Abstract
Due to the oil business, settlements in the Gulf Region developed into prosperous cities. But in the near future, oil is off. The plans of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states bank on diversified and knowledge-intensive economies. Are those development plans realistic? What is the state of the art of knowledge institutions in the GCC countries? Applying the theoretical frameworks of Knowledge City and Science Indicators research, we empirically and theoretically studied the emerging Gulf cities Kuwait City (Kuwait), Manama (Bahrain), Doha (Qatar), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah (all UAE), and Muscat (Oman). Our methodological framework includes grounded theory, ethnographic field study, ServQual-like quantitative questionnaires and semi-standardized qualitative interviews conducted on-site with informed people, informetrics, and, finally, the use of official statistics. In particular, we describe and analyze the cities’ knowledge infrastructures, their academics, and expenditure on R&D as input indicators; and publications as well as graduates as output indicators. A further crucial aspect of a knowledge society is the transition of graduates into knowledge-intensive public services and private companies.
Highlights
Flash back to the southern coast of the Arabian Gulf 50 years ago
Due to the detection of huge amounts of oil and gas resources in the 1960s, the whole region experienced a rapid development leading to prosperity— where oil flows in very large quantities, and in neighboring areas such as Dubai (where less than 10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is earned through oil) or Sharjah as well
When you visit cities on the Arabian Gulf, nowadays you see glittering facades, high-end hotels, artificial islands, beaches filled with tourists from all over the world, huge shopping malls, and the tallest constructions of the world
Summary
We start our journey to the Arabian Gulf with a short description of basic economic facts about the analyzed cities. The Kuwaiti government realized that they had to search for an oil alternative, and with it the Kuwait Vision 2035 arose: Kuwait shall be transformed into a trade and financial center, and invest in infrastructure projects such as a bridge between Shuwaikh in the north of Kuwait and the port village of Doha, a metro project and a future city (Big 5 Kuwait, 2014). There are several articles on the transformation of higher education in the GCC countries at region-level (Davidson, 2010; 2011; Nour, 2013; Romani, 2009) and at state-level: Kuwait (Al-Atiqi & Alharbi, 2009; Wiseman & Alromi, 2003), Bahrain (Karolak, 2012), Qatar (Khodr, 2011; Powell, 2012; Powell, 2014), United Arab Emirates (Kirk & Napier, 2009; Wilkins, 2010), and Oman (Al-Lamki, 2006; Donn & Issan, 2007).
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