Moving around: How bedouin villagers in dubai respond to the challenges of urban expansion

Abstract

This article examines whether well-known dichotomous concepts may be of use for understanding social and cultural processes in an era where neoliberal economies and global movements of people, matters and ideas are prevalent. The study focus is on villagers with a Bedouin background on the desert outskirts of Dubai Emirate. The rapid development they have been exposed to during the last decades has caused increased movement between different locations. There will be an examination of how the Bedouin, and especially younger women, experience and relate to these locations. This encompasses in particular how they interpret the desert and how they interrelate to different types of actors in each space.