ALAMIRA REEM BANI HASHIM, CLARA IRAZABAL AND GRETA BYRUM THE SCHEHERAZADE SYNDROME: Fiction and Fact in Dubai’s Quest to Become a Global City

Cities compete with each other for position in the global economy. Dubai has emerged as a leader in tactical deployment of narrative as a tool of urban branding. Its boosters draw upon the mythos of the exotic desert-city oasis, or suggest that Dubai is a neoliberal free-market development legend or a techno-utopia in which human ingenuity conquers all obstacles. This article offers the tale of Scheherazade as a metaphor for discussion of the importance of storytelling in contemporary global urban marketing. The authors analyse Dubai’s mythic urban image and reveal the paradoxes of its fantastical development, uncovering its unsustainable and inequitable dimensions.

The Scheherazade Syndrome temporary global pressure to successfully position urban localities in global markets. Cities compete with each other to advanta- geously position themselves in the global This project is based on extensive life economy. The project of urban branding experience, fieldwork, and architectural has reached unprecedented levels of and planning professional practice in creativity and sophistication in many Dubai, and builds upon the burgeoning cities. However, Dubai is a leader in its literature on city marketing in general and tactical deployment of narrative: its agents Dubai’s development in particular. By and boosters sustain the pace of exploring the implications of Dubai’s development by framing an arabesque of Scheherazading, not only do we uncover legends, myths, stories, and histories its paradoxes, but we also offer a case around its development. study for other cities that may look to stories for their ascendancy. Dubai boasts audacious and eccentric architectural and engineering marvels such as its famous indoor ski slope, the A Thousand and One Projects: world’s largest themed shopping mall, an Development in Dubai underwater hotel, a man-made archipelago, and the most expensive Planning the Road to Modernity airport ever built. In marketing and positioning, some of these projects intentionally draw upon the mythos of the Since the confederation of the seven exotic ‘‘oriental’’ desert-city oasis; others United Arab Emirates in 1971, the region place Dubai at the centre of a neoliberal has been transformed by sweeping and development legend about the inevitable rapid development. The most famous and success of free-market enclaves, or make it remarkable transformation is the story of the setting for a techno-utopic future in Dubai. Before independence, the Emirates which human ingenuity conquers all were underdeveloped, with an economy obstacles. based primarily on fishing and pearl 1 diving. During the pre-oil period, compact This article offers the tale of Scheherazade growth in Dubai was based on a 1960 and the One Thousand and One Nights as a master plan, prepared by British architect metaphor for a discussion of the John Harris, that called for provision of a importance of storytelling in the road system, land-use zoning, and creation contemporary heightened global of a new town centre. The master plan was marketing competition for urban dom- updated with the construction of Port inance. The authors analyse the role of the Rashid, and laid the foundation for an agents who have been instrumental in urban network and a system of municipal creating and implementing Dubai’s mythic services. However, it proved to be a slow urban image, including design vehicle for development and did not professionals, city boosters, and Sheikh foresee the subsequent explosive growth Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The 2 analysis then reveals the paradoxes of of the economy and city. Dubai’s fantastical development, Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, uncovering its unsustainable and ruler of Dubai from 1958 to 1990, started inequitable dimensions. Finally, the Dubai along its path to becoming a central authors evaluate the effectiveness of player in the storytelling as a tool to approach the con region’s trade by overseeing the dredging and trading hub, and most recently a 4 of the Dubai Creek and the construction of cosmopolitan residential option’’. This is the first airport in 1958-1959, reflected in the wave of development since respectively. With the flow of trade the end of the 1990s, which is continuing through Dubai’s ports and characterized by rapid urban expansion in airport, the government embarked on a terms of both the scale and diversity of series of projects to accommodate the development projects and the physical demand for new wharfs, warehouses, and spread of the city (Figs. 1 and 2). port facilities. In the 1970s, it undertook the expansion of Port Rashid to service larger ships, and later went on to create Some of the projects that have helped the largest manmade port at Jebel Ali, just establish the city as the region’s hub for 3 south of the city. Dubai thus developed commerce, services and leisure are the into one of the world’s busiest commercial construction of a series of ‘‘cities within and service centres, and, under the the city’’ mega-projects, particularly the leadership of Sheikh Rashid’s son Sheikh commercial free-trade zones of Jebel Ali. Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum The area was designed specifically to cater (Dubai’s current ruler), the city set off on a to the needs and desires of technology and swift modernization process. media companies; therefore, in order to attract major players in the ‘‘new The Spectacularization of Dubai economy’’, 100 per cent foreign ownership is allowed in those zones, with no Sheikh Mohammed’s goal, like his father’s, individual or corporate taxes or has been to turn Dubai into a ‘‘world class import/export duties whatsoever. These tourist destination, an international special economic zones come in the shape financial center, an investment of large office parks with food courts and 5 opportunities bliss, a manufacturing artificial lakes. Enormous shopping malls

Figure 1. From some vantage points, all of Dubai looks like a construction site. Photograph: Ali Ansary.

Figure 2. New development in Old Town Dubai, including the base of Burj Khalifa. Large development projects fail to produce an articulated urban fabric and demonstrate unsustainable use of water in the desert city. Photograph: Ameera Akkila. and self-sufficient gated communities are also constructed alongside these.

The development of Dubai also became focused towards the creation of spectacularity when iconic projects were taken on with the encouragement of the current Sheikh. For example, Burj Al Arab—a sail-shaped building on the bay that has become the ‘‘postcard’’ image of Dubai, completed in 1998—is the world’s only seven-star hotel, and boasts an underwater restaurant as well as a helipad. Other spectacular projects include the man-made Palms and World Islands developments on the bay; Dubailand (the world’s largest amusement park); the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa (Fig. 3); Dubai Mall (the largest mall in the world); and Hydropolis (the world’s first underwater hotel). Figure 3. Opening ceremonies at the Burj Khalifa, 4 Throughout the last decade, Dubai has been January 2010. Photograph: Alamira Reem Bani shaping itself into the image of a ‘‘global city’’ via Hashim. iconic architecture—seemingly on the ‘‘place’’, usually a town or city, so as theory that, if it looks like a global city, it to make it attractive to economic 6 will become one. This quest led to near enterprises, to tourists and even to 9 complete economic collapse in late 2009, inhabitants of that place. as the emirate’s debt challenged its leadership’s ability to sell the image of Some of the ways that this ethos has found material extravagance and architectural expression can be seen in aspects of public ambition to a world suddenly wary of real policy such as street beautification and estate speculation. cleaning, as well as in the investment of postindustrial cities in ‘‘high’’ culture. Stephen Ward argues that the last quarter The Role of Storytelling in Global of a century has seen an explosion in the Marketing Competition for Urban practice of place marketing and Dominance promotion, in order to draw the ‘‘gaze’’ of Images comprise only one aspect of a 10 the tourist. The development or story, and Dubai’s boosters have used refurbishment of cultural attractions such narrative desire in a much more as museums or art galleries, the boosting comprehensive way to market it: the of business conventions, and the hosting of selective and revisionist production, major sporting or cultural events also reproduction, and dissemination of promote tourism and global visibility. narratives about the city. Before going into Civic leaders use media to promote a an analysis of the case of Dubai, it is favourable impression whilst challenging worthwhile to examine the history of place and undermining detrimental ideas about branding through a brief review of the vast 11 literature on the subject. the place. Most relevant in the case of Dubai, David Harvey has examined the transition architecture and urban design also play a from a ‘‘managerial approach’’ to urban major role in the grand formula of place 12 governance in the 1960s to an marketing. According to Anne-Marie ‘‘entrepreneurial’’ one in the 1970s and Broudehoux, a few iconic ‘‘signature’’ or 7 80s. This ‘‘new entrepreneurialism’’ is ‘‘trophy’’ buildings or structures designed characterized by the central role of public– by the world’s leading architects such as private partnerships, a shift away from Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, concerns of collective consumption to the or Zaha Hadid count for a great deal, political economy of place, and the especially in cities vying for attention and speculative nature of the projects investment on the world stage. Michael undertaken; urban entrepreneurialism is Sorkin further contends that branding the largely based upon manipulation of the ‘‘post-modern city’’ entails the creation of 8 packaged cultural–historical urban landscape. Gerry Kearns and Chris 13 Philo elaborate that the practice of city experiences, which have become branding prototypes for ‘‘the generation by models of a real without origin or reality, a 14 entails the various ways in which hyperreal’’ as per Baudrillard. As in the public and private agencies—local hotel-casinos of Las Vegas, says Clara authorities and local entrepreneurs, Iraza´bal, urban visual imagery is deliber- often working collaboratively—strive ately manipulated to create a spectacle to ‘‘sell’’ the image of a particular and a sense of alienation from time and geographically-defined reality for the purposes of facilitating consumerism and 15 hedonism. Further, the selling of spectacular events, and official urban particular urban lifestyles has transformed plans, they weave together a more-or-less the city into a space of performance, coherent yet purposeful serial story about although as Guy Debord pointed out, ‘‘the the city. The pieces of that story are only thing into which the spectacle plans conveyed through varied media and 16 emphasize specific parts of the story for to develop is itself ’’. The targeted audiences. In the dynamic of spectacularization of the urban image is so storytelling, the tellers and the listeners in central to the new urban economy that turn have power differentials that position cities worldwide are relentlessly being them to partake differently in both the converted into entertainment destinations. creation of the narratives and in their Such city marketing has been critiqued as resulting benefits. the ‘‘commodification’’ of place; Mark Goodwin claims that the city is packaged In introducing the notion of ‘‘storytelling’’ and sold as a commodity ‘‘like as an instrument of place marketing that automobiles, cigarettes and mouth combines fiction and facts, we argue that 17 wash’’. This commodification may its role in the phenomenon of place involve the manipulation of cultural promotion—at least to the extent that it is resources for capital gain, or the practiced in Dubai—is not fully promotion of reinvented heritage and accommodated within current literature history in order to lure potential investors on the subject. We acknowledge that 18 storytelling has been used in city branding and tourists. In Marxian terms, in this scenario the ‘‘ex- for a long time, maybe since cities existed. change value’’ of cities as commodities in However, it has become more prominent the market can become more salient than since the rise of globalization in the last 25 their ‘‘use value’’—of course, the years, as cities must now aggressively relationship between use and exchange compete in the global market to attract value is a complex dialectic in the case of investment and tourism. an urban environment. However, planning decisions made with a view toward We offer the story of Scheherazade and the entrepreneurialism tend to favour One Thousand and One Nights as a investments that draw transnational elites metaphor to discuss the importance of (such as Dubai’s light rail projects and storytelling in the contemporary condominium developments) over those heightened global marketing competition which make the city more liveable for its for urban dominance. This cycle of tales indigenous and low-income population comprises interlocking stories that (such as affordable worker housing and together form an infinite arabesque. The comprehensive bus transit). frame-narrative—which provides context and opens a space for the web of tales that follow—tells of the Sultan Shahryar of Storytelling and the Metaphor of Arabia and his young wife Scheherazade, Scheherazade and the One Thousand who tells stories in order to stay alive and One Nights longer than the Sultan’s previous brides (who have all met their end the morning after their wedding day). Her strategy is As city boosters engage in place marketing simple: having ‘‘perused the books, annals and promotion through advertising, and legends of preceding Kings, perused brochures, newspapers, press releases, the works of the poets . . . and the sciences, iconic architecture, 19 arts and accomplishments’’ —she never vented functionality’’ that makes these lets her story come to an end. The urban places ideal sites for the perpetual deferral of the ending keeps the intensification of economic profitability Sultan in a state of expectation and through the promotion of consumption, parallels the endless deferral of production and hedonism. Scheherazade’s execution. This is the logic of the discursive technique: survival depends upon the infinite extension, the perpetual telling of a story.

Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘‘discourse’’ Storytelling taps into fantasies or refers to a hegemonic construction that mythologies about a place or a people; as 22 allows for a system of power (or in Roland Barthes’ Mythologies, myth is a 20 ‘‘governmentality’’) to reproduce itself shorthand signifier which points to a and maintain its grip over subjected recognizable cultural pattern and thus populations. However, the notion of reifies this ‘‘truth’’ by depoliticizing it and discourse mostly refers to a construction casting it as implicit and timeless. of a political–economic logic that seems Similarly, Walter Benjamin argues in his 23 plausible 1936 essay ‘‘The Storyteller’’ that

(i.e. has ‘‘logical’’ validity for the explanation of social reality as there is nothing that commends a experienced by the common individual) story to memory more effectively and is thus shared and consumed by the than that chaste compactness which subjected people within a social group, e.g. precludes psychological analysis. And within an Andersonian ‘‘imagined the more natural the process by 21 nation’’. which the storyteller forgoes psychological shading, the greater becomes the story’s claim to a place in the memory of the listener, the Storytelling, on the other hand, liberates more completely is it integrated into discourse from the necessity of anchoring his own experience. itself in plausible explanations of reality for the subjection of people within an In both Barthes’ and Benjamin’s analyses, endogenous social group. Storytelling can the more generic the myth, the more easily tap instead into implausible recreations of it is integrated into the memory of the reality—fantasies— that people within a listener. Of course, there is a difference social group can embrace or not. These between the largely structural analysis of fantasies—still conceived by the elite, as the linguistic act in Barthes and the other hegemonic discourses—are mostly discursive description of the storytelling exogenously targeted to people outside process in Benjamin. Our notion of the social group, and in the case of urban Scheherazading takes its place somewhere storytelling, mostly build on spatial in between the two: the frozen shorthand motives, reinventing the built signification of the process of storytelling environment in a manner that is itself. The figure of Scheherazade becomes aesthetically hedonistic, and economically the signifier of storytelling (a character functional. It is daring and hedonistic with hardly any characteristics beyond a because it creatively pushes the envelope vast memory for narrative)—as well as of traditional architectural and urban shorthand for the ethos of the ‘‘oriental’’. design spatiality, technology, and programming, allowing for users to enact 24 new and even imaginary pleasurable roles Edward Said’s seminal text Orientalism in the storied urban spaces. Underneath its argued that the study of Asia by Western playfulness also lies a ‘‘rein scholars had ossified ‘‘the Orient’’ into a normative Similarly, Dubai’s ability to keep up with concept, frozen in time by the gaze of (or stay ahead of) the competition of western percipients. This reduced urban attraction as a magnet for Easterners to a mythical ‘‘silent Other’’ and investment and tourism, especially in light prevented those studied from articulating of the rise of Asia’s ‘‘tiger cities’’, depends their own self-definition. However, in the heavily on the effectiveness of the players case of Dubai, Oriental-ism is captured and who weave and frame stories about Dubai reclaimed as a kind of cosmopolitan to attract fancy and maintain a sense of project in which Westerners and wonder in tourists and investors. If Dubai Easterners together mine the legend of the ceases to tell its self-defining story, it could ancient East for the purpose of marketing face disinvestment that could have a ripple the city. Per Michael Sorkin’s analysis, in effect across the city’s operations. Some which the branding of a ‘‘post-modern have called this a ‘‘race to the bottom’’, in city’’ entails the deliberate creation of which the negative impacts of city cultural–historical packages to produce a concessions to powerful capital agents 25 marketable pastiche, Dubai is re- multiply exponentially, harming workers presented by turns in its advertising as an and the environment in particular. ancient Arabian desert kingdom, a hyper- modern cosmopolitan urban melting pot, and a techno-utopia. These contradictory Who Tells What? Planner and narratives are woven together like the Booster Scheherazades stories of the Thousand and One Nights, and together form the cultural myth of the place. Visitors may project themselves into Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum is the key various roles, moving through the city’s official figure that represents Dubai for space like characters in the desert global audiences. ‘‘Dubai’s CEO’’, or romances they are imagining. There is ‘‘Sheikh Mo’’ is the mastermind behind the some irony in the use of the figure of transformation of Dubai. Committed to his Scheherazade in a critical discussion of father’s dream of making Dubai one of the Dubai’s branding; we feel that by foremost cities in the world, he has turned dialectally inverting the structure of the a coastal desert into a ‘‘huge circuit board Orientalist myth once again in order to into which the elite of transnational describe this phenomenon, we can best engineering firms and retail developers highlight its paradox. are invited to plug in high-tech clusters, The mythos of Dubai, like Scheherazade’s entertainment zones, artificial islands, 26 stories, must be compelling and arresting; [and] ‘cities within cities’’’. Given its it must elicit suspense and expectation in limited oil reserves, Dubai’s ruling family order to maintain interest and investment. long ago realized that the state’s future lay Its economic agents and the public at large in serving as the commercial hub of the must buy into the myth of Dubai (or at Arab Middle East. least, be fascinated by it) and thus contribute to creation, maintenance, and Sheikh Mohammed’s strategy to stimulate expansion of the city’s form—in order to foreign investment is to significantly fulfil the prophecy. Scheherazade’s life reduce bureaucratic procedures and taxes. depends on the stories she weaves to In this scheme the government works on entertain the Sultan; after every tale, she developing infrastructure and providing must leave him wanting more. an environment that encourages the growth of business; in other words, the city becomes a in Dubai is authentic, permanent, or framework— an exemplar of the altogether wise. In any case, Sheikh Washington Consensus. This gives the Mohammed is constantly engaged in private sector a chance to benefit from crafting novel stories about the city, an investment opportunities, and until accomplished practitioner in the art of recently investors believed that risk was branding places. However, he is not the significantly reduced. It also makes Dubai sole narrator in story-weaving about a laboratory to evaluate the effectiveness Dubai. A myriad of designers and city of neoliberal development initiatives. boosters further orchestrate and implement the city’s image as ‘‘Las Vegas The Sheikh’s vision for Dubai has been on steroids’’. articulated in several explicit strategic Design Professional Scheherazades vision statements, especially ‘‘Dubai 2010’’ and ‘‘Dubai Strategic Plan 2015’’. Architecture and urban development are Generally, the plans outline broad goals: used as modes of advertising and are becoming integrated in the global valued for their capacity to brand the economy and developing a knowledge urban skyline, functioning as gigantic economy and a powerful business net- outdoor advertisements, and featuring work. However, they also include some transnational ‘‘starchitects’’ who are eager social initiatives, such as improving for the opportunity to create ambitious education and health care, taking 27 advantage of the female workforce, projects. For example, the skyscraper upgrading land use and environmental Burj Dubai (now Burj Khalifa) (Fig. 4) practices to follow sustainable standards, and ensuring security, justice, and safety for residents, workers, and visitors. Historically, however, the Sheikh’s actions— from his speeches to his development plans— have represented a deliberate attempt to construct a competitive story about Dubai in the global capitalist market. For instance, he is credited with the first sketch of the Palm Jebel Ali. The Palm Island is intended as a getaway for residents and visitors and incorporates luxury hotels and residences, entertainment destinations, and detached water-homes positioned in such a way that they spell out one of the Sheikh’s epigrams in Arabic script. The script says, ‘‘Take wisdom from the wise people; Not everyone who rides is a jockey’’. Read anecdotally, this accesses precisely the kind of Orientalist mythic ethos that makes Dubai into a stage-set for its visitors’ Arabian fantasies. Read critically, Figure 4. Burj Khalifa. Photograph: this phrase might arouse suspicion that Alamira Reem Bani Hashim. not everything one sees was designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, hype generated by the projects is worth Owings and Merrill; the hotel Burj Al Arab the investment risks: ‘‘If there was no Burj was created by the famous W.T. Atkins; Dubai, no Palm, no World, would anyone and there are hotels planned in the Palm be speaking of Dubai today? . . . You Islands as well as Downtown Burj Dubai shouldn’t look at the projects as crazy by the likes of Trump Associates and stand-alones ... It’s part of the building 31 Giorgio Armani. These designer buildings brand’’. Through these projects, have become essential tools of place architects, planners, urban designers, and marketing and are tradable symbols of developers portray the story of an exciting value. Furthermore, architects, developers, city that has come from being a desert and urban designers are vigorously backwater to being a global leader in just a marketing the physical attractions of their 32 developments together with the services few decades. included, turning into skilful Central to the development boom are two propagandists trying to ‘‘sell’’ images and of Dubai’s leading developers, Emaar and meanings. Nakheel (actually parastatal development Heritage management and reinvention, the companies owned by the government), editing and marketing of the past, are which have worked to create an image of much used place-marketing devices that progress and dynamism where ‘‘the rely on the manipulation of urban form fastest, biggest, most amazing structures 28 are being built in order to attract the and experience. Here, the fabrication of affluent and the talented, all essential to culture becomes a profitable economic 33 activity, wherein design professionals aim the consolidation of the Dubai brand’’. to abstract and recreate the ‘‘traditional’’ This global-scale architecture is meant to built environment with the goal of creating set world records and challenge the norm; unique places and experiences for the however, not all design professionals 29 subscribe to the myth of Dubai’s success as visitor. Much of the architecture in Dubai a development utopia: ‘‘things happen at is suggestive of this: Burj al Arab depicts such a speed, in such a fragmented way, the shape of a sail to symbolize the and with so little governmental oversight country’s maritime history; the Palm that to find one person with a complete Islands take on the form of palm trees to grasp of what’s going on is a very, very signify the ancient desert-palm oasis; even difficult task’’, says Reinier de Graaf, a Burj Khalifa features residential projects partner at the Office for Metropolitan (The Old Town and The Old Town Island) 34 which gesture towards Arab architectural Architecture. Without adequate designs. ‘‘Our attempt is to recreate an oversight or regulation, the frenetic pitch aura of the olden days; this will certainly of hyper-development can lead to a lack of attract tourists to Dubai’’, explains the coordinated, comprehensive systems and 30 other planning problems. managing director of Emaar. Franchises such as the immense Jumeirah group— In view of this critique, it is notable that in which has developed luxury hotels, recent years development rhetoric has resorts, and residences, as well as been geared toward the catchphrases of restaurants, stores, a water-park, and a smart-city development: ‘‘mixed-use’’, spa—advertise themselves as providing ‘‘a ‘‘sustainable’’, and ‘‘density’’—with plenty vista of ancient Arabia’’ along with of advertising that aims to make the case ‘‘spacious opulence, seclusion and that some of the impeccable service’’. Property developers argue that the developments going up are ‘‘green’’, that circumstances; . . . places are fluidly the new light-rail system will atone for all yet definitely marked by the the sins of car-centred transport (extraordinary) events that occur in planning—or that, now that the ‘‘sudden them; and . . . events are largely city’’ has been built, the gaps will be filled shaped and sustained—i.e., embodied in with all sorts of sustainable urban- and made memorable—by the design interventions such as self-powered physical qualities of the sites in which 35 buildings, a solar water-desalinization they take place. plant, a subway, and the light-rail system (Fig. 5). It seems that the latest story told by the design professionals of Dubai is One of the most prominent events staged that, somehow, intensive building in the in Dubai is the Dubai Shopping Festival desert is in fact a sustainable plan for a (DSF) which, since 1996, has annually green future. attracted over

3.5 million visitors, chiefly from the Gulf States, Europe, Africa and Asia, who have 36 City Booster Scheherazades: spent well over US$3 billion. Apart from Marketers and Event Organizers the retail boom, the spillover effects of the festival have benefitted hotels, transport, Striving to be competitive within the restaurants and related services: some globalizing economy, Dubai’s city boosters residents reportedly earn more during the 37 have tried to increase its distinctiveness festival than during the rest of the year. and character through shopping festivals, In addition, Dubai hosts horse and camel conferences and symposia, as well as races, air shows, an annual Global Village spectacular events such as air shows and festival, conventions, symposia, film music concerts. As Clara Iraza´bal notes, festivals, a fireworks festival, and musical and other performances year-round.

There are no neat boundaries Hallmark events coupled with strong between places and events (between advertising campaigns create a perception space and time), particularly under of Dubai as an international cultural extraordinary centre. City boosters

Figure 5. Metro line along Sheikh Zayed Road. Photograph: Alamira Reem Bani Hashim. promote this image through publicity twenty-first century paradise co-exists materials that seduce the reader by with packaged offerings of Arab-Islamic placing her, once again, in the scene—a culture: Dubai’s official webpage character in a legend of desert luxury. For advertises ‘‘old-world souks and modern example, on reading a Nakheel brochure shopping malls, rolling sand dunes and about Palm Jumeirah, relocating championship grass golf courses, remote executives find themselves invited to live Bedouin villages and an array of five-star in a destination with unprecedented hotels’’. imagination, which is welcoming its first residents, residents who are becoming a As Ahmed Kanna argues in his article ‘‘The part of history (Fig. 6). They can ‘‘swim at State Philosophical in the Land Without 38 pristine beaches with breathtaking open Philosophy’’, three aspects of these sea views’’, and can park their boats at propagandistic descriptions stand out: the ‘‘world class marinas’’. They can also play emphasis on size; the self-sufficiency and in a nine-hectare park located next to a luxuriousness of the projects; and the world class retail centre and an fabrication, literally or symbolically inside, exceptional entertainment plaza, and can of the natural or outdoor world (lakes, ski ride the ‘‘state of the art’’ monorail which resorts, cityscapes, etc.). Dubai’s connects the island’s many features. The marketers also make sure to promote relocating executive never has to leave the Dubai’s investor-friendly regulations, its island for his/her needs, and can live [in] tax incentives, support and openness for ‘‘the 8th wonder of the world’’. Yet this business, as well as its high standard of vision of a living, its crime-free environment, year- round sunshine, cosmopolitan population, and once again, its ‘‘smart’’, ‘‘sustainable’’, ‘‘mixed-use’’ projects.

Enchanting Stories for Whom? The Paradoxes of Dubai’s Development The Scheherazades of Dubai have had con- sequences for the quality and appearance of the built environment, and also on the quality of the ecological environment and the lives of city dwellers. In the race to enhance their city’s exchange value, or as they become too successful at positioning their cities as attractive nodes in the global market, city agents can act to the detriment of their cities’ use-value. Dubai’s development, for instance, is neither all- enchanting nor enchanting for all. Instead, it is troubled by profound paradoxes. Critics such as Mike Davis and Daniel B. Monk have counted Dubai among the most Figure 6. Highrise buildings along Sheikh exemplary ‘‘evil paradises’’ and Zayed Road. Photograph: Alamira Reem ‘‘dreamworlds Bani Hashim. 39 of neoliberalism’’ in the world. For them, seemingly poorly thought-out road Dubai is a capitalist utopia devoid of network (infamous for offering U-turns diversity in its elite ranks, and oblivious to that take you miles out of your way), there social welfare concerns. As such, the city is is tremendous traffic congestion for many a spatial manifestation of social inequality hours of the day, particularly along Sheikh and unsustainable development in the Zayed Road—the city’s main artery and service of a global bourgeois class at the the backbone of Dubai’s image (Fig. 7). In expense of the global poor. Davis further addition, Samer Bagaeen reports that describes Dubai as a city consumed ‘‘by a nightmarish and kind of apocalyptic presentism’’. These dramatic assertions, while the city’s population has grown despised by some as mere provocations, at an average annual rate of 6.4 per do find their grounding as we uncover the cent over the past three years, the unsustainable and inequitable dimensions number of cars on the road has of Dubai’s development, the troubling increased by 10 per cent each year, realities that are hidden behind the soaring from 350,000 to 750,000 40 ‘‘desert paradise’’ tapestry. over the period 2004-2006. In order to deal with traffic congestion, Unsustainable Development in Dubai Dubai has invested in the introduction of a toll system, Salik, on major routes The wild pace and character of Dubai’s throughout the city. It is doubtful, unparalleled development has proven to however, that the toll system will succeed be unsustainable. To demonstrate this, we in its attempts to encourage carpooling discuss some of the many aspects of that and the use of public transportation: Cars development, including transport and are still the preferred method for getting traffic congestion, power and water around, and a major symbol of prestige, availability, and the destruction of marine but this restricts mobility for the lower habitats. While city planners in Dubai income classes. Nevertheless, investment realize that measures need to be taken to in public transport is a major component reverse the negative effects of of Dubai’s plans for the future. Parts of its development, the biggest pitfall of this urban heavy-rail realization is that it is reactive rather than proactive. Dubai has launched a considerable number of urban infrastructure projects to support devel- opment, but it seems to constantly be trying to catch up to the pace of its sprouting architectural and urban design developments and their negative spillover effects. Dubai’s rapid development has necessitated a reworking of the city’s infrastructure, and although the road network is constantly under construction, infrastructure is not comprehensively Figure 7. Nakheel billboard on a congested planned and upgraded vis-a`-vis develop- street advertising the development ‘‘The ment. As a result of endless construction of World’’. Photograph: Alamira Reem Bani the Hashim. system opened in September 2009; when implemented a water-recycling system complete it will include two lines and 37 that uses grey-water for a variety of stations. While the project is still on the purposes, such as landscaping irrigation path to completion, it is difficult to assess and district cooling systems. Yet, these its impact; however, as of August 2009, it initiatives are mostly reacting to the rising was already three billion dollars over problems and are not keeping pace with budget, according to Mattar Al Tayer, expanding needs. With the World Wildlife Chairman and Executive Director of Fund placing Dubai second in the world Dubai’s Roads and Transportation for per capita carbon emissions, it Authority. It is also safe to assume that becomes urgent that the UAE’s public transportation will only succeed if government exert pressure for greater people are educated about the negative corporate responsibility and green and effects of cars on traffic flow and air sustainable architectural and urban 43 quality, and if riding public transport design. becomes part of the culture (i.e., not There is also much concern over the negatively stereotyped) and provides an marine habitat of the Gulf waters. As a effective, convenient, and safe mode of result of the dredging and re-depositing of transportation. In addition to transportation problems, sand for the construction of the Palm and concerns have arisen about power and World archipelagos, the ecosystems of the water availability for the ever-increasing Gulf have been devastated. In addition to number of developments sprouting in the being clouded with silt, the water’s desert. The climate in Dubai leads to a high currents have been altered and natural demand for energy to cool its many beaches have eroded. Nick Meo reports buildings, as temperatures in the summer that local divers have witnessed coral � reefs and oyster beds buried under tons of approach 42 C. Major initiatives are sand and boulders, and says that turtles needed to expand the capacity of both 44 electricity generation and water provision and fish are scarce. In response to the in a sustainable manner in order to meet damage, Nakheel—the development the rapidly growing demand. Currently, company behind the island projects—and the UAE is greatly dependent on the Environment Health and Safety (EHS) have availability of cheap energy from oil to pledged to jointly develop a marine desalinize water, provide air conditioning, biology laboratory as part of an and run motor vehicles, but as the country environmental monitoring programme for is becoming more aware that a lifestyle the waters of the Arabian Gulf. While these involving intensive consumption of fossil efforts are necessary to save the marine fuels is not sustainable in the long run, it habitats from future destruction, the has begun to tap into renewable sources of marine habitats already faced tremendous, energy. 41 and maybe irreversible, degradation before measures were taken to limit and In fact, big developers such as Emaar and redress the damage done. It also remains Nakheel are taking major steps towards to be seen how effective these initiatives exploring alternative means of energy: will be, beyond their public relations Emaar set up a new entity—Emaar purposes. Utilities—that will focus on promoting Proactive planning has been recently at- water and electricity conservation tempted in Dubai in light of the growing measures and sustainable environment realization of the negative externalities of 42 practices in all Emaar projects in Dubai. Nakheel has development. The city has introduced the emirate if not employed. In 2002, several strategic plans with regard to however, a law was passed in Dubai urban planning and heritage conservation allowing the ownership of certain real such as the Strategic Urban Growth Plan estate projects by people of all 47 for the Emirate of Dubai (2000-2050), the nationalities. This led to an explosion in Structural Plan for Dubai Urban Area 48 (2000-2020), the First Five Year Plan for property development. Yet, with prices Dubai Urban Area (2000-2005), and shooting upwards, many residents could several other legislative initiatives on land not afford to access the real estate market. use in Dubai, including the inaugural Additionally, though much of the vacated Dubai Forum for Sustainable Development housing in older developments was 45 filtered down to low-income expatriates, in March 2006. The strategic plans were in general there is limited state provision commissioned by the government to guide 49 the physical and economic development of of housing for this social group. the city into the twenty-first century. The Citizenship and real estate access control profit-driven emphasis of Dubai’s rapid structures of social privilege and keep development, however, has made it really everybody in Dubai literally in his/her challenging for longer-term planning to place in the social hierarchy. In 1971 get the support it deserves and needs in (when the UAE formed), people who had order to move from ideas to action: the already been in the cities of the UAE for story of ecological degradation is not often years (from Yemen, Oman, Baluchistan, told by the city’s mouthpieces. Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.), and were contributing to the economy, had the Inequitable Development in Dubai opportunity to apply for citizenship. Citizenship was granted based on the Though Dubai’s Scheherazades present it applying families’ reputation. This practice as a paradise, beyond its fac¸ade there are was stopped in 1980 in order to control substantial socio-spatial inequities. For immigration, which was rapidly increasing instance, during the boom the range and as the country saw an influx of people pace of development boosted real estate from Asian and Arab countries. As Davis prices in Dubai, which in turn had a discusses, a class-based and racial significant impact on the cost of living. In hierarchy is firmly maintained: those who some parts of the city, residential rents own commercial land in Dubai are at the rose by almost 20-40 per cent in the first top of the pyramid. Next, the native 15 per half of 2005 and again by up to 50 per cent cent of the population constitutes a leisure in 2007. While Samer Bagaeen states that class subsidized by income transfers, free there was an official 15 per cent cap on education, and government jobs. A step rent increases until the end of 2006, Dubai below are the 150,000 or so British faces a challenge when it comes to expatriates, along with other European, providing affordable housing to all Lebanese, and Indian managers and 46 residents. professionals, who live in air-conditioned affluence. Mike Davis writes in his 2005 Under the old land regime, real estate in article ‘‘Does the Road to the Future end at Dubai could only be owned by UAE Dubai?’’: nationals, and with limitations by nationals of the countries of the Gulf South Asian contract laborers, legally Cooperation Council (GCC) states. In bound to a single employer and addition, it was almost impossible to subject reside in to totalitarian social controls, make and service sectors, and their up the great mass of the population. underpayment relative to promised wages. Dubai lifestyles are attended by vast The workers live in accommodation camps numbers of Filipina, Sri Lankan, and in the middle of the desert or on the Indian maids, while the building outskirts of the city, where they are boom is carried on the shoulders of crammed six to twelve in a room an army of poorly paid Pakistanis and sometimes without air conditioning. We Indians working twelve hour shifts, witnessed these conditions in fieldwork. six and half days a week, in the blast- The US State Department’s 2000 UAE 50 furnace desert heat. Country Report on Economic Policy and Trade Practices stated that, ‘‘health As others reassert, Dubai’s Disney-like standards are not uniformly observed in image and lifestyle are dependent on the housing camps provided for foreign 52 importing low paid labour for the workers’’. Substandard living conditions construction, maintenance, and service of as well as the mistreatment of labourers 51 its vast developments. Emirati citizens by their contractors have been mentioned 53 have increasingly taken on higher ranking frequently in reporting. An article in the and better paid jobs as the country has New York Times described a riot that took become richer and its citizens more place at the site of what has become the educated, so great numbers of workers world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai. have been recruited from elsewhere to Reporter Hassan Fattah writes: ‘‘When take over menial, low-paying jobs. For hundreds of workers angered by low most of these workers, travelling abroad salaries and mistreatment rioted Tuesday has enabled them to make important night . . . they [were] expressing the economic contributions to their families growing frustration of Asian migrants back home (Fig. 8). 54 here’’. However, news items appear frequently in The array of labourers’ complaints include, the media about the poor treatment of the excessive work hours, verbal and/or labourers who work in Dubai’s physical abuse, retention of documents, construction restriction of

Figure 8. Labourers on construction site. Photograph: Ahmad Huzair. movements and most prominently the which are not entirely adequate . . . Neither nonpayment of wages. With new we nor the ministry can cope with the regulations, ministry officials can ban an growing number of laborers and growing 57 employer from further employment of number of complaints’’. Considering the workers should the employer fail to Labor Laws of the UAE, it is evident that protect its workers’ rights and to follow the government and the Ministry, despite labour law. The Ministry of Labor their shortcomings, are making some blacklisted over 1000 firms in 2004 for institutional efforts to tend to the workers’ violating labour law, particularly for failing 58 to pay salaries, employing workers who needs. were sponsored by others, or providing However, much more remains to be done substandard living or working for the Ministry to increase its staff and 55 conditions. The Ministry requires that strongly enforce its rules so that no employers ensure a safe working and employer disrespects workers’ rights. That living environment and requires all this still remains the case in Dubai is a contractors to employ a certified demonstration that priority has not been occupational safety officer, but according given to assuring that development takes to inspector reports these requirements place in an equitable manner. Spatially, the are often ignored. remote location of the labour Criticism of the Ministry’s inefficiency in accommodation camps from the high-rise responding to the complaints of the buildings and luxury hotels of the UAE labourers is widespread. According to The demonstrates an attempt to sustain the State Department’s 2000 UAE Country myth that Dubai is a place of luxury Report on Economic Policy and Trade 59 without slums or poverty. Residents and Practices, ‘‘the Ministry is understaffed visitors to Dubai may hardly notice the and under-budgeted; complaints and workers, unless it is the end of their shift compensation claims are backlogged’’. and they are lining up to board their buses Additionally, Fattah reports: home to the work camps on the city outskirts. As Yasser Elsheshtawy points Only 80 government inspectors out, an entrenched geographical/spatial oversee about 200,000 companies division is developing in which there are and other establishments that areas with a high concentration of the employ migrant workers . . . The poor, in contrast to enclaves housing the sheer numbers of workers who have 60 poured into the country over the past very rich. Highly visible income and two years and inadequate staffing at lifestyle differences lead inevitably to the ministry have meant that many socio-spatial polarization, and possibly problems slip through. social conflict and instability, between high-and low-income workers, particularly Although the State Department’s Report national and low-income non-national 61 says that, ‘‘the government announced in workers.Given the negative externalities of 2000 that it intends to establish a new development in Dubai, which have lately 56 court system to speed up labor cases’’, garnered attention in the media, it the labour and welfare consul at the becomes ever more crucial to include Consulate General of India in Dubai, B.S. sustainable and equitable practices in the Mubarak, reported in 2006, ‘‘there’s such a city’s plans to become one of the world’s boom and so many laborers required here leading capitals of tourism and trade. that the government is bringing measures Furthermore, given the substantial and growing evidences of the negative impacts closely followed by the opening of the of current development in the city now tower— which had been renamed for further compounded by the financial crisis, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the the mythic version of Dubai that its ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the Scheherazades have portrayed seems an United Arab Emirates. The tower opened unsustainable mirage. The idea that the in a shower of fireworks and a media city can continue developing without due frenzy—and the city’s Scheherazades kept consideration of its environment and spinning their story: ‘‘Crises come and go. social fabric is a fiction. As the paradoxes And cities move on’’, Mohammed Alabbar, of development become evident, bad chairman of the tower’s developer Emaar publicity has started to hurt the image that Properties, told reporters before the Dubai’s Scheherazades have worked so inauguration. ‘‘You have to move on. hard to create, and could discourage Because if you stop making decisions, you 63 tourists from visiting and corporations stop growing’’. If Dubai stops growing— from investing in the Emirate. In order to if it stops telling itself and others its story save Dubai, the Scheherazades in charge about the perpetual expansion of paradise would do well to invest their efforts into into the desert—it will lose all of its creating a sustained collaborative effort to investment, and the race to the bottom raise everybody’s boats (equitable could become unstoppable. Like development) and to keep them afloat Scheherazade, Dubai cannot possibly stop (sustainable development). telling its story.

The need for a more integrated self-defini- Conclusion: (The Failure of) tion—a legend that includes provisions for Bewitching Globalization? the welfare of all stakeholders and for the region’s ecology—has become even more The myth is that of an Eldorado Negro, pronounced with Dubai’s recent troubles. where towers scratch the cottony bot The near-collapse of its economy in late toms of clouds, where the impossible is 2009 was global headline news: Reuters reported on 26 November 2009 that Dubai possible, where everyone can make 62 money and be happy. Well, the skyline was at least 80 billion dollars in debt. Its is littered with the skeletons of those parastatal development corporations Dubai World and Nakheel accounted for towering dreams, and thousands of most of these liabilities, and the state had people, from CEOs to tiffen-carrying to ask creditors to agree to a standstill on Indian labourers, have been laid off and 64 debt payments. There were fears that a sent packing. collapse could have a ripple effect around —Raymond Beauchemin the world, pulling European and American investment markets down with Dubai (one The case of Dubai exemplifies the Scheher- of the drawbacks to being a player in the azade Syndrome in today’s global world. It global cities network). also elucidates the process by which storytelling attempts to sway global forces This news broke just as construction on by successfully positioning urban localities the Burj Dubai was completed. December’s in global markets. The risks created by the relentless investment in a mythic image news that oil-rich neighbour Abu Dhabi through (unsustainable and inequitable) would bail its troubled fellow emirate out of debt was urban

development cannot be overemphasized, In the Arabian Nights, Scheherazade defies and Dubai offers one of the greatest death by bewitching the Sultan Shahryar cautionary tales in this regard. with her stories—and he succumbs to her enchantment, pardons her life, and makes Since the partial unravelling of Dubai’s her queen. However, saving a city requires myth of perpetual development, the gaps a more intense and collaborative effort. In in its narrative are becoming news. In a Dubai, the endeavour of the Scheherazades has brought about recent Chicago Tribune article, Blair impressive levels of economic and Kamin took the city to task for its failures touristic development, but is rapidly in planning: eroding the city’s environmental and The emirate and its leaders appear social systems. The challenge for Dubai’s obsessed with architectural Scheherazades is to be as courageous in superlatives at the expense of the promoting sustainable and equitable fundamentals of making livable cities development as they have been daring in . . . It is a city of isolated enclaves, promoting dazzling architectural and lacking convenient connections to urban design projects. Dubai’s recent one another, and brutal linear strips, crisis— one might even say ‘‘market exemplified by the eyesore high-rises failure’’—provides the opportunity for a along the emirate’s main drag, a change of course. The legend of Dubai superwide highway called Sheikh needs to change from a tale of spectacular Zayed Road. The patches of the urban ambition, luxury and fantasy—to one of a quilt desperately need to be stitched legendarily achievable, sustainable, and together. So Dubai faces hard choices equitable showplace of comprehensive as it looks ahead—between spectacle planning. and sustain-ability, the city as a This is just not an option, but an collection of architectural objects or a unavoidable and urgent imperative, lest continuous urban65 Dubai’s bliss sink into the quicksands of its fabric. desert. Notes 1. Clovis Maksoud, Saeb Eigner, Sand to Silicon: 2005, http://www.ft.com/re Perspectives on the Achieving Rapid Growth Les- ports/investdubai2005. United Arab Emirates, sons from Dubai, London: London: Trident Press, Profile Books Ltd, 2003. 6. Saskia Sassen, The Global City: 1997, pp. 7-23. New York, London, Tokyo, 4.Azza Eleishe, ‘‘Imaginary En- Princeton: Princeton University 2. M. Pacione, ‘City vironments: Recent Trends in Press, 2001. Mike Davis and Profile: Dubai’ Cities 22 Dubai Residential Projects’’, Daniel B. Monk, Evil Paradises: (2005): 225-265 Traditional Dwellings and Dreamworlds of NeoLiberalism, Settlements Working Paper New York: The New Press, 2007. 3. Sheikh Mohammed Series, No. 172 (2004): pp. 41- Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 66. 7.David Harvey, ‘‘From ‘‘My Vision: Challenges in 5.Roula Khalaf and William Managerialism to Entrepre- the Race for Excellence’’; Wallis, ‘‘Emirate Rebrands neurialism’’, Geografiska Annaler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Itself as a Global Melting Pot’’, no. 71 B1 (1989): 3-17. Rashid Al Maktoum, Financial Times,12July ‘‘Dubai Under Sheikh Rashid’’, Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 2006, pp. 36, 93; Jeffrey Sampler and

8. David Sadler, ‘‘Place- 16. Guy Debord, The 23. Walter Benjamin, marketing, Competitive Society of the Spectacle, New Illuminations, New York: Places and the Construction York: Zone Books, 1995. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968, pp. 86–88. of Hegemony in Britain in the 17. Mark Goodwin, ‘‘The

1980s’’, in Gerry Kearns and City as Commodity: the 24. Edward Said, Orientalism, Chris Philo (eds.), Selling Contested Spaces of Urban New York: Vintage, 1979. Places: The City as Cultural Development,’’ in Kearns and 25. Sorkin, Variations on a Capital, Past and Present, Philo, Selling Places, pp. 143 Theme Park. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 18. Iraza´bal, City 26. Al Maktoum, ‘‘My Vision’’, 1993, pp. 175-187. Anne- Making and Urban p. 162 Marie Broudehoux, Governance in the Americas, ‘‘Spectacular Beijing: The 27. Broudehoux, pp. 242-248. Yasser Conspicuous Construction of ‘‘Spectacular Beijing’’, p. 385. Elsheshtawy, ‘‘From Dubai to an Olympic Metropolis’’, George Katodrytis, Cairo: Shifting Centers of Journal of Urban Affairs, no. ‘‘Metropolitan Dubai and the Influence?’’, Traditional 24 (2007): 383-399 Rise of Architectural Fantasy’’, Dwellings and Settlements Bidoun, no. 4 (2005) http:// 9. Kearns and Philo, Working Paper Series, Vol. bidoun.com/bdn/magazine/ Selling Places,p.3. 163, 2004, p. 04-emirates-now/metropoli 49. Gh. Hossein Memarian tan-dubai-and-the-rise-of- 10. Stephen V. Ward, and Frank E. Brown, ‘‘Paris in architectural-fantasy-by-geo Selling Places: The Dubai and Dubai in Paris: A rge-katodrytis/. Marketing and Promotion of Problem of Identity’’, 28. Clara Iraza´bal, ‘‘Architec- Towns and Cities 1850- Traditional Dwellings and ture and Image-Making: In- 2000, London: E&FN Spon, Settlements Working Paper vocations of Tradition vs. 1998, p. 186. Series, No.162, 2004, pp. 15- Critical Transnationalism in

11. J. A. Burgess, ‘‘Selling 29. Curitiba’’ in Clara Iraza´bal, Places: Environmental Images City Making and Urban Gov- 19. Richard Burton for the Executive’’, Regional ernance in the Americas: (transl.), The Arabian Nights: Studies 16, no. 1 (1982): 1 Curitiba and Portland, Alder- Tales from a Thousand and shot, UK: Ashgate, 2005, pp. 12. Clara Iraza´bal, City One Nights, New York: The 241 –266. Making and Urban Modern Library, 2001. Governance in the Americas: 29. Eric Hobsbawm and Curitiba and Portland, Terence Ranger, The Invention 20. Michel Foucault, The Aldershot, UK: Ash-gate, of Tradition, Cambridge: Archeology of Knowledge, 2005. Cambridge University Press, New York: 1 Pantheon, [1969] 13. Michael Sorkin, 1992. Iraza´bal, City Making 1972; and 2. Michel Foucault, Variations on a Theme Park: and Urban Governance in the ‘‘Governmentality’’, (trans. P. The New American City and Americas, p. 244. Pasquino), Ideology and Con- the End of Public Space, New sciousness, no. 6 (1979): 5 30. Djamel Boussaa, ‘‘The York: Hill and Wang, 1992. Historic Districts of Dubai in 21. Benedict Anderson, Ima- 14. Jean Baudrillard, the UAE: What Future in a Post gined Communities: Reflec- Simulations, New York: Global World?’’, Traditional tions on the Origin and Spread Semiotext(e), 1983. Dwellings and Settlements of Nationalisms, New York 15. Clara Iraza´bal, Working Paper Series, Vol. and London: Verso, 1983. ‘‘Kitsch is Dead, Long Live 173, 2004, pp. 25-58.

Kitsch: The Production of 22. Roland Barthes, 31. Financial Times, Hyper-kitsch in Las Vegas’’, Mythologies, New York: ‘‘Emirate Rebrands Itself as a Journal of Architectural and Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Global Melting Pot’’, 12 July Planning Research 24, no. 3 Later Printing edition 2005. (2007): 199-223. (January 1, 1972), pp. 109– 159.

32. Susan Spano, ‘‘Going 43. Claire Ferris-Lay, ‘‘Green 53. A study conducted by Cosmo in Dubai’’, Los An- City’’, Arabian Business, 18 one of the authors revealed that geles Times, 27 January October 2007, http:// the welfare of workers is ulti- 2008. www.arabianbusiness.com/ mately dependent upon the property/article/502211- contractor who operates the 33. Samer Bagaeen, ‘‘Brand green-city (accessed 25 Jan- labour camp. The UAE gov- Dubai: The Instant City; or uary 2010). ernment exhibits concern for the Instantly Recognizable 44. Nick Meo, ‘‘Man-made the workers, and this is further City’’, International Planning Island City ‘Is Devastating exemplified in a recent article in Studies 12, no. 2 (2007): 177 Coral’’’, The Independent,5 Arabian Business,inwhich the

34. Koolhaas, Rem (ed.), Al March 2005. Ministry of Labour argued that Manakh: Volume 12, New 45. Bagaeen, ‘‘Brand the UAE ‘‘had undergone a York: Columbia University Dubai’’, p. 188 change in mindset toward its GSAPP/Archis, 2007. 46.Bagaeen, ‘‘Brand Dubai’’, foreign labour force’’, and that p. 180 the country was not only 35.Clara Iraza´bal, Ordinary 47. Bagaeen, ‘‘Brand concerned with the protection Places, Extraordinary Events, Dubai’’, pp. 177-178. of workers while in the UAE but New York: Routledge, 2008, also with ‘‘what happens to the p.4 48. Mike Davis, ‘‘Does the worker before he or she gets Road to theFutureend at here, and what happens after 36. Spano, “going Cosmo in Dubai? they leave’’, ‘‘UAE Outrage at Dubai”. 49. Pacione, ‘‘City Profile’’, Human Rights Watch ‘Affront’’’, pp. 255-265. Arabian Business, 2008. 37. Sampler and Eigner,

Sand to Silicon, p. 146 50. Davis, ‘‘Does the Road 54. Hassan M. Fattah, ‘‘In Dubai, 38. Ahmed Kanna, to the Future end at a Festival Is Born. Next, an ‘‘The State Philosophical Dubai?’’, pp. 4-5. Industry?’’, The New York in the Land Without 51. Al Asad, ‘‘The Dubai Times, 14 December 2004, Philosophy: Shopping Model’’; Nick Meo, ‘‘How http://www.nytimes.com/ Malls, Interior Cities, and Dubai, Playground of 2004/12/14/movies/14duba. the Image of Utopia in Business Men and html (accessed 25 January Dubai’’, Traditional Dwell- Warlords, Is Built by Asian 2010). ings and Settlements Wage Slaves’’, The Indepen- 55. US Department of State, Working Paper Series, No. dent, 1 March 2005. Hari Bureau of Democracy, Human 163, 2004, p. 34. Sreenivasan, ‘‘Build It and Rights and Labor, ‘‘Country They Will Come: Boomtown Reports on Human Rights United Arab Emirates’’, ABC Practices 2004’’, 39. Davis and Monk, News, 8 February 2005; http://www.state.gov/g/drl/ Evil Paradises, 2007. and ‘‘Focusing on Profits rls/hrrpt/2004/41734.htm 40.Bagaeen, ‘‘Brand Dubai’’, Amid a Delicate Balance of (accessed 25 January 2010). p. 181 Ethnicities and Cultures’’, 56. State Department UAE 41.Mohammed Al Asad, ‘‘The ABC News, 9 February Country Report on Economic Dubai Model’’, Center for the 2005. Policy and Trade Practices, Study of the Built Environ- 2000, http://www.state.gov/ ment: Urban Crossroads, 1 52. Hassan M. Fattah, ‘‘In documents/organization/1645. March 2007, http://www. Dubai, a Festival Is Born. pdf (accessed 27 January 2010). csbe.org/urban_crossroads/ Next, an Industry?’’, The urban_crossroads66/dubai_ New York Times, 14 57. As quoted in Fattah, ‘‘In model.htm (accessed 26 December 2004, Dubai, a Festival Is Born’’. June 2007). http://www.nytimes.com / 42. Isabella Princi, ‘‘Green Re- 2004/12/14/movies/14d volutions’’, Identity,no. 52 uba. (2008): 83-86.

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