Predatory cities: unravelling the consequences of resource-predatory projects in the global South

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we outline a framework to study what we have termed “Predatory Cities”, using the artificial offshore island of The Pearl in Qatar as a case study. By focusing on the nexus between urbanisation and resources, we will argue that the master-planning of new cities in the booming global South implies both the access and cheap exploitation of a set of, on the one hand, intangible and, on the other hand, tangible resources that exceed the traditional boundaries. Our point of departure is that the cheap appropriation and exploitation of alien architecture images and resource networks for the making of new, master-planned cities has become a necessary, but highly unsustainable, strategy to survive an increasingly competitive global offering of new destinations.

KEYWORDS:

• Megaprojects
• predatory cities
• resource-urbanisation nexus
• global South

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Citation from official The Pearl website: http://www.thepearlqatar.com/EN/TheIsland/Pages/The-Pearl-Qatar.aspx. Accessed 26 March 2018.

2. Quote from The Pearl website – www.thepearlqatar.com.

3. Many of the Gulf citizens have a Bedouin background but other sizeable, although often downplayed, groups are the Ajam (Gulf Persians) and Abd (descendants of African slaves), see (Nagy, 2006: 129).