Paper short abstract:

The paper asks what understanding of knowledge and its social preconditions is introduced by the Egyptian policymakers in order to ascertain whether that understanding is likely to promote or undermine the commitment to transforming Egypt into a knowledge based society.

Paper long abstract:

Since early nineteenth, Egypt showed a commitment to the global development discourse where new knowledge-based development policies (KBD) were issued and new projects of knowledge precincts (KPs) were initiated. Recently, the economic development strategy for the country was announced with a general aim of transforming Egypt into a knowledge-based society while fostering a knowledge-based economy through launching new seven KPs, one of which was declared to be the first Egyptian knowledge city knowing as The Capital Cairo (Egypt's 2030 vision, 2016). Many studies have shown that the process of creating a knowledge society cannot be considered as an easy or fast process; because it needs a real support from all social agents including local government, citizens, civil society, and universities (Parry and Deog-Song, 2007; Alraouf, 2008; UNECA, 2009; UNESCO, 2016). Within this frame, KPs have been endorsed as the engines of KBD policies for cities that choose knowledge production as a key goal in their development strategy (Yigitcanlar, 2008). Thus, the paper nvestigates the contextual factors that shape the viability or non-viability of the KBD policies within the African context in general to question the sociopolitical paradigm that surrounds the Egyptian KPs and shift the focus from the knowledge precincts themselves to the episteme in which they emerged. It seeks to know if and how the KPs contribute to establish knowledge cities, as indicated within the discourse of the Egyptian policy makers. What notion of Knowledge underlies the government's programs? Does Egypt need more KPs in order to achieve development?

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