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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20131005T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20131006T180000
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SUMMARY:The Evolution of Gulf Global Cities Working Group I
DESCRIPTION:On October 5–6\, 2013\, CIRS held a two-day working group under the research initiative “The Evolution of Gulf Global Cities.” Scholars from various multi-disciplinary backgrounds as well as urban practitioners and architects examined historical\, social\, economic and political aspects of urban transformations in the Persian Gulf. \n \n \nDuring the working group\, group discussion bridged past and present conditions of Gulf societies in order to understand the evolution of urban centers across the region. Before the advent of the oil economy\, Gulf port cities were considered “cosmopolitan\,” with fluid borders and territories that deemed them as centers of cultural and economic exchange. While these cities are contemporarily integrated into global networks and continue to host large populations of foreign migrants from around the world\, the diversity and hybridity of the city has eroded into what participants characterized as “hyper-segregated and divided” spaces. \n \n \nAspects of these modern urban developments and features may be understood in relation to historical modes of globalization. Oil has served as a vital globalizing factor\, as its discovery brought an influx of international oil companies to the Gulf and led to the localization of global forces of international capitalism. This was clearly manifested in the development of company towns across the region\, which also provided new modes of institution building and urban planning. Many of these company towns—such as Kuwait Oil Company’s Ahmadi town in Kuwait—enforced socio-spatial segregation amongst its residents based on ethnicity\, occupational standing and socio-economic status. Dubbed by some participants as “neo-colonial capital enterprises implanted in space”\, these company towns resemble the segregated urban fabric of many Gulf cities today—underscoring the need to understand how the Gulf region has been and continues to be shaped by imperial and colonial legacies. \n \n \nThe contrast between the rigidity present in today’s cities compared with the mobility that Gulf port cities historically exemplified may be paralleled to ramifications of planned cities versus naturally created urban spaces. With the advent of state centralization\, master urban plans were introduced\, and increasingly the state managed the inflow of migrants through socio-spatial engineering. Of growing interest and importance is assessing the political economy of governance and its impact on the urban fabric. Various stakeholders\, including the ruling regimes\, governmental and political institutions\, the business community\, foreign consultants and local urban practitioners collectively affect the urban landscape. National strategies\, such as Qatar’s 2030\, envision a transition from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy\, and have resulted in the development of large scale projects that aim to increasingly incorporate the city into global knowledge-economy networks. These state-driven transitions manifest in uneven spatial and social development at the city level\, where different spaces exhibit varying levels of global integration and where gentrification benefits an increasingly mobile capitalist class. \n \n \nDiversification from the oil-based economy has also led many GCC states to focus on developing the tourism sector. Cities such as Dubai and Doha have exhibited rapid commodification of their space\, heritage industry\, and environment in order to build venues tailored for tourism consumption. Particularly problematic is the limited version of regional and local history and identity presented by the emerging heritage industry\, as epitomized by the narrow representations of indigenous religious and ethnic minorities within national museums of contemporary Gulf cities. \n \n \nUnplanned spaces were also discussed by the participants. In Iran’s bustling port of Bandar Abbas\, informal settlements have spread on the city’s periphery. While Bandar Abbas appears to be an affluent port due to trade and revenues generated from illicit trading activities\, inequality and poverty are manifested in its urban slums and informal settlements. Periodical city plans however\, seek to upgrade and formalize these informal settlements by incorporating them within the city’s boundaries. This formalization process however\, does not provide avenues for community participation as urban planning continues to be developed by the central state. As agreed by the participants\, community participation in urban planning is vital for the social sustainability of the built environment. In contrast to today’s Gulf cities\, the built environment of traditional Middle Eastern cities was shaped by the end user and proved to be more “organic.” With the zonal segregation of today’s planned cities however\, residents have gradually lost the ability to have regular encounters and confrontations with each other—namely\, they’ve lost the urban sense of the city. As such\, only a social force as opposed to a top-down agenda can create social sustainability in these already planned cities. Around the Gulf\, civic groups have started to emerge that are attempting to restore urban fluidity and their right to the city. These grassroots attempts\, along with recent protests around the region\, depict a politicization of urban space where the city has become both a site and stake of political contestation. \n \n \n\nRead the participant bios\nSee the working group schedule \nRead more about this research initiative\n\n \nParticipants and Discussants: \n \n \n\nAla Al-Hamarneh\, University of Mainz\nNadia Al-Khater\, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nFarah Al-Nakib\, American University of Kuwait\nPooya Alaedini\, University of Tehran\nZahra Babar\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nSamer Bagaeen\, University of Brighton\nJohn T. Crist\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nNerida Child Dimasi\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nNelida Fuccaro\, University of London\nBarb Gillis\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nMehran Kamrava\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nAhmed Kanna\, University of the Pacific\nArang Keshavarzian\, New York University\nCatherine Lechicki\, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nSuzi Mirgani\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nDwaa Osman\, CIRS – Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar\nStephen J. Ramos\, University of Georgia\nMohammad Reza Farzanegan\, Philipps-University of Marburg\nAshraf M. Salama\, Qatar University\nMarcus Stephenson\, Middlesex University Dubai\nFlorian Wiedmann\, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences\n\n \nArticle by Dwaa Osman\, Research Analyst at CIRS
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/evolution-gulf-global-cities-working-group-i/
CATEGORIES:Focused Discussions,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20131007T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20131007T180000
DTSTAMP:20260415T070619
CREATED:20140915T062413Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210901T124840Z
UID:10000899-1381132800-1381168800@cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu
SUMMARY:Abdullah Al-Arian Lectures on the Muslim Brotherhood
DESCRIPTION:Abdullah Al-Arian\, Assistant Professor of History at the Georgetown University School of ‎Foreign Service in Qatar\, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture titled “From Revolution to ‎Coup: Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood” on October 7\, 2013. ‎ \n \n \nTestament to Egypt’s importance in the Arab World\, he argued that “whatever happens in Egypt ‎has a tremendous impact on the outcomes of movements across the entire region. We are already ‎seeing the consequence of that in places like Tunisia\, Syria\, Palestine\, and elsewhere.” To this ‎effect\, Al-Arian addressed three areas: first\, he traced the trajectory of the Muslim Brotherhood ‎over the last four decades of its history. Second\, he evaluated how that history shaped the ‎decisions and performance of the Muslim Brotherhood over the course of the last few years in ‎Egypt. Finally\, he ventured some possible scenarios for the future of the Brotherhood\, and its ‎place in Egyptian politics and society. ‎ \n \n \nGiving some background to the institution of the group\, Al-Arian noted that despite having been ‎formed eighty-five years ago by Hassan Al-Banna\, it experienced very few ideological or ‎organizational shifts over the years. During the presidency of Anwar Sadat in the 1970s\, Egypt ‎began a new era in which formative economic and political liberalizations were taking place\, ‎shifting power away from the military and towards a new urban middle-class. The Brotherhood’s ‎traditional support-base existed in rural Egypt\, but “during the course of its reconstitution\, the ‎organization’s veteran leadership tapped into this emerging social group that was increasingly ‎urbanized\, middle-class\, professional\, and\, to a certain extent\, more religiously devout due in ‎large part to disenchantment or disillusionment with the failures of the Nasser period\,” he argued. ‎The group entered into a modern phase of its history where Islamic activism was coupled with ‎practical concerns\, and economic prowess. At this time\, the Brotherhood worked on streamlining ‎its message in order to overcome an increasingly fragmented sense of Islamic identity\, and to ‎challenge the rise of competing movements that attempted to fill the void of post-colonial power ‎struggles. During this phase of its history\, “the Muslim Brotherhood is slowly beginning to ‎engage more directly with society and\, to a certain extent as well\, with the state\,” he explained.‎ \n \n \nSeeking to protect their vested interest\, and not wanting to jeopardize the tacit agreements ‎forged with the Mubarak regime over the years\, the Brotherhood acted cautiously when it came ‎to overt political engagement\, and remained on the margins of the 2011 uprisings. Al-Arian ‎suggested that “It’s not a revolutionary movement\, it’s a reform movement\,” which is ‎exemplified by the group’s reticence to join the civil society uprisings in Egypt at the early stages ‎of unrest. “It was only three days later\, when the momentum was clearly picking up that finally ‎the leadership reverses its decision and decides to flood Tahrir Square with its supporters who\, of ‎course\, played a very critical role in the biggest clashes between them and Mubarak’s security ‎agents\,” he said. After the fall of the Mubarak regime\, “the Muslim Brotherhood along with ‎millions of other Egyptians faced a very critical choice: do they support the transition to a new ‎government that was basically being put in place by the military\, or do they demand true ‎revolutionary change by opposing all attempts by the military to try to impose its roadmap for the ‎ensuing transition?” When Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi took office\, despite a ‎few token gestures to appease the public\, he made no major changes to the existing mode of ‎governance. In fact\, “the most critical institutions—the bureaucracy\, the judiciary\, the police\, the ‎intelligence services\, and most major ministries—would essentially continue to function with a ‎‎‘business-as-usual’ attitude\, with only cosmetic changes being made\,” Al-Arian noted.‎ \n \n \nAlthough the Brotherhood had a successful history of organizing grassroots civil institutions at ‎the community level\, the group lacked any form of expertise when it came to large-scale ‎economic and political proficiency necessary for the functioning of an entire nation. Thus\, during ‎their time in office\, the Brotherhood submitted to the entrenched authoritarian hold of the army ‎ensuring that it remain beyond recrimination despite the abuses committed during the uprisings\, ‎and that it would not be held accountable despite its undemocratic and opaque modes of ‎operation. Ultimately\, allowing the military to continue its control would be the group’s undoing ‎as “the Muslim Brotherhood was actually helping to create the climate in which a freely elected ‎president could be overthrown by the defense minister and head of the military\,” he contended.‎ \n \n \nIn conclusion\, Al-Arian argued that\, after a brief moment in charge\, the Muslim Brotherhood has ‎once again become an ostracized entity whose leaders have been imprisoned\, their institutions ‎destroyed\, their assets seized\, and their media shut down. As a final thought\, however\, he ‎posited that “an unintended consequence of the state’s desire to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood ‎will actually enable the development of alternative modes of organization and mobilization by ‎the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood\, with a particular emphasis on the youth generation.”‎ \n \n \nAbdullah Al-Arian holds a doctorate in history from Georgetown University\, where he wrote his dissertation on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the decade of the 1970s. He received his Masters degree from the London School of Economics and his BA from Duke University. A frequent contributor to the Al-Jazeera English network and website\, Al-Arian is the author of the upcoming book Answering the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Egypt\, 1968-1981\, to be published by Oxford University Press early next spring.Article by Suzi Mirgani\, Manager and Editor for CIRS Publications. 
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/abdullah-al-arian-lectures-muslim-brotherhood/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Distingushed Lectures,Regional Studies
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