Café turc ou cappuccino ? Pratiques de loisirs et distinction sociale dans les cafés cairotes

Abstract

Going to the coffeehouse is one of the most common and shared practices of leisure in Cairo among men. Coffeehouses are everywhere in the agglomeration: from the city-center to the periphery, from popular to upper-class areas. Though practices are quite the same, there are different types of coffeehouses between the ahwa baladî (popular street-coffeehouse), the coffee-shop and the café. Choosing one of them depends on spatial strategies related to neighborhoods and their reputations, and also on gender and class dynamics. Leaning on a two years long ethnographic fieldwork, this article shows how coffeehouses while being often criticized as places of idleness embody social distinction in Cairo.

Keywords

• leisure
• Cairo
• coffeehouse
• social class
• social distinction