The Social [Il]Logic Of [Sub]Urban Exodus: The Rise And Fall Of Nasr City And The Evolution Of The Egyptian Middle Class

The main focus of this paper is Nasr City, one of Cairo’s largest residential districts. It examines the forces behind its inception in the early 60s, its boom throughout the 80s and 90s as the hub of the Egyptian middle class; and its rapid decline as such since the mid 2000s. Through an encapsulated review of modern Egyptian socio-economic history, this paper aims to prove that each of the aforementioned instances in Nasr City’s evolution directly corresponds to a major political and economic shift that resulted in significant social change. Such discourse would then be used to understand the psychological drive and sociological logic, or lack thereof, that fuel the rise and fall of urban attractors.