Citizens’ and government officials’ perceptions of commercialization in Cairo’s public parks

Abstract

Public park commercialization has primarily been studied in the Global North, and little is known about how it developed in the Global South. This paper uses public parks in Cairo, Egypt, to explore commercialization practices in public space. Public parks in Cairo are commercialized mainly under the pretext of helping pay for them. In this context, some citizens raise their concerns over the potential impacts of commercialization on the public availability and accessibility of parks. Using on-site observations, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis of social media data, this study aims to understand how commercialization manifests in the landscape of Cairo’s public parks, how managing authorities justify commercialization practices, and how and why some residents contest these changes. Results show that commercialization prevails in the day-to-day administration of Cairo’s public parks. By demonstrating growing public park commercialization in an important megalopolis of the Global South, we contribute to ongoing debates on the social and environmental consequences of prioritizing the parks’ exchange value over their use value.

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