Growing Pains of Emerging Gulf Cities: A Review of The New Arab Urban

[...]the book serves as a work that evaluates the value of Gulf cities. Cities also represent the Gulf's economic ambitions, and their economic role is important when discussing international affairs. [...]this review discusses three main themes of The New Arab Urban: 1) Urban spectacles and their limitations, 2) Cities' Dialogues with the West, and 3) Gulf Cities' Road to Sustainability. According to the book, in the process of building gilded cityscapes, Gulf cities use the world's most wanted talents–or starchitects. Whereas the Agbar Tower was constructed through a democratic urban renewal process that involved a high level of community engagement, the Doha Tower was built from a top-down approach with no public involvement.3 The contrast is important as the modern urban planning field works to democratize the process of building cities. Molotch and Ponzini argue that these spectacles blur the history of the city and instead signal the vast amounts of power and money flowing through it.5 The authors believe that urban spectacles make the city less relevant to the locale and locals—their critical engagement with Gulf cities serves to encourage urban planners and city dwellers to move from the global urban competition.