Active City Transformation in Cairo through Local Shopping: Solidarity with Displaced Communities in Gaza and the Arab World

A local shopping movement has been rising in Egypt by ordinary people, adopted by the passionate adolescents as well, as a form of solidarity with the rising number of displaced communities in Gaza and the Arab world. Abstaining from buying any products from the oppressing countries and their allies, as the world watches silently. The paper demonstrates bottom-up transformations in the features of public life in Cairo through the act of this conscious local shopping to stand with the 1.9 million people displaced in Gaza, since October 2023 -more than 85% of Gaza population according to the UN, and the one million people displaced in Lebanon since September 2024, in less than one month -according to the National authorities- surpassing the 2006 war. This local shopping movement -together with other factors like the devaluation of the Egyptian pound, and other displacements in the Arab world- has been actively changing the commercial landscape of Cairo the capital city, not only with the replacement of global mega stores with local brands but also the rise of multiple -possibly temporary- localities within the country; like Syrian, Yemeni, and Sudanese zones. The study is carried out through the case study of one of Cairo’s leading local marketplaces: ‘Bazarna Pop-Up Society’ that is shifting people’s behavior towards buying local brands, with more than 170,000 followers on social media, and shortlisted as one of the finalists in Egypt’s Entrepreneur Awards, 2024. Demonstrating how it is transforming public life in Cairo, by introducing temporary activities, and attracting different crowds back to marketplaces; injecting life to different areas of Cairo. The study demonstrates a form of inclusive regeneration of Arab cities that can not only aid in adapting to upcoming calamities, but also enable cities to unite together and recover from this calamity stronger than before.