An Urban Revolution in Egypt?

International audienceThis chapter examines the impact of changing urban planning policies in Egypt. It attempts to describe the threefold crisis that Egyptian cities experienced between 2011 and 2014, characterized by considerable political inertia, procrastination toward development projects and the territorialization of conflict. The chapter also focuses on the new forms of informal urbanization during this transition period. Encouraged by the drop in police checks and the boom in the informal economy in 2011, the strong growth of self-built neighborhoods in poor areas is a socio- demographic reality that the new authorities are struggling to understand. Drawing on interviews with a number of urban actors, the chapter shows that the emergence of new forums for debate on urban planning in Cairo and Alexandria in particular, the proliferation of urban activists in a civil society in transition, as well as efforts by institutions of higher education to adapt the provision of training in the field of architecture, are catalysts for new initiatives in a rapidly changing Egypt