Invading the Desert: How Curating Culture in Rapidly Urbanizing Cities of the Middle East affects Memory and Identity

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use of culture as a tool of urban development in the rapidly urbanizing cities of the Middle East, focusing on two countries: Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As Gulf cities have undergone dramatic transformation in the post-oil era, questions of cultural identity, heritage, and modernity have become central to how these cities are planned and represented. In Oman, cities like Muscat and Nizwa, demonstrate an urbanization approach that focuses on the preservation and marketing of traditional culture. This projects a coherent national identity rooted in heritage. In Abu Dhabi, the relationship with culture is more complex. Traditional culture is intertwined with Westen modernity to produce a new strategy of cultural development, one defined by the deliberate curation of culture. Through an analysis of architecture and urban planning, this thesis argues that culture has emerged as a primary instrument of Gulf urbanization, one through which competing claims of national identity, sovereignty, and global modernity are actively negotiated.