Globalization and Cosmopolitanism in the Middle Eastern City

The chapter questions the extent to which globalization has had the effect of bringing about a reassessment of urban societies and cosmopolitanism in the Middle East. It revisits orientalist urban narratives and firmly places the analysis of Middle Eastern cities within the analytical scope of contemporary global urban dynamics. It shows that these dynamics translate into the emergence of a regional space of flows and networks within which cities have a renewed role. It then discusses the tensions that exist in Middle Eastern cities between elite and non-elite practices of urban cosmopolitanism. It shows how some discourses of urban cosmopolitanism are often used to justify unequal, polarized, and segregated societies.