Cultural resilience in contemporary urbanism: the case of Sharjah, UAE

摘要

After four decades of rapid urbanisation and construction, cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are in danger of losing their social and cultural identities. The UAE federation was created in 1971 to unite the country as a political and economic structure, but the country's territorial and urban structures are yet to be realised. The disparity between urbanised areas as isolated mega theme parks and the country's rich cultural resources misrepresent the UAE. This paper argues that, despite globalising urbanisation, the resilience of cultural heritage enhances the UAE's urban sustainability. Hereinafter, heritage is taken to mean not museum-like artifacts, but a more resilient culturally dynamic impetus. By analysing the urban morphology of the city of Sharjah, I examine the challenge of preserving its cultural image in the face of overwhelming pressure from its global neighbour, Dubai. This paper concludes with a discussion on the integration of cultural resources into contemporary urbanism, arguing that further attention ought to be given to the role of cultural resilience in the making of cities in the Gulf countries.