Connected in Cairo is one of the most clearly written, jargon-free academic books I have read in recent years. Journalist turned anthropologist Mark Allen Peterson captures the bewildering contradictions of globalization in Cairo while unveiling how consumption practices contribute to the production of social relations. Through detailed ethnography, he explores the complexity of Egyptian cosmopolitan identity by highlighting the impact of globalization on upper-middle-class Cairenes. The book focuses mainly on the most active participants in the “hyperspaces” of globalization—the latte-drinking elites who socialize in European-style cafés and shop in Cairo's numerous multistoried, shopping malls. They are usually educated in private European or American schools, informed by international satellite TV channels, and entertained by Hollywood films and amusement parks; these cosmopolitans actively produce a transnational identity and use their consumer practices to distinguish themselves from the masses. Thus, the main argument of the book is that connectedness to the global “is utilized by upwardly mobile Cairenes as a form of social capital that distinguishes them from other Egyptians” (p. 3).

Peterson uses an interesting array of sources and hooks to frame the chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 begins by examining a series of Arab children's magazines and pop culture items in order to understand how children and their parents imagine their identities and futures in relation to Islam, the region, technology, and the West. Chapter 3 continues this examination of the role of children in building cosmopolitan subjects with a detailed discussion of the Pokémon phenomenon. Chapter 4 explores how young adults in Egypt forge their identities between Western modernity and a constructed notion of authenticity, with a focus on Peterson's experiences teaching at the American University in Cairo. Chapter 5 uses the space of the café or coffeehouse to analyze the ways in which class and gender intersect in terms of access to and the performativity of such spaces, be it the European coffeehouse or the exclusively male street ahwa. Finally, Chapter 6 is about glocalization, or the production of a globalized market through local intermediaries who expand globalization in Egypt through marketing and distribution practices. With a focus on McDonald's, the chapter explores the role of entrepreneurs and local agents as the “cultural brokers” of globalization.

Peterson draws heavily upon his own experiences working as a professor at the American University in Cairo and uses the classroom as part of his ethnography of social-class identities. His delectable prose captures the complexity of class position and the book provides a layered analysis of class, gender, and generational relations through specific commodities. Anyone who has spent significant time in Cairo will be struck by how poignantly he is able to articulate the banal everyday identity performances that shape life in Cairo at nearly every moment.

Peterson's description of cosmopolitan Cairo is “a place defined by sets of practices that are iconic, indexical, and symbolic of urbanity and modernity in Egypt” (p. 3). I found this conceptualization of cosmopolitanism to be one of the limitations of the book—this definition departs from recent critical analyses of cosmopolitanism deployed by scholars such as Will Hanley, Thomas Kuehn, Attiya Ahmed, Asef Bayat, Sami Zubaida, and Mohamed Sayyid Said. Given that the author chose cosmopolitanism as the main theoretical framework, the book would have benefitted from further engagement with cosmopolitanism literature within Middle East Studies. Also, while certainly the elite are the most likely to have cosmopolitan lifestyles, Cairene's of all classes are bombarded by the presence of multinational corporations and consumer culture. In fact, the aspiring middle class increasingly rehearses these consumption practices and face even more pressures to put their kids in the right schools, clothe them in the right brands, and fill their homes with electronic devices. While the book highlights some of these tensions through an exploration of the dynamic café cultures, it offers limited analysis of how the less well to do must negotiate daily life between economic worlds given the immense pressure to consume “properly.”

Connected in Cairo productively engages with numerous pertinent debates about globalization/glocalization, neoliberalism, the relationship between the global and the local, modernity, transnationalism, and class distinction. The book is a welcome addition to an already rich literature referred to as the “Cairo School” of urban studies. Although the author conscientiously distances himself from this school, asserting firstly that his use of cosmopolitanism is limited “to the ways Cairenes themselves use the term,” and secondly that because he lived and worked with the elites, he is “more sympathetic to them” (p. 23). Despite these differences, I believe he makes an important contribution to the Cairo School through his focus on consumption and urban life. Since the book was published prior to the events of 2011, the author did not have the opportunity to reflect on how this cosmopolitanism relates to the Arab Spring, but the book gives readers a clear grasp of the growing class divisions and concerns facing Egyptian society, both socially and spatially, and in this sense helps them to understand a dimension of Cairene sociospatial segregation that has exacerbated since the start of Arab Spring. One of the greatest contributions of the book is the rich exploration of not just the class performances but also the gendered performances that accompany, motivate, and impact consumption practices.

The book would make an excellent addition to an undergraduate course or seminar. The author's use of photos could be used to spark debate amongst students about the visual and spatial markers of identity. Additionally, readers interested in class distinction, consumption, cosmopolitanism, and the changing political–economic dynamism of the global south broadly speaking would enjoy the book. Finally, because of its clear writing and broad engagement with globalization, Peterson's book should appeal to a far-reaching audience including anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and students of interdisciplinary, cultural, or gender studies.