NEOM’s elite dreaming: affective infrastructure and the aesthetics of global modernity

Abstract

This article analyzes the development of NEOM, a regional megaproject of four cities currently being constructed along the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. It argues that development for NEOM is speculative, not only in that it these megacities are being built absent of real need, but that the projects themselves are a form of “elite dreaming.” Here, a global elite of designers produce speculative visions for new cities, an imaginary in which these cities serve as technological fixes for problems of climate change and sustainable growth. In so doing, elite designers allow for particular futures while absenting others, namely the people displaced by new cities and the workers who construct and maintain these infrastructures. To this end, this article pays particular attention to the way that design leverages particular aesthetics, narratives, and affects in ways that nevertheless have the power to drive real investment, movement, and construction.