The smart city and the containment of informality: The case of Dubai. (February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Breslow, Harris
• Other Names: Miller Byron guest-editor.; Burns Ryan guest-editor.; Fast Victoria guest-editor.; Levenda Anthony guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Urban studies. Volume 58:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 471
• Page End: 486
• Publication Date: 2021-02
• Subjects: flow -- Smart Dubai -- urban informality -- worlding practices; 流量 -- 智慧迪拜(Smart Dubai) -- 城市非正规性 -- 世界化实践; Cities and towns -- Periodicals; City planning -- Periodicals; 307.1216
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098020903233
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0042-0980

Abstract

I argue that Dubai's smart city project, 'Smart Dubai', is a response to the following priorities: (i) the furtherance of the city's scale-making project and worlding strategies, through the propagation of the smart city imaginary and the buildout of a smart city infrastructure modelled after those in the global north and west and used to compete for members of the creative class and other high-value residents; (ii) a project to enlarge the scope of Dubai's economy of flow. Dubai in particular, and the UAE in general, have long articulated a political economic project based on the creation of a political economy that positions the country as a regional hub within the global political economy of flow; and (iii) the containment of urban informality, which in Dubai is understood as both a disciplinary problem and an existential challenge to what is still, at heart, a rentier economy.