Ambivalent cosmopolitanism from above in Dubai

Abstract

This paper focuses on new forms of governance of diversity in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), unpacking the ambivalence of its cosmopolitanism from above. It explores how the Dubai government’s narratives brand Dubai as a cosmopolitan city, rarely using the term but conveying the idea by promoting diversity, emphasizing on tolerance and happiness as two core national and urban values. The main hypothesis is that the government uses Dubai’s own landscape as the principal tool (alongside others, such as policies, institutions, discourses, events) to embody this new ideology, engraving its symbols into built landscapes and making it visible to all. Behind these inclusive cosmopolitan narratives are diverse ‘regimes of visibility’ which sometimes serve to hide strong logics of exclusion.