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CHAIRPERSON

Prof Brenda Yeoh, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This chapter attempts to think cosmopolitanism outside the framework of normativity and to unravel how it can be grounded in non-Western and non-integrative contexts. In a deeply inegalitarian Emirati society, Dubai’s cosmopolitanism intertwines three main features: globalization, consumption and segregation. After quickly describing these characteristics, I illustrate how the state and its corporations shape cosmopolitan landscapes in order to achieve the status of a global city and then demonstrate how these spaces are experienced by its users.

To unpack Dubai’s cosmopolitan urbanism, I have chosen to study two ordinary (and overlooked) spaces, far cries from iconic architectural successes. Global Village is an outdoor mall and entertainment park selling products from all over the world. It epitomizes the commodification of difference, where cosmopolitanism is performed as a form of consumption. International City is one of the rare urban projects built for housing low and middle-class foreign residents. In this suburban cosmopolitan district, inhabited mainly by non-Westerners, logics of segregation are spreading against “bachelors,” usually constructed as a threat to urban order in the Gulf. In these two ordinary spaces, frequented mainly by non-Westerners, a kind of cosmopolitanism from below emerges. This cosmopolitanism is not exempted from tensions and contradictions, where inclusive logics of consumption coexist with exclusive logics of segregation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Delphine Pagès-El Karoui is Associate Professor at INALCO (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations) and where she teaches Middle East geography. Her research addresses Egyptian migrations (transnational networks and diasporas in Europe and the Gulf, imaginaries in literature and cinema); the spatial dimensions of Arab revolutions; urban diversity and cosmopolitanism in Gulf cities. Since October 2017, she has been working part-time as a project officer for the General Directorate for Research and Innovation (DGRI) at the French Ministry of Higher Education.

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