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Egypt has placed its hopes on developing its vast and empty deserts as the ultimate solution to the country’s problems. New cities, new farms, new industrial zones, new tourism resorts, and new development corridors, all have been promoted for over half a century to create a modern Egypt and to pull tens of millions of people away from the increasingly crowded Nile Valley into the desert hinterland. The results, in spite of colossal expenditures and ever-grander government pronouncements, have been meager at best, and today Egypt’s desert is littered with stalled schemes, abandoned projects, and forlorn dreams. It also remains stubbornly uninhabited.
Egypt’s Desert Dreams is the first attempt of its kind to look at Egypt’s desert development in its entirety. It recounts the failures of governmental schemes, analyzes why they have failed, and exposes the main winners of Egypt’s desert projects, as well as the underlying narratives and political necessities behind it, even in the post-revolutionary era. It also shows that all is not lost, and that there are alternative paths that Egypt could take.
"A sharp, relentless critique. . . . Egypt's Desert Dreams is a rare piece of analysis in a 'near void' of desert development literature. [It] should be essential reading for planners, academics, consultants, civil society organizations, international institutions, and laypeople interested in this vital topic, as well as Egyptian politicians."—Los Angeles Review of Books
"This text adds to a rich and growing field of research on the function of environmental projects to legitimate and extend state power in the region . . . and is unique in focusing attention specifically on the desert itself. Sims . . . provides both detailed information on particular historical (mis)adventures in desert development, and a broad analytical scope that lays out the internal logic of the desert development imperative in Egypt over the last sixty years."—Review of Middle East Studies
"David Sims' remarkable book stands as a superb model for scholarship that will be illuminating and richly useful for policymakers and development experts, as well as social and environmental activists."—Journal of North African Studies
"Sims' detailed critique of Egypt's desert development is revelatory, constituting an essential addition to the literature on both the politics of development and the politics of Egypt. It shows not just failures in Egypt's desert 'dreams, ' but more generally a distorted political economy that purposefully empowers elites and disempowers most Egyptians."—Anthony Chase, Occidental College
"This important book is a must-read for planners and others interested in the development of Egypt. Policy makers would do well to listen to his advice."—Nezar AlSayyad, University of California, Berkeley
"In Egypt's Desert Dreams, unlike many urban researchers who examine urban desert expansion, Sims contextualizes urban expansion in the desert within the bigger desert development story. Through his simple and jargon--free writing style, he critiques mega agricultural projects, new urban communities, and mega economic projects, such as the Desert Development Corridor, special economic and industrial zones, and tourism-centric coastal development. This diversity and wealth of information makes the book beneficial beyond the typical audience of urban researchers."—TADAMUN: The Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative
"[An] important book . . . . Egypt's Desert Dreams is the first book to provide a full-length account of this misappropriation and misuse of the country's collective resources. But the real value of the book is in connecting recent events with the longer history of desert development."—Timothy Mitchell, from the foreword
Timothy Mitchell is professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of Colonizing Egypt, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity, and Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil.
1. Desert History, Geography, and Early Developments
2. A Roll Call of Desert Schemes and Dreams
3. The Imperative to Reclaim the Desert for Agriculture
4. The Long Saga of Trying to Build Cities and Settlements in the Desert
5. Manufacturing and Extractive Industries in the Desert
6. Tourism and Protectorates in the Desert
7. A New Population Map for Egypt?
8. The Fatal Flaw: Disastrous Management of Public Land
9. Summing Up: Can Lessons Finally Be Learned?