On the Gaze

"On the Gaze: Dubai and Its New Cosmopolitanisms engages with the spectacular growth of the city of Dubai, a once small but busy Arabian Gulf town known for its pearl divers and fishing trade. Author Adrianne Kalfopoulou follows the changes of the town, an informal British Protectorate, like the cluster of coastal sheikhdoms that included Oman and Abu Dhabi, known as the Trucial States for the protective treaties signed with the United Kingdom, Dubai became one of the seven Arab states which formed the UAE (United Arab Emirates) in 1971. The Gulf town of the 1950s expanded notably during the reign of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (1968-1990), whose foresightedness and risk-taking acuity were seminal in securing key infrastructure projects such as the expansion of the Dubai Creek harbor and the Jebel Ali port that transformed the town into a regional trade hub, building the foundation for today's commercial attractions as much as the optics of its spectacular skyline of architectural wonders. Uniquely, today's nexus of twenty-first century cosmopolitanisms caters to all manner of the gaze"--