A City in Shame: The Cairene Linguistic Landscape and Cultural Distinction

Authoritarian placeless projects after 2017 introduced a significant shift in Cairo’s linguistic landscape; giant streets and electronic billboards, banners, signs co-shaped the city’s global image. Promoting English bilingualism (English-Arabic) created study question. Why do advertisements address Arabic-speaking population English? This aims at investigating Cairene policy its cultural meanings. The field occurred between 2020 2022 around twenty sites Cairo, among which authoritarian were significant. Exploring landscape Cairo is based on former literature observations while moving public spaces foot by car. Around 20 locations visited, 120 photos taken, spontaneous interviews conducted. collected data produced during two years (2020-2022) of fieldwork Cairo. Describing categorising identified values. Moreover, exploring historical changes 19th 20th centuries explained socio-cultural roots. culture shame bridges shifting from pride to profit landscape, presenting countless symbolic meanings, distinction, centrality marginality are