In Connected in Cairo, Mark Peterson presents how Cairenes navigate the globalizing transforming world in Cairo. From 1997 to May 2002, Peterson taught anthropology at the American University in Cairo, and decided to pursue fieldwork while looking for signs of modernity through the global and the local in Egypt (pp.19). He went to the University of Cairo and conducted interviews with administrators and teachers, observes classes, and even visited the homes of families to get a large perspective on family attitudes toward "school, education and social futures" (pp.83). During his extensive research, he finds that Cairo is a place "defined by sets of practices that are iconic, indexical and symbolic of urbanity" (pp.3). He presents his idea of "connectedness;" represented through goods and actions that are related to places outside of Egypt and as a form of capital that helps Cairenes identify themselves from others. Families struggle with the problem of being Egyptian and modern at the same time, and can be referred to as Cosmopolitan: "Set of practices" where Egyptian upper classes construct themselves as transnational elites" and have unequal control over Egypt's economic and political resources is justified by their modernity" (pp.7). Embedded within cosmopolitan Cairo is the consumption of new technologies and mass media, such as magazines, video games and comic books, and consumption in malls. However, Peterson points out that globalization should not be referred to as a process of modernity, which he believes that many people tend to forget. He represents his the Cosmopolitan Cairenes by presenting some theory and methodology related to consumption and globalization, and relates his ideas to school-children, university students and adults. Peterson uses thick description to represent how socio-economic elite families and children navigate their identity and invest in a form of cosmopolitan through consumption in their constant transforming Egyptian society.
In the second chapter, Peterson describes a variety of comic books and magazines which further an Arabic sense of identity and community for the elite parents and children. In Cairo, "the ability to adopt appropriate Western" style, understand technologies and appreciate Western tastes have become "class markers" (pp. 39). The majority of the magazines are written in Arabic, but are translated into other languages including English. The use of English allows children and parents to feel as if they are being connected to the world at large, and parents want children to be aware of the constant changing world around them. A sense of community is shaped by the magazine's contents," and creates a regional identity that is simultaneously Arab, Islamic and part of a bigger community of consumption (pp. 47-48). The magazine Bolbol encourages social interaction. Readers feel connected to each other by sending in photographs of their life events such as weddings or graduations, creating an imagined community (pp. 46). The various magazines act as a juxtaposition to each other and construct a hybrid, a person who is fully Arabic and modern. Overall, the magazines portray a world of consumer goods and a transnational world of commodities where Peterson presents his informant's sense of connection to each other, and their desire for the West.
Peterson wants to show that the magazines construct a moral, "modern Eastern child," but this message is not quite clear, because he provides too many examples of the magazines and not enough analysis of his own opinion (review). With the rise of the internet, he also argues computers have been taking over the desire for magazines, and children can also stay better connected to each other. Yaseen, a child that Peterson interviewed and observed, has less interest in children's magazines, because they no longer help him to develop his identity. The examples that Peterson provides present an understanding of the challenging ways that parents and children want to be connected to the globalizing world, but also stay true to their identity. Peterson's observations of the turning away from magazines and favoritism towards computers indicates the desire to be modern and connected to the world as he combines theoretical aspects with his field research.
Adding on to his idea of Cairene consumption and globalization, Peterson witnesses how children engage with Pokemon, and reveals how children's class distinction, identity and social relationships become evident through their usage of the game. Pokemon is a powerful "resource for the imaginations" of pre-teenaged children and their families who purchase the most video games and toys in Cairo (pp.66). While parents are not always in favor of the game Pokemon, they believe that it helps their children become connected to the modern world, "develop modes of resistance and construct a moral framework" (pp.67). Families who can afford to purchase tazu (plastic disks) or Pokemon trading cards for their children shows that they are able to spend money on their children. While the consumption of Pokemon brings children closer together in an imagined community, Peterson also highlights that the game distracts children from concentrating on their education because it is expensive and even deemed as "soul-threatening" (79). Parents are concerned that the game does not have any good principles because its violent nature. Peterson creates the realization that the West is becoming more prominent and even dominating the lives of children in Cairo. But the reader should be aware that he only refers to a moderate percentage of the population. The consumption of Pokemon highlights how the upper-classes classify themselves by expressing their connectivity with global and transnational commodities and structures.
The reader learns that consumers are not global or cosmopolitan by their purchasing of the cards. The game helps families to embed themselves in distinct "categories" which "authenticates their decisions" (pp.95). It allows elite classes to separate themselves from the lower classes by "presenting their connectivity with larger global structures and connect with regional communities such as the gulf states" which is still happening today (pp.95). While he focuses on parents and children in the pokemon and magazine chapters, it would have been interesting to get a more detailed description of the various locations of where people live that are purchasing these commodities. Peterson traces this consumption of Pokemon, reflecting on how Cairenes choose to make use of the game to stay connected and social with each other to further their identity as Arab and modern.
Peterson uses individual locations such as the First Mall and the shops inside the mall to show that class and identity are also established and constructed in various places. In this chapter, he switches to focusing on adults rather than children. The First Mall is a "self-contained world of consumption;" people exchange their money for "social-capital" and elite classes are able to show-off their wealth (pp.139-140). In the center, Peterson focuses on a cafe called La Gourmandise, where people dress in their most expensive clothes, drink espresso imported from Latin America and eat French pastries (pp.141). In the café, Peterson relates the people to theory, icons, indexes and contrasts, which portray that people are able to construct a cosmopolitan identity, "both to their self and others," even by being able to afford it and feeling comfortable enough to enter into an elite place (pp.142). Peterson uses thick description to describe how men behave in coffee shops by sitting in circles and smoking while women cover themselves up in order to enter male presence/ male dominated sites referred to as Ahawi or leave their husbands to go shopping (pp.156). Men go to coffee shops in order to display their masculinity, while women accompany them or simply leave to do their own shopping. For women, the coffee shops makes them feel "cosmopolitan" and helps them to construct their feminists, because lower-classes are unable to enter (pp.169). The focus on Euro-American style coffee chains and their contrast with 'awha coffee home highlights the unique ways men and women assert their gender.
While Peterson does use the mall to show the differences between genders, he chooses to describe how consumption leads the readers away from the focus on the goods that the people acquire. However, this argument is hypercritical because he focuses on how men and women assert their gender and construct themselves as "modern and liberal" or masculine. He does not take into consideration the kinds of customers who come to the mall, and does not focus on the entrepreneuers that he mentions who advertise these malls and coffee chains themselves (pp.26). Overall, the reader can understand that the coffee shops are trans-local spaces where Egyptians can express their identity and gender at coffee shops and link themselves to a transnational identity.
While many ethnographies and novels portray the lower or impoverished, Peterson focuses on the higher classes and how they go about their daily lives. In relation to Anthropology, Peterson's ethnography is detailed; he presents the struggles of students and parents surrounding the concepts of globalization and modernity. The reader learns to see modernity in a new light; as an expression of one's education, "experience and taste" which is generated through local practices that are brought in from global relations and ideas (pp.216). With the thick description that Peterson provides, the reader is able to relate to the situations of the children and their desire to want to fit in with their peers and feel connected to a wider network though Pokemon and magazines. The book portrays the "flows" that are created by globalization and modernity that go in out of Cairo. The readers can clearly understand how identity and social interactions take place at various locations such as the mall and coffee shops. Although he chooses to focus regionally rather than globally, Peterson does represent a good portion of the economic, cultural and social aspects of the elite classes in Cairo while referring to material objects and consumption. Overall, this ethnography can help college students, teachers and even people who are generally interested in the Middle Eastern region to broadly understand the elite classes and how they navigate the modern world.
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