Is littoralization reconfiguring the Omani territory?

Abstract

The concept of territory is closely related to the socialization of space. It expresses the projection of specific human structures onto a specific area in terms of an unambiguous spatial representation. Littoralization is one of the diverse features of translocality. It designates the outcome of concrete movements of people and activities towards the coast together with the accompanying or induced infrastructures, which lead to urban spread and harmful environmental impacts in the destination areas. In the Sultanate of Oman, the conspicuous population increase of the last four decades was spatially lopsided towards the coast. Both the Lorenz curve and the mean centre of population illustrate the concentration of people and the shift of the demographic centre of gravity from the traditional inner regions towards the littoral fringes. Given that population translocality has a major effect on the representation of territory and on identity formation, these new developments in Oman had helped to overcome the traditional vulnerability of the traditional inherited and dislocated territory. Regional groups and tribes do not have a territorial basis anymore. They they become forced to move in a wider space, live from new activities and belong to a larger territory than the tribal one. Henceforth, they identify themselves as a nation-state living in a national territory.