Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: A Documentary Photo Exhibit

Date: May 12 to July 4, 2024

"Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: A Documentary Photo Exhibit" contains photos that are part of the research that Dr. Rana AlMutawa conducted for her book, Everyday Life in the Spectacular City. Published by the University of California Press, the book is a groundbreaking urban ethnography that reveals how middle-class citizens and longtime residents of Dubai interact with the city's spaces to create meaningful social lives.

The exhibition showcases over 33 documentary photographs taken during Dr.AlMutawa’s fieldwork from 2017-2021. The photos highlight the forms of belonging that take place in shopping malls and other so-called superficial spaces and demonstrate that inhabitants do make meanings within the spectacle. Dr. AlMutawa shows that development projects from big malls to megaprojects serve residents' evolving social needs, transforming Dubai's spectacular spaces into personally important cultural sites. Through extensive fieldwork, Dr. AlMutawa, herself an Emirati, finds a nuanced story of belonging that rejects stereotypes portraying Dubai's developments as alienating and inherently disempowering.

Dr. Rana AlMutawa is Assistant Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at New York University Abu Dhabi. She completed her doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2021. She has published several research papers in the areas of urban ethnography and social hierarchies in esteemed publications such as Arab Studies Journal, Hawwa, Urban Anthropology and New Middle Eastern Studies.