Small Cities

Photo of vendors (Photo: Magharebia via GlobalUrbanist.

Deen Sharp recently wrote an article for The International Urbanist on the role of small cities in political changes.  While the focus of Cairo form Below is typically within metropolitan Cairo, his post reminds us of the larger context of which Cairo is a part.  I include a quote of his article below and a link to the full piece.  You can follow Deen Sharp on twitter @deensharp

In Egypt, protests and organised labour strikes by urban social movements in smaller cities across the country critical to the Egyptian uprising were occurring before Bouazizi’s self-immolation and before the gathering in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on the 25th of January 2011. Indeed, Alexandria rather than Cairo was the site of two of the most critical events that spurred the move to Tahrir Square: the police killing in June 2010 of Khaled Said and the bombing of the Saints Church in January 2011.

The gatherings in public squares across Egypt on the 25th of January did not start from Tahrir Square; they began in Suez before spreading across the country. Police and protesters clashed in this heavily militarised port town resulting in the deaths of the first anti-regime protestorrs — murdered by police firing live ammunition at protestors — and the destruction of the first police station.

Reed the full text of his article Small Cities Arab Uprisings on Global Urbanist