Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world
Hussam Salama, an expert on Arab globalization, argues that development in Dubai is characterized by the capacity of hosting agglomerations of global flows of capital, people, goods, and information.
During the last decade, Dubai managed to establish a spectacular and glamorous urban structure that has attracted global attention and managed to place the city among top world ones. And despite the challenges it faces today, the urban experience of Dubai is becoming a model that is influencing trends of development in many major cities in the Middle East. Dubai presents a new and appealing approach to urban planning for globalizing cities. In this seminar I analyze the conceptions that have been shaping this experience of urban change. I argue that development in Dubai has been conceptualized by the idea of creating a series of projects or “places of flows” that have the capacity of hosting agglomerations of global flows of capital, people, goods, and information. I present an analytical model in order to analyze the nature of these places of flows and their role in shaping the urban structure of Dubai.
