World City Aspirations & Urban Spatial Politics: The Case of Dubai

World City Aspirations & Urban Spatial Politics: The Case of Dubai 'The landscape changes at a staggering pace as towers, apartment blocks and streets appear and disappear in the twinkling of an eye, while the most widespread imaginary of the city is not a postcard but a set of computer-graphic rendered and photo-shopped images of what Dubai will be, rather than what it is.'1 As a former resident of the United Arab Emirates, what intrigues me most about Dubai is how the cityscape is in a perpetual state of transformation, culminating with the recent unveiling of the Burj Khalifa. While academics have explored the emirate's claims to global city status, fewer questions are asked about the social implications of such modernisation for Dubai's transnational workforce. This is especially worrying given talk of the 'Dubai model' being exported as a blueprint for other cities both endogenous and exogenous to the region including Doha, Addis Adabba and Shanghai (Stoll, 2010). In this essay, I will investigate how Dubai's global city aspirations, evident in the construction of such mega-projects as the Jumeirah Palm Islands, have resulted in the transnational character of its working class whilst also institutionalizing their marginalization in the very urban fabric which they help to build. Since the sociology of urban development and the political economy of globalization are

  • Word count: 3320
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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"A Question of Justice?"

Assignment 1 Paramita Sutanto ID. 11103331 "A Question of Justice?" Poverty, the gap between the rich and the poor, ignorance and capitalism is what I see from the image of the cover from the Economist magazine that was given by Leslie last week. This image gives a clear image for us on how the people in developed countries are trying to collect more money and pursue their own happiness while as the poor people are getting even poorer and they could not pursue their happiness; which I will explain more in the passage. First, in the image, there is a young African boy (I assume that he's African because he has black colored skin), holding a bowl and a paper. This symbolizes that he is poor and he lack of food which made him very skinny, most probably malnourished. Also, it tells us that poor people could not grasp a good education due to the school fee is getting higher every time. It is very ironic, realizing that with our allowance fee, we could have help the people in need; we could pay their school fees or give them food. Second, at a glance, we can see that the boy is walking toward the developed city. This shows us that the boy doesn't belong to the community in the big city, he might have segregated into an undesirable area, in other words, a slum area; this indicates us that there is a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. Those well-heeled people seems

  • Word count: 588
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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"Changes in word usage and meaning in the English language reflect the evolving nature of society's values."Examine how societal and cultural values influence our language.

"Changes in word usage and meaning in the English language reflect the evolving nature of society's values." Examine how societal and cultural values influence our language. The English language has been formed and developed over many centuries into the form with which we now associate, and recognise, it today. The development and change of language can be primarily attributed to societal and cultural pressures, which are occurring and influencing its speakers, which is the primary claim of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The pressures influencing language modification can be seen to arise from a multitude of sources, be it internal or external ones, with their overall result-varying dependent upon their impact on the population of that language region. Change within the English language can be seen to have come about as a result of the various influences it has seen, such as that of invasion and the movement of people, technological development, changing social attitudes, general changes in attitude to what is perceived to be acceptable or not and the changing of word usage and meaning. Language is a relative concept that is constantly adapting and changing to reflect the societal and cultural influences that affect its speakers. German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt summed up the changing nature of language in 1836 by stating that: There can never be a moment of true

  • Word count: 3259
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Positive and Negative effects of CAFTA and NAFTA

Positive and Negative effects of CAFTA and NAFTA Sharon LaPage April 18, 2007 There are many reasons for the creation of CAFTA and NAFTA. Now we can see both the positive and negative effects these treaties have both on the US and in several other countries in north and South America. The first main difference is the actual meaning of these acronyms. They are both Free Trade Agreements, but the first CAFTA is the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the other, NAFTA is the North American free trade agreement. "The North American Free Trade Area is the trade bloc in North America which was created by the North American Free Trade Agreement and its two supplements, which are the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the members are Canada, Mexico and the United States. This treaty came into effect on the first of January in 1994. CAFTA is The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, commonly called DR-CAFTA, is a free trade agreement (legally a treaty under international law, but not under US law). Originally, the agreement encompassed the United States and the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and was called CAFTA. In 2004, the Dominican Republic joined the negotiations, and the agreement was renamed

  • Word count: 1214
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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How does Waugh exploit different settings to highlight his moral concerns in 'A Handful Of Dust'?

James Herman 6H2 How does Waugh exploit different settings to highlight his moral concerns in 'A Handful Of Dust'? Waugh's satirical novel, 'A Handful of Dust', 'depicting an ailing group of society' demonstrates his concerns that inter-war society is reverting to a more primitive and ultimately dangerous type. The novel, despite its comic appeal, serves as a warning to the hedonists of the 1920s and 1930s. Waugh deplores inappropriate hedonism, perhaps heavily influenced by his strong religious beliefs. Many key characters in 'A Handful of Dust' take pleasure seeking to the extreme. These characters seem contained in a bubble of complete ignorance regarding the outside world and live for themselves. Waugh demonstrates this effectively by simply failing to include significant historical events such as the market crashes of the 1930s and the frightening rise of fascism in Europe. This serves to 'cocoon' the characters and it depriving them of any context with the outside world, highlighting the readers sense of a gulf between the characters. This isolated self-indulgence, in Waugh's view, was leading to the 'decline and fall' of inter-war society. Waugh uses many rhetorical techniques to highlight this, but most significantly he poignantly utilizes various locations to show his unease about 'civilisation'. Waugh primarily uses London as a setting to demonstrate the

  • Word count: 2819
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Are We Heading towards a Global Society?

Are We Heading towards a Global Society? A dictionary would define 'global' as "worldwide; of a whole group of items" (The Oxford Dictionary, 1995), and 'society' as "an organised community; a system of living in this" (The Oxford Dictionary, 1995). If we combine these, we will result in a term used to describe a 'community that unites the globe'. I will try to answer the question 'are we heading towards a global society' through firstly defining some key figures in the formulation of globalisation, and then look at a brief glance at the history, progressing to what affects the rate of globalisation today. Later, I will discuss the positive and negative effects a global society could have, and then finally converse if we are indeed actually moving towards one. A recent theory is that the world is seen as "one place" (Waters, 1995). This is globalisation; where everything and everybody is more accessible than ever before. Mainly due to technological advances, for example the Internet, globalisation is more present now than ever before. Robertson (1992) looked at globalisation, and was considered to be a key figure in the formulation. He believed that globalisation was the sharing of power at an international level, establishing universal values, for example political rights, uses of nuclear power and weapons, and the trade, migration or travelling with that society.

  • Word count: 2080
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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The difference between kinship and stratification.

Kinship is social relationships that are prototypically derived from the universal human experiences of mating, birth, and nurturance. Mating refers to marriage and birth refers decent, but nurturance can be seen as closely related to mating and birth. In the U.S. it is called adoption, but each society has its own definition. Kinship is also a social organization, in which each society decides how it will be organized, what aspects of the 'human experiences' will be emphasized and which will not. Because each society uses different terms to refer to people they recognize as kin, anthropologists have found six major patterns of kinship terminology. These six patterns are based on how people refer to their cousins. These criteria include generation, sex, affinity, collaterality, bifurcation, relative age, and sex of linking relative. Generation refers to the kin terms that distinguish relatives according to the generation to which the relatives belong. Sex is used to differentiate kin such as in Spanish, primo refers to a male cousin and prima is a female cousin. Affinity is the distinction mad on the basis of connection through marriage. Collaterality is the distinction made between kin who are believed to be in a direct line and those who are 'off to one side,' linked to the Ego through a lineal relative (mother and aunt or father and uncle). Bifurcation is a distinction

  • Word count: 2129
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Influence of Realism on Literature.

Influence of Realism on Literature After World War I, American people and the authors among them were left disillusioned by the effects that war had on their society. America needed a literature that would explain what had happened and what was happening to their society. American writers turned to what is now known as modernism. The influence of 19th Century realism and naturalism and their truthful representation of American life and people was evident in post World War I modernism. This paper will try to prove this by presenting the basic ideas and of these literary genres, literary examples of each, and then make connections between the two literary movements. Realism Modernism not only depicted American society after World War I accurately and unbiasedly, but also tried to find the solutions brought upon by the suffering created by the war (Elliott 705). The realistic movement of the late 19th century saw authors accurately depict life and it's problems. Realists attempted to "give a comprehensive picture of modern life" (Elliott 502) by presenting the entire picture. They did not try to give one view of life but instead attempted to show the different classes, manners, and stratification of life in America. Realists created this picture of America by combining a wide variety of "details derived from observation and

  • Word count: 2193
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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In summary, Anthem, Antz, Fahrenheit 451 and Harrison Bergeron all go to show

The Great Rebellion to Declaration of Independence Independence has always been a desire and something worth living for. Along with independence comes rebellion. Gaining independence not only requires courage and strength, but also rebellion to go against authorities and do the unimaginable. In the future societies portrayed by four different pieces of literature, life is lived based on a collective society. In the world that many live in today, independence is granted. However, in the world of Anthem, Antz, Fahrenheit 451, and Harrison Bergeron, the societies were lacking independence, and characters were able to progress their status to eventually obtain their independence by rebellion. Regardless of the obstacles that one may have to overcome, all of these characters not only rebelled against the authorities, but against society as a whole. In Ayn Rand's collective world of Anthem, people were forbidden to use the unspeakable word, "I." No one even knew what the unspeakable word was. After the Great Rebirth, it was mandatory that the word "we" was used instead of the word "I." A young man named Equality was an ambitious and different individual. He was not like the others in society. Ever since birth, he was always rebelling against the norm. In Equality's society, it was considered a crime if one had transgression of preference, if one was smarter than the other, if one

  • Word count: 2396
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Extramarital Affairs in The Awakening and The Bridge of Madison County

Wynne Yeung Linda Frias Selinske EWRT 1B 3/29/01 Extramarital Affair Once I heard a friend said, "temptation is there, when one man and one woman are alone by themselves." He was telling me about the issue of having an affair outside marriage. "It is a sin!" He then went on to his discussion in a workshop about marriage and relationship, which offered by the service of his church. "Only through God, we can avoid temptation, and share our lives with the significant ones, who our Heavenly Father has chosen for us". Simply, his religion maintains that temptation is the reason for relationship problems. For instance, if a married woman is attracted to another male, she has to pray and suppress her emotions as the solution to avoid any happening of temptingly affairs. However, suppressing our true feelings is not a resolution to any kind of problems. Nevertheless, is finding true love a sin because the person is already committed to someone in law? An extramarital affair is a relationship between a married person and someone other than the lawful spouse. Certainly, it does not necessarily involve sex. Yet, mostly, we label it as adultery because it is related to sexual intercourse most of the time. Extramarital affair is considered immoral based on the moral code or religious beliefs in our society. According to the moral code, which our society has regulated, a married

  • Word count: 3161
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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