In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Persian Gulf city of Dubai exploded onto the world stage. Oil wealth, land rent, and so-called informal economic practices have blanketed the urbanscape with enormous enclaved developments attracting a global elite, while the economy runs on a huge army of migrant workers. The speed and aesthetic brashness with which the city has developed have left both scholarly and journalistic observers reaching for facile stereotypes with which to capture the city's identity and significance to urban planning, architecture, social theory, and...
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Persian Gulf city of Dubai exploded onto the world stage. Oil wealth, land rent, and so-called...
