Usage of the concept of culture and heritage in the United Arab Emirates – an analysis of Sharjah heritage area

Abstract

Under the forces of an oil-based economy and the fast paced change, nationals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf states are becoming very keen to preserve, represent and invent a distinct ‘national’ culture and heritage. Fears of ‘loss’ of identity and concerns about ‘global’ culture are powerful social forces. Heritage revival has become a significant social, cultural and political process in the UAE, the most public sign of this being the development of ‘Heritage Villages’. This analysis explores themes of heritage revival and the preservation, representation and construction of culture in the UAE with specific analysis of the Sharjah Heritage Area (SHA). It will be shown that heritage revival in the UAE is both a symbolic and practical negation of globalization. Heritage revival is also increasingly an affirmation of the fast paced development of international business and tourism in the Emirates which is the focus of economic diversification. SHA will first be examined as a museum exhibitionary complex combining museum, festival and shopping. The representation, performance, negotiation and interplay of local/global and old/new culture at the SHA will be outlined in the context of transnationalism and the oil-propelled modernization.

Keywords:

• heritage revival
• globalization
• modernity
• preservation
• politicization of culture
• nation building/statecraft

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the staff and cultural actors in Sharjah heritage area's museums, shops and the Directorate of Heritage at the Government of Sharjah Department of Culture and Heritage for their help. Thanks also to the American University of Sharjah at University City Sharjah for access to their library.