This paper addresses the pursuit of environmental sustainability by an autocratic, neo-patrimonial regime and examines the implications of such a political environment for sustainable initiatives. The city of Abu Dhabi has recently adopted planning schemes aimed at forging a new path towards urban sustainability. Among these, Masdar City—a flagship development portrayed as ‘the world’s first sustainable city’—has become the paragon of Abu Dhabi’s new urban vision. The findings presented here, however, reveal that on-the-ground implementation has so far failed to live up to Masdar’s initial ambitions. To account for these diminished expectations and the prospects for sustainable urbanisation in Abu Dhabi, the author draws on an analytical framework borrowed from the political science literature on neo-patrimonial societies in the Middle East. The analysis suggests that the social contract between Abu Dhabi’s rulers and the local population constitutes a challenging context for the pursuit of environmental sustainability.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbbasY. (2010) Masdar takes a pulse, in: ReiszT. (Ed.) Al Manakh Continued, pp. 244–245. Amsterdam: Stichting Archis.
2.
ADFEC (Abu-Dhabi Future Energy Company) (2010) Why is Masdar City sustainable?ADFEC, Abu Dhabi.
3.
Al FahimM. (1995) From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi. London: The London Centre for Arab Studies.
4.
AlbrechtH.SchlumbergerO. (2004) ‘Waiting for Godot’: regime change without democratization in the Middle East, International Political Science Review, 25(4), pp. 371–392.
5.
Ameinfo (2007) Masdar brings advanced solar technologies to Abu Dhabi, 31 January (www.ameinfo.com/109358.html; accessed 16 April 2012).
6.
ArnoldW. (2009) Abu Dhabi to develop urban planning code, The National, 12September.
7.
BarryJ. (1999) Rethinking Green Politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
8.
BsatS. (2010) Masdar 2009 headlines, in: ReiszT. (Ed.) Al Manakh Continued, p. 243. Amsterdam: Stichting Archis.
9.
BulkeleyH. (2006) Urban sustainability: learning from best practice?, Environment and Planning A, 38, pp. 1029–1044.
ConnellyS. (2007) Mapping sustainable development as a contested concept, Local Environment, 12(3), pp. 259–278.
12.
DavidsonC. M. (2005) The United Arab Emirates: A Study in Survival. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rennier Publishing.
13.
DavidsonC. M. (2009) The United Arab Emirates: prospects for political reforms, Brown Journal of World Affairs, 14(2), pp. 117–127.
14.
DavisM. (2007) Sand, fear and money in Dubai, in: DavisM.MonkD. B. (Eds) Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism, pp. 48–68. New York: The New Press.
15.
DavisonA. (2008) Contesting sustainability in theory–practice: in praise of ambivalence, Continuum, 22(2), pp. 191–199.
16.
DinicaV. (2006) Policy measures and governance for sustainable tourism and recreation in The Netherlands: an evaluation, Tourism, 54, pp. 245–258.
17.
DryzekJ. (2000) Deliberative Democracy and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
18.
ElsheshtawyY. (2008) Transitory sites: mapping Dubai’s ‘forgotten’ urban spaces, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(4), pp. 968–988.
19.
FasanoU.IqbalZ. (2003) GCC countries: from oil dependence to diversification. International Monetary Fund, New York.
20.
FitchA. (2010) Mubadala to sell shares in its local companies, The National, 3May.
21.
GilletN. (2009) Abu Dhabi plans to build 17,000 villas for Emiratis, The National, 25August.
22.
Heard-BeyF. (2005) The United Arab Emirates: statehood and nation-building in a traditional society, Middle East Journal, 59(3), pp. 357–375.
23.
HeidJ. (2010) The paradox of sustainability and Abu Dhabi, in: ReiszT. (Ed.) Al Manakh Continued, pp. 118–119. Amsterdam: Stichting Archis.
24.
HeydemannS. (2002) La question de la démocratie dans les travaux sur le monde arabe, Critique International, October, pp. 57–68.
25.
HudsonM. (1996) Obstacles to democratization in the Middle East, Contention, 5(2), pp. 81–105.
26.
HuntingtonS. (1991) The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
27.
JacobsM. (1999) Sustainable development as a contested concept, in: DobsonA. (Ed.) Fairness and Futurity, pp. 21–45. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28.
JanardhanM. (2007) Climate change—Mideast: producers and victims of fossil fuels. IPS News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40456; accessed 16 April 2012).
29.
KakandeY. (2008) Nationals warned to end illegal subletting, The National, 13November.
30.
KelsallT.BoothD. (2010) Developmental patrimonialism? Questioning the orthodoxy on political governance and economic progress in Africa. Working Paper No. 9, Overseas Development Institute, London.
31.
KhalafS. (2006) The evolution of the Gulf city type, oil, and globalization, in: FoxJ. W.Mourtada-SabbahN.al-MutawaM. (Eds) Globalization and the Gulf, pp. 244–265. London: Routledge.
32.
Khaleej Times (2010) UAE intensifies fight against pollution, 16May.
33.
KoolhaasR. (2010) Abu Dhabi’s renewed urbanism, in: ReiszT. (Ed.) Al Manakh Continued, pp. 212–215. Amsterdam: Stichting Archis.
34.
KoolhaasR.ReiszT. (2010) The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, in: ReiszT. (Ed.) Al Manakh Continued,p p. 216–219. Amsterdam: Stichting Archis.
35.
LaffertyW. M. (2004) Governance for Sustainable Development: The Challenge of Adapting Form to Function. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
36.
LovellH. (2008) Discourse and innovation journeys: the case of low energy housing in the UK, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 20(5), pp. 613–632.
37.
McCannE. (2011) Urban policy mobilities and global circuits of knowledge: toward a research agenda, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(1), pp. 107–130.
38.
MeadowcroftJ. (1997) Planning, democracy and the challenge of sustainable development, International Political Science Review, 18, pp. 167–190.
39.
MebratuD. (1998) Sustainability and sustainable development: historical and conceptual review, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 18, pp. 493–520.
40.
MidlarskyM. (1998) Democracy and the environment: an empirical assessment, Journal of Peace Research, 35(3), pp. 341–361.
41.
NewmanL. (2007) The virtuous cycle: incremental changes and a process-based sustainable development, Sustainable Development, 15, pp. 267–274.
42.
PeckJ.TheodoreN. (2010) Mobilizing policy: models, methods, and mutations, Geoforum, 41, pp. 169–174.
43.
QuilliamN.KamelM. (2003) Modernising legitimacy: Saudi strategies, Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 2(2), pp. 26–65.
44.
ReicheD. (2010) Energy policies of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: possibilities and limitations of ecological modernization in rentier states, Energy Policy, 38(5), pp. 2395–2403.
45.
RiadM. (1981) Some aspects of petro-urbanism in the Arab Gulf states, Bulletin of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4, pp. 7–24.
46.
RydinY. (2010) Governing for Sustainable Urban Development. London: Earthscan.
47.
SchlumbergerO. (2000) The Arab Middle East and the question of democratization: some critical remarks, Democratization, 7(4), pp. 104–132.
48.
StantonC. (2009) Abu Dhabi for a greener Irena, The National, 28June.
49.
StantonC. (2010) UAE’s fresh water supply drying up, The National, 20April.
50.
StiglitzJ. E. (2002) Participation and development: perspectives from the comprehensive development paradigm, Review of Development Economics, 6, pp. 163–182.
51.
SultanAlQassemiS. (2010) Sheikh Zayed, in: ReiszT. (Ed.) Al Manakh Continued, p. 195. Amsterdam: Stichting Archis.
52.
VidalJ. (2008) Desert state channels oil wealth into world’s first sustainable city, The Guardian, 21January.
53.
VidalJ. (2010) Masdar City: a glimpse of the future in the desert, The Guardian, 26April.
54.
WalkerK. J. (1988) The environmental crisis: a critique of neo-Hobbesian responses, Polity, 21(1), pp. 67–81.
55.
WaltersT. N.KadragicA.WaltersL. M. (2006) Miracle or mirage: is development sustainable in the United Arab Emirates?, Middle East Review of International Affairs, 10(3), pp. 77–91.
56.
WardH. (2008) Liberal democracy and sustainability, Environmental Politics, 17(3), pp. 386–409.
57.
WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development) (1987) Our Common Future. London: Oxford University Press.
58.
WhitfordA. B.WongK. (2009) Political and social foundations for environmental sustainability, Political Research Quarterly, 62(1), pp. 190–204.
