urban development. However, the use of set analytical categories becomes more complex when contemporary societies are studied since the development process coincides with a progressive differentiation in the social structure. Market reciprocity, redistribution and exchange co-exist in present-day complex societies. Family, neighbourhood and ethnic economies may be described and interpreted, wholly or in part, as forms of reciprocity also in a contemporary metropolis. Redistribution brings to mind forms of the welfare state, but more generally problems of taxation and reallocation of resources to different parts of the economic and social system. Urban organisations and institutions take on different characters, and the traditional types which towns and cities are closest to, in their mix of different aspects, may also steer contemporary inquiry. However, to understand current complex cities we need to capture and explain the trends in institutional organisation and their diversifications.