Urban Planning and decision-making in Dubai Essay

Urban Planning and decision-making in Dubai - Essay Example n of this paper that the biggest concerns Dubai seems to have at this point are: 1) sustainability 2) cultural considerations 3) labor relations and 4) traffic. Sustainability is an issue that can best be judged from a future point. The cultural considerations are also elements that are being worked out in many ways. So labor and transport issues become the central themes of this paper. The biggest complaint to date is traffic problems. The planning of roads seems to have lost its way. This, in contrast to the other planning elements, seems a small problem but it is becoming more and more of an issue as Dubai becomes popular and established as an international city. What role does the public play in the decision-making process during the development of Dubai? To what extent did the government maintain a monopoly over these decisions? How active of a role did the private sector play in the urbanization of the city? How has globalization affected the decision-making process? A review of Leonie Sandercock’s â€Å"Toward Cosmopolis† shows that Sandercock writes about the cultural pluralism of planning theory in a way that is highly idealistic (Blanco 1998). She is said to discuss her social project in a political and economic vacuum, failing to address the underlying causes of the social problems. Cosmopolis is, for Sandercock, â€Å"a common civic culture which has embraced the social project of tolerance, alterity, and inclusion† (Blanco 1998). Sandercock states that there are three forces that create the major cultural politics of difference: migration and multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and the age of women and minorities. She believes that the history of planning has supported segregation and discrimination. These are major forces at work in Dubai’s planning. A perceived threat of marginalization (Aarts 1999) by less developed countries has often led to their full interaction with the world economy, before they may be ready. Aart feels that