Everyday Life in the Spectacular City

Making Home in Dubai

Rana AlMutawa

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English

University of California Press
02 April 2024

Urban communities; Ethnic studies; Social & cultural anthropology; Urban & municipal planning

"Everyday Life in the Spectacular City is a groundbreaking urban ethnography that reveals how middle-class citizens and longtime residents of Dubai interact with the city's so-called superficial spaces to create meaningful social lives. Rana AlMutawa shows that inhabitants adapt themselves to top-down development projects, from big malls to megaprojects. These structures serve residents' evolving social needs, transforming Dubai's spectacular spaces into personally important cultural sites. These practices are significant because they expand our understanding of agency as not only subversive but also adaptive. Through extensive fieldwork, AlMutawa, herself an Emirati native to Dubai, finds a more nuanced story of belonging. This story does not seek to uncover the ""real"" city that lies beneath the veneer of the spectacle, but rather to demonstrate that social meanings and forms of belonging take place within the spectacle itself. By offering an alternative to the discourse of authenticity and elucidating the dynamics of ambivalent belonging, AlMutawa belies stereotypes that portray Dubai's developments as alienating and inherently disempowering. Everyday Life in the Spectacular City speaks beyond the Middle East to a globalized phenomenon, for Dubai's spectacles are unexceptional in today's changing world.

"

By: Rana AlMutawa
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 499g
ISBN: 9780520395060
ISBN 10: 0520395069
Pages: 294
Publication Date: 02 April 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. (In)Authenticity in Brand Dubai 2. Negotiating Belonging in Dubai’s Glitzy, Neoliberal Spaces 3. Globalization and Diversity at a Cosmopolitan Crossroads 4. An Appropriately Modern City 5. The Costs and Benefits of Safety in Sanitized Spaces Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Rana AlMutawa is Assistant Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at New York University Abu Dhabi.