FOCUS 66 Introduction On 13 March 2015, the Egyptian govern- The New Administrative Capital in ment announced to the public at the Egypt: The Political Economy of the Economic Development Conference in Sharm al-Sheikh the breathtaking mega- Production of Urban Spaces in Cairo project of the New Administrative Capital (or NAC for short)1. Envisioned to be inhabited by 5 to 6.5 million people and built from scratch in the vast territory of the Eastern Desert 40km east of the Cairo agglomeration, the project is intended to host a new government quarter, including the parliament, ministries, the supreme council, diplomatic missions, and a new president’s palace. Skyscrapers up to 450m tall were depicted, as well as 30 sub- projects, one of them being an airport larger than London Heathrow and another an amusement park four times the size of Patrick Loewert, Christian Steiner Disneyland. The total investment is esti- mated at up to 500 billion US dollars. On The New Administrative Capital reshapes demonstrates that state institutions com- display boards, the mega-project was Egypt’s urban landscape thoroughly. pete for control over it, providing the defined as Madīnat al-Jamīʿa, a City for Nevertheless, empirical research on its military with new rent sources. The loca- Everyone. political economy and spatial imaginaries tion and size of the new palace indicates is lacking. Building on a political geogra- a lack of democratic conviction, and citi- The project is remarkable in various ways. phy framework and extensive qualitative zen participation is largely missing. It absorbs enormous resources in terms of fieldwork, we aim at contrasting official planning efforts, space, and money. The constructions of space with an analysis of Keywords: New Administrative Capital, latter is especially noteworthy, since Egypt the hidden interests, actions, and power Egypt, Urban Development, Mega has faced severe economic problems in struggles among its main stakeholders. Projects, Political Economy, Power the aftermath of the 2011 Egyptian revolu- Whereas foreign and private investors are Struggle tion against Mubarak and the 2013 coup officially key to the project, our analysis d’état against president Mursi. Second, Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 12 –2019 FOCUS 67 the history of the project is very colorful, geography framework about the strategic structions of space and their underlying since it has been promoted by three very construction of space, we therefore ana- logics are presented to the addressees as different presidential administrations. lyze examples of the actions and argu- quasi-objective presentations of reality, mentations of central stakeholders con- whereas they are primarily intended to However, even though many international cerning three central elements of the back the actor’s position in the power visitors at the 2015 conference welcomed NAC: first the role of foreign investors, struggle over the production of space the project as a symbol of new investment second the disavowal of responsibilities (Reuber, Politische Geographie 127). Of opportunities, there was also widespread for project funding, and third locating of course, an actor can use different strategic criticism. Critics pointed to its high invest- the presidential palace. This analysis constructions of space in from one ment costs and size and fueled doubts enables a deeper understanding of how addressee to another. Their analysis allows about the social responsibility of the proj- and why the project developed the way it an interpretative reconstruction of the hid- ect that some said is meant to host only did and provides insights into the quality den agendas and aims of the actors the richest members of the society and to and extent of citizen participation. (Reuber, Politische Geographie 127). serve the government’s interests (e.g. Therefore, building on such a perspective Tadamun; Egyptian Streets; Mohie). On Theoretical and Methodological helps to understand the actions and argu- the other side, the President and ministers Background mentations of project stakeholders. pointed out several times that the NAC will Theoretically, this article advocates a polit- encourage foreign investments, deepen ical geography perspective referring to Of course, organizations do not always act international collaborations (e.g. CNN), Paul Reuber’s idea of strategic construc- coherently. Individual interests often com- and will not cause any burdens for the tions of space (Reuber, Konflikte). Reuber pete within organizations.2 Since our Egyptian taxpayer, but instead will make a argues that every actor selectively gathers paper focuses on the power struggles profit for the Egyptian treasury (NUCA; information about his or her environment among actors, it nevertheless seems via- Ghanīm and ʿAmāra). in order to develop clear objectives of ble to concentrate on the outcome of the future actions. At the same time, actors analyzed actions of stakeholders and to Against this background, the lack of aim at enforcing their point of view in a largely ignore their internal power strug- empirical research on the political econ- way that argumentatively secures their gles, especially since most of them are omy and spatial imaginaries of the project objectives in relation to competing actors quite hierarchically organized. We investi- is astonishing. Therefore, we aim at con- and/or the public. Thereby, they con- gated the publicly oriented actions and trasting the officially created images of the sciously create subjective, selective, and argumentations that bring the strategic project with an analysis of the underlying condensed images of reality, which constructions of space of distinct actors and partially hidden interests of the main Reuber calls “strategic constructions of into life by using publically available jour- actors and the power struggles among the space” (Konflikte 22-44; Politische nalistic media sources, speeches, docu- main stakeholders. Building on a political Geographie 116-129). These specific con- mentations, and advertisements. The pro- Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 12 –2019 FOCUS 68 cesses within and among the collective back to the City of Revolution under 1. Six so-called Wadian, isolated, green, actors are, however, hard to grasp, espe- President Nasser in the 1950s. Under his and high-rent residential quarters with at cially because many stakeholders see successors, presidents Sadat and least 25,000 units each, including social withholding (even public) information Mubarak, new endeavors to relocate state infrastructure and the supply of shops and about such a project as a question of institutions were made in the deserts west services such as malls, libraries, mosques national security. Additionally, the involved and east of Cairo, but they all failed due to and churches, social care centers, gas sta- institutions in Egypt are notorious for pro- a lack of funds, the resistance of state tions, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, tecting their turf and in general do not employees, and political circumstances banks, police stations, citizens’ service publish sufficient data (Sims 140, 245, 281; (Stewart; Feiler 302-303). Finally, in 2014, centers,and club houses. Wahdan 10, 60). For this reason, a 14-month President Sisi’s government resumed the 2. A park complex covering 23 square kilo- ethnographic field research project was plans of a new capital, which subsequently meters in the first phase and 30 square carried out, including professional activity became one of the top priority projects of kilometers in total. Its serpentine shape in the NAC project. During this time, 36 the national development strategy Egypt intends to imitate the course of the River qualitative interviews were conducted 2030 (MPMAR 51-61). Its priority is high- Nile. with various project participants whose lighted by the surprising progress the 3. The governmental quarter, containing identity will remain anonymous, given the project has made in the past few years, the parliament, ministries, the supreme sensitivity of the topic. With few excep- considering the unsuccessful earlier council, diplomatic missions, and other tions, the time horizon covers the period attempts to relocate the governmental government- related and international from spring 2015 to early 2018. The inter- capital. The motifs of the importance of a entities. views were transcribed and a content new capital and the revival of the idea are 4. The presidential palace analysis has been made. Afterward, the open to speculation, but most interlocu- information based on interviews, field tors agree that among the reasons are the In the West and Northwest, the project research, working experience, and public need for a big vision to legitimize presi- area borders on the easternmost quarters sources was triangulated. Since the gath- dential rule and the intention to evacuate of Cairo proper (see fig. 1). Thus, unlike the ered information was partially contradic- governmental institutions from the center name suggests, the NAC will be part of a tory, it underwent an interpretative analy- of turmoil that waned only shortly before. contiguous urbanized area and a mere sis to reconstruct as well as possible the The overall size of the mega-project was extension of the urban expansion of Cairo processes that took place in the field. set at 753 square kilometers, of which 126 agglomeration. This spatial continuity is square kilometers were developed in the made clear by the fact that the mega-proj- Pathways to and Basic Components of the first phase until 2018. The area to be devel- ect will not have its own governorate, but New Administrative Capital oped in this first project phase can be instead will be under the administrative The history of attempts to relocate the divided into four large zones (as at responsibility of the governorate of Cairo governmental center to the desert reaches February 2018): (Hasan, “ʿA ṣima”). Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 12 –2019 FOCUS 69 TOANENDFORTHETIMEBEING/FlCIALLY THE 05 km involvement of the foreign businessman El Obour came to a halt because he refused to City N involve his UAE-based company Emaar as i ElE ShoroukShoro S le Al Marj City a guarantor of loans.