This book seeks to push forward the boundaries of current practices and knowledge to embrace innovative solutions, novel approaches, and grounded technologies within realistic comprehension of economic risks and environmental implications. It investigates different scales and situations, various urban forms and morphology, and various localities and totalities. The book presents a platform of recent research, findings, and answers to pressing issues of building new cities and expanding existing ones in the Middle East and Egypt, within their ecological limits, formulating images, architecture, and public spaces to create liveable, working, and productive cities. At the time of transformation, people continue to influence their habitat and beyond. While facing the compelling challenges of the present, innovative development poses itself as an inevitable response to future demands. In socio-economic disparities and environmental crises, innovation necessitates a mode of action to act responsibly in addressing issues in unconventional manners. The production of space becomes a responsibility towards the development of human resources, promoting their needs, capacities, and advancing a decent quality of life.

This professional book introduces an analytical framework of urban informality perspectives in the Middle East that is aligned with the Global South. The context of Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan—in the Middle East— is the transregional focus of this book. In these contexts, the book opens a new arena of academic discussion on the theory and practice of urban informality. Urban Informality: Experiences and Urban Sustainability Transitions in Middle East Cities questions urban informality, "as a site of transitions", interrelated and interlinked with urban sustainability transitions in speedy changes in a given environment. The book presents ‘urban informality sustainability transitions’ regarding resilience and adaptability that require shifts in urban systems. Shifts from a static process to a dynamic process that eradicates the fragmentation between the tensions, anxieties, and pressures of four modes of production, reproduction, consumptions, and distribution of goods and services in the city and its practices. Finally, through eleven chapters, the concluding remarks explore to what extent and how can urban informality transitions be sustainable.

This book reviews the structure, applications, technologies, governance, environmental sustainability, smart communities, gender space and other issues related to smart cities. The book is divided into four parts. The first one entails the conceptual background, growth and development. The second part presents diverse issues on smart cities in terms of environmental sustainability, the role of the community, and gender space, among others. The third part revolves around economic and technological issues, and the fourth is a compilation of case studies in connection with smart cities. This collection of diverse issues from different locations presents a holistic view of smart cities contributed by authors who have undertaken research projects and implemented their own unique perspectives and methods. A variety of innovative concepts such as digital governance, polycentric structures, geodata repositories, geoweb services and advanced geospatial technologies in smart city planning, urban microclimatic parameters, and urban heat islands provide invaluable knowledge for researchers and practitioners in these fields.

Investigating key features of contemporary Egypt, this volume includes Egypt’s modern history, politics, economics, the legal system, environment, and its media and modes of cultural expression. It examines Egypt’s capacities to meet developmental challenges, ranging from responding to globalization and regional competition to generating sufficient economic growth and political inclusion to accommodate the interests and demands of a rapidly growing population. The macrohistory of Egypt is complemented by the microhistories of specific institutions and processes that constitute separate sections in this handbook. The chapters revolve around political economy: it is shaped by the people and their abilities, political and legal institutions, organization of the economy, natural and built environments, and culture and communication. Politics has been overwhelmingly authoritarian and coercive since the military seized power in 1952; consequently, the contributions address both the causes and consequences of unbalanced civil–military relations, military rule, and persisting authoritarianism in the political society. This multidisciplinary handbook serves a dual purpose of introducing readers to Egypt’s history and contemporary political economy and as a comprehensive key resource for postgraduate students and academics interested in modern Egypt.

This edited volume investigates place, product, and personal branding in the Middle East and North Africa, including some studies from adjacent regions and the wider Islamicate world. Going beyond simply presenting logos and slogans, it critically analyses processes of strategic communication and image building under general conditions of globalisation, neoliberalisation, and postmodernisation and, in a regional perspective, of lasting authoritarian rule and increased endeavours for "worlding." In particular, it looks at the multiple actors involved in branding activities, their interests and motives, and investigates tools, channels, and forms of branding. A major interest exists in the entanglements of different spatial scales and in the (in)consistencies of communication measures. Attention is paid to reconfigurations of certain images over time and to the positioning of objects of branding in time and space. Historical case studies supplement the focus on contemporary branding efforts. While branding in the Western world and many emerging economies has been meticulously analysed, this edited volume fills an important gap in the research on MENA countries.

This edited volume delves into the intricate challenges that cities face in the midst of evolving socio-political, economic, and environmental landscapes. With a focus on inclusivity and diversity, the book thoroughly examines the transformation of urban systems and their manifestations within broader spatial contexts. Employing a trans- and interdisciplinary approach, the editors have strategically curated diverse research clusters to address key aspects of inclusive urban transformation from multiple perspectives. These clusters explore alternative paradigms for sustainable urban transformation, the dynamics of city regions, inclusive tourism development, the de-contestation of urban heritage to diversify urban identities, and inclusive intersectional city-making practices. By fostering collaboration and cross-pollination among these clusters, the volume fosters a transdisciplinary understanding of inclusive and sustainable urban transformation, facilitating the development of more holistic approaches in conceptualizing and promoting inclusive urban theory and praxis.