waste disposal, transportation, housing, and power--were to be met through the efforts of the state. But this goal has been, increasingly, beyond its reach.
Cairo's working poor are not, however, easily characterized by the stereotypes that are so readily applied to the poor all over the world. As Goode noted, the study of African urbanism in particular has been shaped by an emphasis on issues such as "migrants and their adjustment to the cities" and the marginal occupations "which provide the major sources of income for most of the working poor" (379, 383). By concentrating on such topics this research has avoided the negative implications of "poverty" research and directed attention to "the role of work as it relates to one's neighborhood of residence, maintenance of ethnic ties or individually-centered social network [and] the relationship between income instability, income inadequacy and their social consequences" (Goode 388). Recent studies that reverse stereotypical views of low-income Cairenes include a number that focus on their adapti
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