Tracing the Evolution of Urbanism in Kuwait

Abstract

This paper hypothesizes that contemporary Gulf cities are not an evolution of traditional settlements but rather forms of modern cities that emerged during the second half of the 20th century after the discovery of oil, the economic boom following the mid 1970s oil crisis and finally political, economic, technological and communication globalization that swept this region since the beginning of the 21st century. While focusing on the case of Kuwait city, the paper reflects on several examples from the Gulf region cities to discuss their development as hybrid forms of modern cities. The paper adopts the theoretical framework proposed by Appadurai in 1996 to understand the flow of modernity through the Gulf cities' scapes. This theoretical framework provides an adequate understanding of Gulf cities evolution and modifications required to make them more adequate to the Gulf region conditions.