Yasser Elsheshtawy, Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia. Review essay by Gareth Doherty.

Abstract

“Can transience be inscribed into the built environment, and what tactics are employed by residents to overcome this?” is the central question posed by Yasser Elsheshtawy in Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia (p. 6). The resistance referred to is the marks of the disenfranchised etched in the earth between the shining structures of global capital that adorn contemporary cities. Elsheshtawy focuses on the extreme cases of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and on the activities of the low-income, transient workers who comprise the invisible majority of Gulf, or Khaliji, cities. Elsheshtawy also highlights the plight of Emirati society’s lower echelons describing how state-provided public housing is adapted and appropriated. This foregrounding of the lives of the subaltern looking for homes in the faceless face of globalization’s transience is the book’s most valuable contribution.