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Three - The Man and the Scooter: How the Low-Income Worker Helps Save a Locked-Down City
- Edited by Brian Doucet, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Rianne van Melik, Pierre Filion, University of Waterloo, Ontario
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- Book:
- Volume 1: Community and Society
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 13 April 2023
- Print publication:
- 22 July 2021, pp 31-40
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Summary
Introduction
Within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the fate of the low-income migratory worker has always been a contested issue (Ewers and Dicce, 2016). Large numbers of migrant workers, mainly originating from South Asian countries, represent an important demographic in the region. In Dubai, the focus of this chapter, the concept of home deliveries has become common in the last few years. Armed with a scooter (a small motorcycle), a vast army of these low-income workers delivers goods quickly to homes across the city. Smartphonebased apps and third-party delivery operators have made this phenomenon even more wide-spread in recent years (Johnson, 2014). It is common to see these small scooters maneuvering traffic continuously, with their numbers growing steadily.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) went into a strict lockdown and near-curfew conditions. Residents stayed indoors, and society came to a complete halt, similar to other countries around the world. In addition to emergency services and the construction sector, delivery services were some of the few expected to continue working and serving the residents during the lockdown. The delivery scooters were suddenly the lifeline of the city. Drivers continued to deliver goods to the city's residents, despite the obvious concerns for their own health.
This chapter argues that the COVID-19 pandemic magnified existing socio-economic divides and put them on full display. Vulnerable migrant-laborers had no option but to continue working at a time of great uncertainty, especially since much was still unknown about the virus, how it spreads, and its potential treatments. Similar to other urban poor around the world, they bore the brunt of the virus in order to make a living (see Part III). This chapter sheds some light on migration and urban inequality in the Gulf. It then highlights the added pressures of the pandemic as it disproportionately impacts the lower-income segments within Dubai.
Urban inequality in the Gulf
The Gulf states have a long history with migration. Throughout the early history of the region, labor-flows from Iran and the Indian subcontinent were common. With the oil discoveries and the oil boom in the 1960s and 1970s, the drive to build and develop became instant.
Four - City upgraded: redesigning and disciplining downtown Abu Dhabi
- Edited by Loretta Lees, University of Leicester, Hyun Bang Shin, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Ernesto López-Morales, Universidad de Chile
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- Book:
- Global Gentrifications
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 26 January 2015, pp 59-80
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Summary
Introduction
Gentrification generated by successive investment cycles is a commonplace occurrence in cities today. Social displacement and loss of housing options often follows attempts to redevelop neighbourhoods. Scholars in the field of urban planning have long recognised and critiqued this trend. Brenner and Theodore (2005), MacLeod (2002), Harvey (1978, 2006, 2010) and Smith (1982, 1996, 2010), among others, have argued that gentrification is not merely a by-product of neoliberal planning, but rather a quintessential part of it – a strategy for successive cycles of investment and accumulation. Few studies, though, have examined gentrification in the emerging cities of the Arabian/Persian Gulf region. Urban planning in Abu Dhabi is reconfiguring the city, and, in the process, displacing some segments of the population.
This chapter examines recent policies causing the gentrification of Abu Dhabi's city centre. These include a Revitalisation Plan, together with policies regulating the spatial practices and housing options of the low-income population. Given a paucity of options, the displaced low-income groups are likely to become isolated in remote locations. Although there are stark differences between the planning cultures of Abu Dhabi and those of cities in Western Europe or North America, there are similarities in how the ‘spatial fix’ is administered. This study sheds light on the causes of the housing affordability problem in Abu Dhabi, and through an analysis of current policies and realities on the ground, it is argued that ongoing development plans are likely to lead to a significant demographic change in the city centre and further squeeze the housing options for the city's less wealthy residents.
Understanding the Abu Dhabi housing market
Rapid social and economic change
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has expanded dramatically in terms of wealth, urban growth and infrastructure development over the course of a relatively short history of urbanisation. Located on the Arabian/Persian Gulf, the city grew from a small port on the trade routes passing through the Suez Canal (as late as the 1960s) to a million-plus metropolis, supported by oil wealth and littered with mega-projects. The Urban Structure Framework Plan, a part of Abu Dhabi's plan for the year 2030, promulgated by the Urban Planning Council (UPC), projects that the ‘city's population may grow to three million or it may exceed five million by 2030’ (UPC, 2007).