New Media Talk Series #50 | Amin Moghadam

Dubai-Abu Dhabi: From port cities to “cultural ports”

Dec 12, 2017 – 6 pm

New Media Projects

The rapid economic and urban development of cities on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf during the past thirty years, such as in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, nurtured a superficial image of these cities which do not reflect their historical and social complexities. Not only a city like Dubai played a pivotal role in the regional economy since the beginning of the 20th century, but also the de facto cultural and social diversity of this city, as a result of the presence of more than two hundred nationalities,  led to the emergence of a metropolis where the questions such as the sense of belonging, the urban spaces of identification, and vernacular cosmopolitanism are being discussed with relation to the management of diversity and new forms of social discriminations. In the meantime, with the political development of these countries, their governors started using culture as a political and economic tool, the expression of which could be seen in huge investments for the creation of new cultural institutions such as the Louvre Abou Dhabi. Adopting a sociological approach in this presentation, based on fieldwork, I will discuss the urban and social transformations of Dubai and will conclude with the Louvre Abou Dhabi project from the point of view of visitors’ studies.

Amin Moghadam holds a PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies from Lyon 2 University, France and he is an associate researcher scholar at Urmis researcher center at Paris Diderot University in Paris. He lectured at Sciences Po Paris, Aix-Marseille University and at Inalco (Institut National des langues et civilisations orientales). In addition to his research and teaching activities, he consulted for several cultural organizations such as the Louvre Abou Dhabi.

New Media Projects: No. 3, Araabi 3 Alley, N. Kheradmand St, Karimkhan Ave. Tehran – Iran