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This paper focuses on a material culture approach in order to explore multiple dimensions in the production of denim in an export dominated assembly plant in Port Said, Egypt. Ethnographic data are analyzed to highlight the interplay between the surfaces and tools used in garment making and the skills and strategies deployed by factory workers, so elucidating some of the less immediately visible nuances in the turbulence of daily life on the production shop floor. Contrary to the common view that dismisses production tasks as repetitive and boring, these processes reveal the technical structures, skill hierarchies and uses of shop-floor language that give shade and variation to the skills attributed to different stages of "made-to-order" garment assembly work. These dynamics become more significant within the specific context of global and local competition for orders in which denim is established as the definitive fabric and brand through which reputations are made and sustained-for workers, for firms and for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cairo Station/Bab al-Hadid (1958) is widely considered to be Youssef Chahine’s signature piece. For Chahine (1926-2008), Egypt’s most celebrated director, as well as most critics and viewers the filmic images became iconic. Yet because of its daring break with certain studio conventions, the film reaped negative reviews and public hostility upon its release. Despite its rediscovery in later years, it remains a film that is difficult to categorize, not quite neo-realist and not quite revolutionary, due to a strong melodramatic streak and a startling psycho-sexual, rather than political focus. This essay re-examines the classic film as the work of an artist struggling to bend genre conventions while exploring the kaleidoscope of a metropolis undergoing rapid sociological and political transformation. It explores the history of Cairo, and of Cairo’s central rail station, the claustrophobic epicenter of the story – a site of constant motion, to and from the city, of youthful hope and, all too often, of shattered, and at times, demented dreams. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines growth in the extent of Cairo's urban area and changes in population distribution between 1986 and 1996. It includes a quantitative assessment of urban growth and changing patterns of population density in the city's administrative sub-districts. In a unique contribution to the available research on Cairo, the population density for the built-up area of the census units is calculated, giving much greater insight into the city's growth than previous research that calculated density based on census units in their entirety. The study finds significant population decentralisation taking place and discusses the possible implications if this trend continues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]