Jonathan Liew’s recent reflections on Dubai and its allure to the populist right offer a compelling entry point into understanding the complexities of the emirate. Having spent two years there before fleeing midway through a three-year contract, the firsthand accounts of the harsh treatment of guest workers paint a vivid picture of a city that, despite its glitzy exterior, harbors troubling realities beneath the surface.
The glimmering skyline of Dubai, often praised for its luxury and futuristic architecture, disguises a darker side. The sight of bored local men casually purchasing heroin as car windows slide down on Dubai’s streets exposes a reality rarely discussed in tourist brochures. Within hospitals, there are deeply distressing scenes, such as babies of maids who have been raped by their employers waiting for adoption, highlighting severe social injustices. Meanwhile, the stark contrast is visible at the stables, where wealthy locals keep thoroughbred horses in conditions that would seem like paradise to the laborers who toil in the searing 45°C heat on construction sites.
Dubai’s real estate market exemplifies the city’s contradictions. Rents have soared dramatically over the past two decades, yet many apartments remain empty, as owners hold out for further price hikes. This speculative bubble contributes to a cityscape where the promise of prosperity for many remains out of reach. For everyday commuters, crowded and sweaty metro rides offer a necessary alternative to the monstrous traffic jams, underscoring the challenges of daily life in a city built on opulence and inequality alike. Stories circulate as well about the restricted freedoms of women, particularly daughters of ruling sheikhs, in a society where women continue to face systemic inequalities.
From a Marxist geographical perspective, Dubai serves as a textbook example of what David Harvey terms the “spatial fix” of capitalism — the creation of new urban spaces designed to absorb excess capital and labor. Dubai’s evolution from a modest fishing port to a global hub was no accident; it was a carefully orchestrated project involving land reclamation, mega construction projects, and speculative real estate, all designed to funnel wealth upwards and financialize urban space.
Cities, in Marxist thought, amplify the contradictions of capitalism, and Dubai is a striking example of this dynamic. The dazzling malls, artificial islands, and towering skyscrapers cater primarily to global elites and investors, while beneath this dazzling wealth lies a vulnerable underclass of migrant workers living in segregated, precarious conditions. This duality reflects Marx’s notion of the reserve army of labor—an exploited group kept in reserve to serve capitalist interests. Dubai’s image as a cosmopolitan “world city” masks the rigid social hierarchies dictated by race, citizenship, and class.
Another critical dimension illuminated by Harvey’s concept of the “right to the city” is what’s missing in Dubai: democratic control over urban space and public life. Instead, the city prioritizes consumption and spectacle, actively suppressing dissent, unionization, and grassroots urban initiatives. Far from being a neutral space fostering cosmopolitan exchange, Dubai’s urban fabric is a deliberate construct to manage labor and attract global capital while concealing the fractures and conflicts inherent in its accumulation strategy.
Seen through a Marxist lens, Dubai epitomizes urbanization as a class-driven project. It transforms oil revenues and speculative financial flows into grand infrastructure projects intended to secure future capital accumulation. However, this comes at a cost, with social and ecological burdens shifted onto invisible populations and distant environments. The city’s promise of limitless growth ultimately emerges as both an illusion and a cautionary tale about the ecological and social limits facing capitalist urban development.
