Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle

by Elsheshtawy; Yasser

• ISBN13: 9780415444613
• ISBN10: 0415444616
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-08-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

For many, the image of Dubai is of islands shaped like palm trees, luxurious shopping malls and the iconic building in the shape of a dhow's sail - the Burj al Arab. In Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle, Yasser Elsheshtawy reveals a very different city, a place full of aspirations, struggles and encounters taking place in all sorts of settings. It represents, he argues, a new form of urbanity, which cannot be explored by looking only at spectacular developments. One must move into the lesser known spaces of Dubai's traditional neighbourhoods, for they constitute the essence of the city and where its unique urban experiment is played out.

Author Biography

Yasser Elsheshtawy is Associate Professor of Architecture at the UAE University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
The Emerging Urbanity of Dubai	p. 1
The scope of the book	p. 4
Existing literature	p. 5
The structure of the book	p. 6
Concluding thoughts: returning to the original vision	p. 9
Epilogue: the city of the future is Dubai	p. 14
Arab Cities and Globalization	p. 17
The meaning of globalization	p. 19
The dimensions of globalization: economic, social, cultural	p. 20
The spatial dimension: definition of the global city	p. 21
The global city hypothesis and social polarization	p. 23
Critique of the model: transnationalism/globalization from below	p. 25
Sustainability and globalization	p. 26
Urban governance	p. 27
Status of the Arab city: the great economic divide	p. 29
The Other Dubai: A Photo Essay	p. 32
The Illusive History of Dubai	p. 60
Origins and developments	p. 62
The foundation of modern Dubai	p. 63
Forms of resistance and anti-colonialism	p. 65
Travellers' accounts	p. 67
Dubai in the media	p. 71
The Bastakiy'ya district	p. 75
Souq Kabir	p. 83
The Hindu Temple	p. 84
Special Ustadi Restaurant	p. 88
Baniyas Square	p. 90
Inventing history and creating identity	p. 95
The Transformation of Dubai or Towards the Age of Megastructures	p. 102
Dubai in the 1970s: the emergence of a modern city	p. 105
From Masterplan to Structural Plan to Urban Development Framework	p. 107
Dubai's urban morphology: transient urbanism	p. 121
The creation of a global image	p. 123
Exclusive city	p. 130
Spectacular Architecture and Urbanism	p. 133
The theory of the spectacle	p. 134
The Burj Al Arab or Tower of the Arabs	p. 137
The Palm Island(s)	p. 142
The tallest building in the world: Burj Dubai or Tower of Dubai	p. 151
Conclusion: perpetuating an illusion	p. 164
The Spectacular and the Everyday: Dubai's Retail Landscape	p. 171
Problematizing the retail experience	p. 172
Spectacular shopping in Dubai	p. 178
Informal Dubai	p. 187
Dangerous spectacles	p. 201
Transient City: Dubai's Forgotten Urban Spaces	p. 206
Globalization and cities	p. 208
Dubai, a migrant city?	p. 212
Surveying the city's urban public spaces: transitory settings	p. 216
The other city	p. 229
Transnational cities - transnational spaces	p. 241
Global Dubai or Dubaization	p. 249
The Dubai model?	p. 250
Dubaization in the Middle East	p. 256
The case of Cairo	p. 262
Conclusion: the true Dubai model	p. 273
Bibliography	p. 280
Index	p. 286
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