Analysis of Globalization and the Production of Locality in Urban Egypt Article by Farha Grannam - Essay Example

Controversy in the architectural world in the Middle East has been there for a long time. Farha Ghannam highlights globalization and the methodological issues involved. He recognizes the need to go beyond the division of the globe to the rest. The notion that the world is being westernized is still in existence highly.Globalization is viewed as the flow between the west and the rest of the world, which is poor. This is a view that has been ignored mostly in the aim of showing how the globe is being westernized.

A view on the complex flows that are major in connectedness between different parts of the world weakens analytical potentials. However, the problem arises when globalization is viewed as neocolonialism or Americanization. The flows from United States and Europe are said to shape the landscape of Cairo in different ways. There is a need for broadening the globalization concept so that the flows responsible for shaping cultural identities and practices. Grannam (250) says that ‘many changes were needed to facilitate the operation of capital…’ this shows that there is need for several changes to take place in globalization.

The new boundaries, differentiations, and social inequalities being produced and clanged by global flows are important to asses. There are things that attract attention to the inequalities that are produced by global processes. Global flows are not only structured but they also structure. There are groups that are empowered by having connections with the western cities. Production of urban locality is an issue that requires to be addressed with the increased movement of images, people, and commodities.

Locality is produced by the interactions of those dwelling and those travelling. Locality is what allows individuals to follow collective flows that are resisted in different contexts (Grannam 256).Diane Singerman reviews how there are international scholars who have collaborated in producing information on politics and culture. Looking at Cairo we realize how complicated the normative project of citizenship is within globalization. Through carrying out research on shops, malls, neighborhoods, villages, towns, and historical areas then it is easy to understand the global flows.

With the example of Cairo whose economy was not planned, it is easy to understand why it is megalopolis (Singerman 85).I agree that transforming public space to private is legitimated except if it results from crime, terrorism, or pollution. However, Contesting over public resources and space have implications on the national identity. Cairo is changing slowly because of policies that affect both the urban and the rural to ensure continuity. The government has highly encouraged expansion of informal housing in Cairo.

This is through turning away building of rental houses that are affordable to building new towns and luxury gated communities (Alsayyad 120). The government has ignored its own policies of construction, development, and planning. Several things have changed, as there are growing local resistances and upcoming cures for diseases that previously had no cure such as cancer. This shows how much of upgrading has taken place. Criminalization of politics on the other hand has encouraged cycles of violence that continue to dominate up to date.

The exclusion of political policies is common and this has weakened the citizenship rights. There are hundreds of flats that are being built in the desert in Egypt and the question on who will purchase them still remains unanswered. The author says ‘these new initiatives to launch desert cities and new settlements have only been partially successful as economic ventures (Singerman 100).’‘Eighteen towns were planned between 1975 and 1979 under the aegis of the new urban communities Authorities’ says Alsayyad.

This shows how construction was taking place at a high rate in Cairo. Westernization is taking place in the Middle East and this is what has led top major changes in the countries.Works CitedAlsayyad, Nezar. Cairo: Histories of a City. London: The Belknap Press of Harvard Universitypress, 2011.Grannam, Farha. "Globalization and the production of locality in urban egypt." Keeping himconnected (2006): 251-265.Singerman, Diane. "Citizenship,urban space, publics and inequality." Cairo Cosmopolitan (83103): 2006.