The papers in this collection have a common theme in the question of modernity and mass culture. Two papers, those by Chaney and Featherstone respectively, discuss aspects of this theme in a general, global context, all the others are concerned more specifically with the regional context of the Middle East.

Georg Stauth is Lecturer at the Sociology of Development Research Centre of the University of Bielefeld. He was Visiting Professor at the Ain Shams University Cairo in 1977/78, at the Cairo University in 1981. Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Flinders University, Adelaide (Australia), in 1985. Various publications on Egypt, Iran, Turkey (peasants and state) - Islam, social theory. Advisory Editor of "Theory, Culture and Society".

Sami Zubalda is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology of the Birkbeck College, University of London. Various Visiting Teaching Posts in the Middle East and France.

Various books and publications on racism, Islam and Islamist movements and social theory. Co-Editor of "Economy and Society".

Introduction -- Mass Culture: General Perspectives -- Consumer Culture, Symbolic Power and Universalism -- Sport as a Form of Mass Entertainment -- Local Communities and Mass Culture -- Consommation et decalages culturels en Egypte -- Features of Islam and Popular Culture -- Components of Popular Culture in the Middle East -- Mass Culture and Islamic Populism -- Mass Culture and Islamic Cultural Production in 19th Century Middle East -- Popular Culture and the Nation State -- Popular Culture and State Power -- Life within the Informal Sectors: Tunisia and Egypt in the 1970s -- Social Life and Popular Culture in Transition: Case Studies from Cairo -- Popular Culture versus Mass Culture The Social Dynamics in a Popular Cairene Quarter A Case Study -- Popular Culture and Consumerism in Underdeveloped Urban Areas A Study of the Cairene Quarter of Al-Sharrabiyya*