New Egyptian cities have failed to achieve most of their intended goals. One of the reasons for this is the adoption of a Western or modern (low density) pattern that is perhaps unsustainable. This pattern has no reference to the traditional compact pattern established in the region over many years. Therefore, a hypothesis is introduced in this research on the possible contribution of the compaction approach for current and future sustainability of these cities. To test this hypothesis, the main target is to measure the veracity of urban compaction in the new city context by focusing attention on the low income neighbourhoods. To conduct this judgement, a sustainability framework is proposed using two main concepts: social and spatial quality. The methodology adopted in this research is primarily of a quantitative nature to measure the social and spatial aspects of different urban patterns. Different cases that can be ranked on a ladder of urban compaction have been employed. The data were collected using a number of different methods including a questionnaire, site survey and focus group, and the nature and extent of relationships were investigated through statistical analysis. This analysis is linked to identifying the degree of urban and social sustainability at each compact pattern, and thereby indicates the possible correlations between sustainability and compaction. The findings show that the contribution of compact urban form to sustainability is a result of the characteristics of density and mixed use. Generally, the worst implications gained from mixed use have more impact than those from its lack or absence. Moreover, density is usually perceived negatively only when coupled with a high extent of mixed use. Looking for mixed use and density implications under the same umbrella (compactness) is therefore significant. In this regard, three compact patterns resulted in the context of low income neighbourhoods: hard compact, soft compact and dispersed pattern. Soft compact is the most sustainable pattern and is highly recommended for any further development. Accordingly, this research provides a number of recommendations for the planning and design of the new Egyptian cities. Overall urban intensification is highly recommended for these cities through infill mixed use of the existing neighbourhoods or building the new development on a higher extent of compaction. Moreover, the research offers some guidelines for the design of low income neighbourhoods in terms of density and land-use profiles. It makes a contribution to the extensive body of theoretical, and to a lesser extent, empirical evidence by shedding light on the relationship between urban compaction and sustainability.

Green spaces are the lungs of any city. Egyptian cities are historically characterized by high densities and compacted urban forms, developed through cultural, religious and climatic factors. In such arid contexts, the golden thread weaving sustainability concepts together is 'greening'. The sustainability challenge facing such cities is finding new and more appropriate ways of greening high density, compact and diverse urban environments. The main aim of this thesis is analysing the dynamics of green space, by studying both the demand and supply of green spaces in Cairo, a city suffering from bad and worsening health. Addressing the problem requires a sophisticated and realistic analysis of the dynamics of open space provision and consumption. The thesis adopts a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods and approaches to collecting and analysing data in order to achieve a deep understanding of the reasons behind the city's green space performance problems. The aim is to give a scientific diagnosis of the city's problems as a basis for further attempts to solve and tackle the problems. The idea for the research reported in this thesis starts from the observations that (a) The amount of green space in Cairo, capital of Egypt, is diminishing through urban encroachment of agricultural land; (b) Recreational green space has historically been provided at a very low level compared to other cities globally and in the region; (c) Much of the green space that is provided - by municipal government or private entrepreneurs - is provided as a club good, enclosed and charged for either by membership fee or entry toll. These observations provide both encouragement and challenge to policy makers aiming to make Cairo more sustainable. The analysis is broadly structured to understand both the supply of and the demand for green space in Cairo. Chapter Six focuses on the mechanisms of supply that have emerged at different times in the city's history. Chapters Seven and Eight explore residents' demands and requirements based on a systematic multi-stage cluster survey of the entire city, stratified for different green space supply institutional and morphological types. In a city like Cairo, where natural resources are very scarce and opportunities for spending on green infrastructure are very rare, it is pivotal for any new developments to be based on a clear understanding of the situation in the city. This thesis tries to draw the clearest picture yet achieved of urban green space provision in Cairo. It is offered to policy makers, planners, entrepreneurs and investors to help enrich the lives of the future generations of this great and ancient city.

This thesis has explored the ways in which young Egyptians construct different classed versions of a cosmopolitan imagination while located in the megacity of Cairo. In an intense ethnographic study, I have examined the ways in which young men and women shape their identities at the juxtaposition of a social reality, which is rigidly structured around classed and gendered divides on the one hand, and a diverse and fluid system of media representations of the self and others, on the other hand. Focusing on everyday life in Cairo has allowed me to examine the contradictory social and cultural experiences associated with being young in a megacity of the global south. Whilst the daily urban lives of these young Cairenes are located within embedded structures that place firm limits on their social and physical mobilities, the city is also a more creative terrain where these highly structured limits on the self are negotiated. As young people move physically in the city, yet shift imaginatively between different systems of representation available to them in the rich mediascapes they have access to, their sense of identity expands. Specifically, this cosmopolitanism takes the form of a dynamic subjective space and a category of imagination from within which identities, drawing heavily on globally circulating media products, are reflexively understood and interpreted. Thus, operating from within repressive, socially fragmented, yet highly mediated everyday contexts, I explore how young Egyptians construct three different versions of a cosmopolitan imagination: closed cosmopolitanism as imagined by the upper middle class, critical cosmopolitanism relating to the experiences of the lower middle class, and for the working class, an implicit cosmopolitan imagination.