The smart city and the containment of informality: The case of Dubai

Harris Breslow

Urban Studies, 2021, vol. 58, issue 3, 471-486

Abstract: I argue that Dubai’s smart city project, ‘Smart Dubai’, is a response to the following priorities: (i) the furtherance of the city’s scale-making project and worlding strategies, through the propagation of the smart city imaginary and the buildout of a smart city infrastructure modelled after those in the global north and west and used to compete for members of the creative class and other high-value residents; (ii) a project to enlarge the scope of Dubai’s economy of flow. Dubai in particular, and the UAE in general, have long articulated a political economic project based on the creation of a political economy that positions the country as a regional hub within the global political economy of flow; and (iii) the containment of urban informality, which in Dubai is understood as both a disciplinary problem and an existential challenge to what is still, at heart, a rentier economy.

Keywords: flow; Smart Dubai; urban informality; worlding practices; æµ é‡; 智慧迪拜(Smart Dubai); åŸŽå¸‚é žæ­£è§„æ€§; 世界化实践 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:3:p:471-486

DOI: 10.1177/0042098020903233

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