Peninsula, South Korea and, at a higher level, China are the places to go to apply
what's being re-learned in Europe and elaborated throughout the Global North:

[in China] I mean, I hate to use this word, but it is a lot more totalitarian, you know, "there
are ... some villages here, but we're going to move the people, so don't worry about it" [...]
it was almost like there were no limits, you can design what you wanted to design as long
as you could get the developer (Partner, multinational firm, New York office).

As a vast country providing territories, possibilities and chances (Ren 2011),
China acts as a dreamland for engineers, architects and urban designers.
Cosmopolitan landscapes develop quickly here and with ambiguous effects
(Söderström 2006). For some urban designers China acts as an elevator-space to get
a project done, acquire visibility and develop an international reputation and stand-
ing which can be leveraged in the highly competitive urban design field back home
(Kennedy 2005). For others, the Far East is a fascinating terrain, though for dubious
moral aspects:

Life is easy for China, you know, they just can allocate funds, like... Singapore, I mean, that's fantastic, I mean, who can't do things in Singapore, with an undemocratic city-state? (Partner, multinational firm, Chicago office)

In several interviews, discussing projects in China or the Emirates paved the way
for a sort of Western complicity among gentlemen (from an intersectional stand-
point: a white (often) male, upper-class, cosmopolitan complicity) which admitted
that something nasty was at stake when an eco-friendly, resilient and smart design
of a waterfront was developed in a country that did not give women the right to vote
or denied basic human rights to foreign workers.

This moral ambiguity has always been a critical aspect of architecture. It has also
been part of the history of urban design, if one considers the modernist masterplan
of La Havana designed by Luis Sert under Batista's dictatorship in 1955 Cuba
(Hyde 2008). What is somewhat new is the global scope and diffusion of urban
design today (Punter 2007). As a senior associate in a global-size firm declared:

you know we're building new cities, so urban design is the city, outside of what the specific
architecture is; other than opportunities like that, it is still kind of hard to define what it is
when you engage in a city that is already built or is a little bit of improvement here and there
and is not a tabula rasa like starting from scratch greenfield city-building exercise. (Senior
associate, firm with 24 offices worldwide and 1900 worldwide employees; emphasis
supplied)

Moral boundary-making is a well-recognized feature of professional cultures
(Lamont and Molnar 2002). There are different directions of boundary-making: an
external as well as an internal one. The external is devoted in setting the difference
between urban design and other fields and professions, namely architecture, land-
scape architecture and planning. It is a fundamental strategy in order to gain respect-
ability and autonomy towards commissioners and the public, but a very slippery one
given the uncertain status of this discipline and the heavy dependence on formal
training and education in architecture. Many respondents, for instance, defined
themselves as “architects” during presentations or declared that they mostly pre-
sented themselves as architects with clients. The second direction of
Peninsula, South Korea and, at a higher level, China are the places to go to apply
what's being re-learned in Europe and elaborated throughout the Global North:

[in China] I mean, I hate to use this word, but it is a lot more totalitarian, you know, “there
are … some villages here, but we’re going to move the people, so don’t worry about it” [...]
it was almost like there were no limits, you can design what you wanted to design as long
as you could get the developer (Partner, multinational firm, New York office).

As a vast country providing territories, possibilities and chances (Ren 2011),
China acts as a dreamland for engineers, architects and urban designers.
Cosmopolitan landscapes develop quickly here and with ambiguous effects
(Söderström 2006). For some urban designers China acts as an elevator-space to get
a project done, acquire visibility and develop an international reputation and stand-
ing which can be leveraged in the highly competitive urban design field back home
(Kennedy 2005). For others, the Far East is a fascinating terrain, though for dubious
moral aspects:

Life is easy for China, you know, they just can allocate funds, like... Singapore, I mean, that's fantastic, I mean, who can't do things in Singapore, with an undemocratic city-state? (Partner, multinational firm, Chicago office)

In several interviews, discussing projects in China or the Emirates paved the way
for a sort of Western complicity among gentlemen (from an intersectional stand-
point: a white (often) male, upper-class, cosmopolitan complicity) which admitted
that something nasty was at stake when an eco-friendly, resilient and smart design
of a waterfront was developed in a country that did not give women the right to vote
or denied basic human rights to foreign workers.

This moral ambiguity has always been a critical aspect of architecture. It has also
been part of the history of urban design, if one considers the modernist masterplan
of La Havana designed by Luis Sert under Batista's dictatorship in 1955 Cuba
(Hyde 2008). What is somewhat new is the global scope and diffusion of urban
design today (Punter 2007). As a senior associate in a global-size firm declared:

you know we're building new cities, so urban design is the city, outside of what the specific
architecture is; other than opportunities like that, it is still kind of hard to define what it is
when you engage in a city that is already built or is a little bit of improvement here and there
and is not a tabula rasa like starting from scratch greenfield city-building exercise. (Senior
associate, firm with 24 offices worldwide and 1900 worldwide employees; emphasis
supplied)

Moral boundary-making is a well-recognized feature of professional cultures
(Lamont and Molnar 2002). There are different directions of boundary-making: an
external as well as an internal one. The external is devoted in setting the difference
between urban design and other fields and professions, namely architecture, land-
scape architecture and planning. It is a fundamental strategy in order to gain respect-
ability and autonomy towards commissioners and the public, but a very slippery one
given the uncertain status of this discipline and the heavy dependence on formal
training and education in architecture. Many respondents, for instance, defined
themselves as “architects” during presentations or declared that they mostly pre-
sented themselves as architects with clients. The second direction of
boundary-making is an internal one: given the close relationship between urban
design and the public space, setting the moral stage for further interventions is a
crucial step. While in the academic literature on urban design there is a general
confusion with regards to place-making, when we interrogated scholars, we gath-
ered mixed reactions, and some of them were harsh:

> I really don't use the word place-making, I think it's retrograde, conservative, national-
> ist. ... I think place-making is too easy ... it's trivial and suspect...I mean Disney makes
> places. [...] urban design is the means in which social and cultural transformations are
> made physically, making manifest in public space. (Academic and practitioner, New York)

Contradictions between the “trivial” aspect of working in the production of serial projects (“Disney makes places”) and the craftsman-like or quasi-demiurgical role advocated by the aristocracy of urban designers is a common element of the interviews. Other levels of mismatch between the professional progressive ethos and the mundane working arrangements may be found in the attitude towards communities and community-led design (or participatory-led design) and in the adoption of catchy adjectives such as “resilient” or “smart,” which many respondents felt were mostly fashionable buzzwords but nonetheless used them during the interview as well as in their daily practice.

Gentrification, for instance, is clearly an ambivalent outcome to deal with. Some interviewees clearly rejected or adopted a critical perspective towards it, delving in the tradition of community-based participatory design:

> I don't think anybody's really solved the displacement or the ...I don't know that it's solv-
> able... the gentrification issue, unfortunately, but I think it's always something at the top of
> mind for us, and just thinking about what impact the changes we're proposing in for a
> neighborhood are going to have on the people who are living there, so it's a really important
> part of [our job]. (Founder, middle-size firm, San Francisco)

Others, more interestingly, adhered to the vision of gentrification as a means of urban regeneration, part of which was linked to urban design:

> I don't think there's a specifically Dutch public space, I think they actually do start it now,
> like Rotterdam when I was there, actually, there was shit in the streets and so many drug
> dealers *and now it's been, again, gentrified* and much more focus on like how you treat the
> ground floor of buildings, *that you have some kind of public control, or like, like with a
> public space, like, and that you get some kind of interaction of the buildings with the public
> space*, also this Jan Gehl kind of dogma, and so ...I think, I actually think right now that a
> lot, a lot of focus on Denmark, it has to do with very successful architects and like a genera-
> tion of architects that have been kind of successful doing interesting stuff, it has to do with
> the municipality being kind of proactive, both in Copenhagen and in Aarhus and in other
> cities[...] and I always think it's interesting what's going on in Switzerland, also very clean
> and very nice always that, but still good. *And also always with a substantial amount of
> money there.* (Partner, middle-size firm, Rotterdam)
boundary-making is an internal one: given the close relationship between urban
design and the public space, setting the moral stage for further interventions is a
crucial step. While in the academic literature on urban design there is a general
confusion with regards to place-making, when we interrogated scholars, we gath-
ered mixed reactions, and some of them were harsh:

I really don't use the word place-making, I think it's retrograde, conservative, national-
ist. ... I think place-making is too easy ... it's trivial and suspect...I mean Disney makes
places. [...] urban design is the means in which social and cultural transformations are
made physically, making manifest in public space. (Academic and practitioner, New York)

Contradictions between the “trivial” aspect of working in the production of serial projects (“Disney makes places”) and the craftsman-like or quasi-demiurgical role advocated by the aristocracy of urban designers is a common element of the interviews. Other levels of mismatch between the professional progressive ethos and the mundane working arrangements may be found in the attitude towards communities and community-led design (or participatory-led design) and in the adoption of catchy adjectives such as “resilient” or “smart,” which many respondents felt were mostly fashionable buzzwords but nonetheless used them during the interview as well as in their daily practice.

Gentrification, for instance, is clearly an ambivalent outcome to deal with. Some interviewees clearly rejected or adopted a critical perspective towards it, delving in the tradition of community-based participatory design:

I don't think anybody's really solved the displacement or the ... I don't know that it's solv-
able... the gentrification issue, unfortunately, but I think it's always something at the top of
mind for us, and just thinking about what impact the changes we're proposing in for a
neighborhood are going to have on the people who are living there, so it's a really important
part of [our job]. (Founder, middle-size firm, San Francisco)

Others, more interestingly, adhered to the vision of gentrification as a means of
urban regeneration, part of which was linked to urban design:

I don't think there's a specifically Dutch public space, I think they actually do start it now, like Rotterdam when I was there, actually, there was shit in the streets and so many drug dealers *and now it's been, again, gentrified* and much more focus on like how you treat the ground floor of buildings, *that you have some kind of public control, or like, like with a public space, like, and that you get some kind of interaction of the buildings with the public space*, also this Jan Gehl kind of dogma, and so ... I think, I actually think right now that a lot, a lot of focus on Denmark, it has to do with very successful architects and like a genera-
tion of architects that have been kind of successful doing interesting stuff, it has to do with the municipality being kind of proactive, both in Copenhagen and in Aarhus and in other cities[...] and I always think it's interesting what's going on in Switzerland, also very clean and very nice always that, but still good. *And also always with a substantial amount of money there.* (Partner, middle-size firm, Rotterdam)
## 3.4 Conclusion

Urban design is a relatively recent breed in the urbanism tradition with a sharp growth of activities at a global scale. One of the main reasons for that is the rising attention to the issue of public space. While there is no clear definition whatsoever of the concept, public space emerged as a key spatial form in neoliberal urbanism. While cities long for international visibility through cultural regeneration processes, their citizens ask for cosmopolitan, livable and festive environments. Urban design provides this stage. It does so by adopting abstract models of public life settings, such as the Italian piazza, or by accepting the spatial and behavioral determinism of early pioneers such as W. H. Whyte or Jan Gehl. Nonetheless, the voices of these urban designers tell a story of progressive crystallization of a professional field around the idea of a city centered on its public spaces. Urban designers act, among other professionals, as “conveyors of cosmopolitan taste,” as Ole Söderström has put it (2006). This is especially true with the kind of urbanity that is under construction in the Far East and Arabian Peninsula, two regions of the world in which cosmopolitan forms are applied in authoritarian cultural and political contexts. This contradiction lies at the heart of the urbanization process and asks for broader investigation and discussion.

Cosmopolitanism, as it emerged from the voices of urban designers, is embedded in both their professional identity (education and career) and their perspective towards their own activities. Living in an international milieu, longing for international careers, urban designers apply models and visions that are cosmopolitan in meaning and scope. When asked about the risk of homogenization that the application of models at various scales implied, a practitioner and scholar responded with a remarkably reflexive account:

> yes, there is homogenization, and the homogenization is not necessarily because there is a center of these ideas, where these ideas come from, maybe. But the homogenization comes from, to my mind and having really talked to people from across the world and, you know, in the last twenty-five years traveling a lot and, you know, and teaching and so on and so forth, the homogenization comes out of a desire to take part in a particular type of civilization, right? which is global. And for many people across the world that attempt has a type of esthetic appeal that they believe is a result of design, right? (Academic and practitioner, New York)

If the former reflection stands, then we have a hypothesis for further research agendas: is cosmopolitanism an aesthetics rather than an ethics? Maybe we are not talking anymore about just or unjust societies, but only wondering whether the global order we are producing is beautiful or not (Berleant 2018). Aesthetics as a social and moral category may then become the new frontier of urban inequality and cosmopolitanism its vehicle.
## 3.4 Conclusion

Urban design is a relatively recent breed in the urbanism tradition with a sharp growth of activities at a global scale. One of the main reasons for that is the rising attention to the issue of public space. While there is no clear definition whatsoever of the concept, public space emerged as a key spatial form in neoliberal urbanism. While cities long for international visibility through cultural regeneration processes, their citizens ask for cosmopolitan, livable and festive environments. Urban design provides this stage. It does so by adopting abstract models of public life settings, such as the Italian piazza, or by accepting the spatial and behavioral determinism of early pioneers such as W. H. Whyte or Jan Gehl. Nonetheless, the voices of these urban designers tell a story of progressive crystallization of a professional field around the idea of a city centered on its public spaces. Urban designers act, among other professionals, as “conveyors of cosmopolitan taste,” as Ole Söderström has put it (2006). This is especially true with the kind of urbanity that is under construction in the Far East and Arabian Peninsula, two regions of the world in which cosmopolitan forms are applied in authoritarian cultural and political contexts. This contradiction lies at the heart of the urbanization process and asks for broader investigation and discussion.

Cosmopolitanism, as it emerged from the voices of urban designers, is embedded in both their professional identity (education and career) and their perspective towards their own activities. Living in an international milieu, longing for international careers, urban designers apply models and visions that are cosmopolitan in meaning and scope. When asked about the risk of homogenization that the application of models at various scales implied, a practitioner and scholar responded with a remarkably reflexive account:

> yes, there is homogenization, and the homogenization is not necessarily because there is a center of these ideas, where these ideas come from, maybe. But the homogenization comes from, to my mind and having really talked to people from across the world and, you know, in the last twenty-five years traveling a lot and, you know, and teaching and so on and so forth, the homogenization comes out of a desire to take part in a particular type of civilization, right? which is global. And for many people across the world that attempt has a type of esthetic appeal that they believe is a result of design, right? (Academic and practitioner, New York)

If the former reflection stands, then we have a hypothesis for further research agendas: is cosmopolitanism an aesthetics rather than an ethics? Maybe we are not talking anymore about just or unjust societies, but only wondering whether the global order we are producing is beautiful or not (Berleant 2018). Aesthetics as a social and moral category may then become the new frontier of urban inequality and cosmopolitanism its vehicle.
References

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Amin, A. (2008). Collective culture and urban public space. *City, 12*(1), 5–24.

Berleant, A. (2018). *Aesthetics and environment: Variations on a theme*. New York: Routledge.

Binnie, J., Holloway, J., Millington, S., & Young, C. (Eds.). (2006). *Cosmopolitan Urbanism*. Abingdon: Routledge.

Bodnar, J. (2015). Reclaiming public space. *Urban Studies, 52*(12), 2090–2104.

Fainstein, S. S. (2001). The city builders: Property development. In *New York and London, 1980–2000*. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

Gehl, J. (2011). *Life between buildings: Using public space*. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Gospodini, A. (2002). European cities in competition and the new ‘uses’ of Urban Design. *Journal of Urban Design, 7*(1), 59–73.

Graham, S., & Marvin, S. (2001). *Splintering Urbanism: Networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition*. London: Psychology Press.

Hackworth, J., & Smith, N. (2001). The changing state of gentrification. *Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 92*(4): 464–477.

Hannigan, J. (2005). *Fantasy City: Pleasure and profit in the postmodern Metropolis*. London: Routledge.

Harvey, D. (2011). *The enigma of capital and the crises of capitalism*. London: Profile Books.

Hom, S. M. (2015). *The beautiful country: Tourism and the impossible state of destination Italy*. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Hubbard, P. (1996). Urban Design and City regeneration: Social representations of entrepreneurial landscapes. *Urban Studies, 33*(8), 1441–1461.

Hyde, T. (2008). Planos, Planes y Planification: Josep Lluís Sert and the Idea of Planning. In E. Mumford & H. Sarkis (Eds.), *Josep Lluís Sert: The architect of urban design, 1953–1969* (pp. 54–75). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Jessop, B. (1993). Towards a Schumpeterian workfare state? Preliminary remarks on post-Fordist political economy. *Studies in Political Economy, 40*(1), 7–39.

Julier, G. (2005). Urban Designscapes and the production of aesthetic consent. *Urban Studies, 42.5*(6), 869–887.

Kennedy, P. (2005). Joining, constructing and benefiting from the global workplace: Transnational professionals in the building design industry. *The Sociological Review, 53*(1), 172–197.

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Lamont, M., & Molnár, V. (2002). The study of boundaries in the social sciences. *Annual Review of Sociology, 28*(1), 167–195.

Lees, L., Slater, T., & Wyly, E. (2013). *Gentrification*. London: Routledge.

Madanipour, A. (2006). Roles and challenges of urban design. *Journal of Urban Design, 11*(2), 173–193.

Marshall, R. (2009). The elusiveness of urban design: The perpetual problem of definition and role. In A. Krieger & W. S. Saunders (Eds.), *Urban design* (pp. 38–57). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

McCann, E., & Ward, K. (Eds.). (2011). *Mobile urbanism: Cities and policymaking in the global age*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Mitchell, D. (2003). *The right to the City: Social justice and the fight for public space*. New York: Guilford Press.

Moulaert, F., Rodríguez, A., & Swyngedouw, E. (Eds.). (2003). *The globalized city: Economic restructuring and social polarization in European cities*. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mumford, E. P. (2009). *Defining urban design: CIAM architects and the formation of a discipline, 1937–69*. New Haven: Yale University Press.
References

Alaily-Mattar, N., Ponzini, D., & Thierstein, A. (Eds.). (2020). *About star architecture: Reflecting on cities in Europe*. Springer Nature.

Amin, A. (2008). Collective culture and urban public space. *City, 12*(1), 5–24.

Berleant, A. (2018). *Aesthetics and environment: Variations on a theme*. New York: Routledge.

Binnie, J., Holloway, J., Millington, S., & Young, C. (Eds.). (2006). *Cosmopolitan Urbanism*. Abingdon: Routledge.

Bodnar, J. (2015). Reclaiming public space. *Urban Studies, 52*(12), 2090–2104.

Fainstein, S. S. (2001). The city builders: Property development. In *New York and London, 1980–2000*. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

Gehl, J. (2011). *Life between buildings: Using public space*. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Gospodini, A. (2002). European cities in competition and the new ‘uses’ of Urban Design. *Journal of Urban Design, 7*(1), 59–73.

Graham, S., & Marvin, S. (2001). * Splintering Urbanism: Networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition*. London: Psychology Press.

Hackworth, J., & Smith, N. (2001). The changing state of gentrification. *Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 92*(4): 464–477.

Hannigan, J. (2005). *Fantasy City: Pleasure and profit in the postmodern Metropolis*. London: Routledge.

Harvey, D. (2011). *The enigma of capital and the crises of capitalism*. London: Profile Books.

Hom, S. M. (2015). *The beautiful country: Tourism and the impossible state of destination Italy*. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Hubbard, P. (1996). Urban Design and City regeneration: Social representations of entrepreneurial landscapes. *Urban Studies, 33*(8), 1441–1461.

Hyde, T. (2008). Planos, Planes y Planification: Josep Lluís Sert and the Idea of Planning. In E. Mumford & H. Sarkis (Eds.), *Josep Lluís Sert: The architect of urban design, 1953–1969* (pp. 54–75). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Jessop, B. (1993). Towards a Schumpeterian workfare state? Preliminary remarks on post-Fordist political economy. *Studies in Political Economy, 40*(1), 7–39.

Julier, G. (2005). Urban Designscapes and the production of aesthetic consent. *Urban Studies, 42.5*(6), 869–887.

Kennedy, P. (2005). Joining, constructing and benefiting from the global workplace: Transnational professionals in the building design industry. *The Sociological Review, 53*(1), 172–197.

King, A. D. (2004). *Spaces of global cultures: Architecture, Urbanism, identity*. London: Routledge.

Lamont, M., & Molnár, V. (2002). The study of boundaries in the social sciences. *Annual Review of Sociology, 28*(1), 167–195.

Lees, L., Slater, T., & Wyly, E. (2013). *Gentrification*. London: Routledge.

Madanipour, A. (2006). Roles and challenges of urban design. *Journal of Urban Design, 11*(2), 173–193.

Marshall, R. (2009). The elusiveness of urban design: The perpetual problem of definition and role. In A. Krieger & W. S. Saunders (Eds.), *Urban design* (pp. 38–57). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

McCann, E., & Ward, K. (Eds.). (2011). *Mobile urbanism: Cities and policymaking in the global age*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Mitchell, D. (2003). *The right to the City: Social justice and the fight for public space*. New York: Guilford Press.

Moulaert, F., Rodríguez, A., & Swyngedouw, E. (Eds.). (2003). *The globalized city: Economic restructuring and social polarization in European cities*. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mumford, E. P. (2009). *Defining urban design: CIAM architects and the formation of a discipline, 1937–69*. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2010). Mobilizing policy: Models, methods, and mutations. *Geoforum, 41*(2), 169–174.

Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2015). *Fast policy: Experimental statecraft at the thresholds of neoliberalism*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Ponzini, D. (2014). The values of starchitecture: commodification of architectural design in contemporary cities. *Organizational Aesthetics, 3*(1), 10–18.

Ponzini, D., & Nastasi, M. (2016). *Starchitecture: Scenes, actors, and spectacles in contemporary cities*. New York: The Monacelli Press.

Punter, J. (2007). Developing urban design as public policy: Best practice principles for design review and development management. *Journal of Urban Design, 12*(2), 167–202.

Ren, X. (2011). *Building globalization: Transnational architecture production in urban China*. University of Chicago Press.

Rossi, U. (2017). *Cities in global capitalism*. Chichester: Wiley.

Schurch, T. W. (1999). Reconsidering Urban design: Thoughts about its definition and status as a field or profession. *Journal of Urban Design, 4*(1), 5–28.

Semi, G. (2015). *Gentrification: tutte le Città come Disneyland? Bologna: Il mulino*.

Semi, G., & Bolzoni M. (2020). Star architecture and the field of urban design. In N. Alaily-Mattar, D. Ponzini, & A. Thierstein (Eds.), *About star architecture: Reflecting on cities in Europe* (pp. 55–67). Berlin: Springer.

Sitte, C. (1889). *Der Städtebau nach seinen Künstlerischen Grundsätzen*. Auflage.

Sklair, L. (2005). The transnational capitalist class and contemporary architecture in globalizing cities. *International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29*(3), 485–500.

Söderström, O. (2006). Studying cosmopolitan landscapes. *Progress in Human Geography, 30*(5), 553–558.

Sorkin, M. (1992). *Variations on a theme park: The new American city and the end of public space*. New York: Macmillan.

Sorkin, M. (2009). The end(s) of urban design. In A. Krieger & W. S. Saunders (Eds.), *Urban design* (pp. 155–182). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Tiesdell, S., & Adams, D. (2011). *Urban design in the real estate development process*. Chichester: Wiley.

Young, C., Diep, M., & Drabble, S. (2006). Living. with Difference? The ‘Cosmopolitan City’ and Urban Reimaging in Manchester, UK. *Urban Studies, 43*(10), 1687–1714.

Zukin, S. (1995). *The cultures of cities*. London: Blackwell.

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<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>
Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2010). Mobilizing policy: Models, methods, and mutations. *Geoforum, 41*(2), 169–174.

Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2015). *Fast policy: Experimental statecraft at the thresholds of neoliberalism*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Ponzini, D. (2014). The values of starchitecture: commodification of architectural design in contemporary cities. *Organizational Aesthetics, 3*(1), 10–18.

Ponzini, D., & Nastasi, M. (2016). *Starchitecture: Scenes, actors, and spectacles in contemporary cities*. New York: The Monacelli Press.

Punter, J. (2007). Developing urban design as public policy: Best practice principles for design review and development management. *Journal of Urban Design, 12*(2), 167–202.

Ren, X. (2011). *Building globalization: Transnational architecture production in urban China*. University of Chicago Press.

Rossi, U. (2017). *Cities in global capitalism*. Chichester: Wiley.

Schurch, T. W. (1999). Reconsidering Urban design: Thoughts about its definition and status as a field or profession. *Journal of Urban Design, 4*(1), 5–28.

Semi, G. (2015). *Gentrification: tutte le Città come Disneyland? Bologna: Il mulino.*

Semi, G., & Bolzoni M. (2020). Star architecture and the field of urban design. In N. Alaily-Mattar, D. Ponzini, & A. Thierstein (Eds.), *About star architecture: Reflecting on cities in Europe* (pp. 55–67). Berlin: Springer.

Sitte, C. (1889). *Der Städtebau nach seinen Künstlerischen Grundsätzen*. Auflage.

Sklair, L. (2005). The transnational capitalist class and contemporary architecture in globalizing cities. *International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29*(3), 485–500.

Söderström, O. (2006). Studying cosmopolitan landscapes. *Progress in Human Geography, 30*(5), 553–558.

Sorkin, M. (1992). *Variations on a theme park: The new American city and the end of public space*. New York: Macmillan.

Sorkin, M. (2009). The end(s) of urban design. In A. Krieger & W. S. Saunders (Eds.), *Urban design* (pp. 155–182). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Tiesdell, S., & Adams, D. (2011). *Urban design in the real estate development process*. Chichester: Wiley.

Young, C., Diep, M., & Drabble, S. (2006). Living. with Difference? The ‘Cosmopolitan City’ and Urban Reimaging in Manchester, UK. *Urban Studies, 43*(10), 1687–1714.

Zukin, S. (1995). *The cultures of cities*. London: Blackwell.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>
Chapter 4
Dakar by Night: Engaging
with a Cosmopolitanism by Contrast

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

Check for
updates

Thomas Fouquet

**4.1 Introduction**

This study aims to bring to light some ways of being-in-town that organize desires for being-in-the-world. Drawing on 20 years of anthropological fieldwork in Dakar, it relies on a simple yet substantial premise: a very large number of urban Senegalese youths express a strong desire to move North, or West, while only a small minority will be able to do so. My questioning focuses on those who stay but whose modes of sticking around are deeply influenced by their longing for a larger world (Fouquet 2008). Ethnographically, and in view of contemporary expressions of “cityness” (Sassen 2010), this can be made visible by peculiar uses of the city with social and cultural mobilities tending to compensate for an unreachable geographical one. More broadly, such configurations can be understood in terms of the concrete urban cosmopolitan experiences they convey – that is, a cosmopolitanism that emerges in the wake of constant non-travelers’ paths into the city as compared to the ability of “frequent travelers” to move around the world (Calhoun 2002). This can seem counterintuitive as the individual potential for mobility has long been positioned as the most important criterion in defining (admittedly in its elitist version) the cosmopolitan condition. In my work in Dakar, mobility remains a key issue, but rather on the level of an intentionality closely mediated by a “globalization of dreams” (Geschiere and Rowlands 1996), thus introducing a discussion of the cultural and socioeconomical perimeters of cosmopolitanism itself. My ambition here is to define cosmopolitanism not so much as the convenient reflection of (privileged) social status but rather in inherently relational terms – that is, “being cosmopolitanism rather than,” “citizen of the world rather than,” “member of the world society rather than,” “well aware of global cultural trends rather than,” and so on.

<footnote>T. Fouquet (✉)
CNRS IMAF, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France
e-mail: thomas.fouquet@cnrs.fr</footnote>
Chapter 4
Dakar by Night: Engaging
with a Cosmopolitanism by Contrast

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

Check for
updates

Thomas Fouquet

**4.1 Introduction**

This study aims to bring to light some ways of being-in-town that organize desires for being-in-the-world. Drawing on 20 years of anthropological fieldwork in Dakar, it relies on a simple yet substantial premise: a very large number of urban Senegalese youths express a strong desire to move North, or West, while only a small minority will be able to do so. My questioning focuses on those who stay but whose modes of sticking around are deeply influenced by their longing for a larger world (Fouquet 2008). Ethnographically, and in view of contemporary expressions of “cityness” (Sassen 2010), this can be made visible by peculiar uses of the city with social and cultural mobilities tending to compensate for an unreachable geographical one. More broadly, such configurations can be understood in terms of the concrete urban cosmopolitan experiences they convey – that is, a cosmopolitanism that emerges in the wake of constant non-travelers’ paths into the city as compared to the ability of “frequent travelers” to move around the world (Calhoun 2002). This can seem counterintuitive as the individual potential for mobility has long been positioned as the most important criterion in defining (admittedly in its elitist version) the cosmopolitan condition. In my work in Dakar, mobility remains a key issue, but rather on the level of an intentionality closely mediated by a “globalization of dreams” (Geschiere and Rowlands 1996), thus introducing a discussion of the cultural and socioeconomical perimeters of cosmopolitanism itself. My ambition here is to define cosmopolitanism not so much as the convenient reflection of (privileged) social status but rather in inherently relational terms – that is, “being cosmopolitanism rather than,” “citizen of the world rather than,” “member of the world society rather than,” “well aware of global cultural trends rather than,” and so on.

<footnote>T. Fouquet (✉)
CNRS IMAF, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France
e-mail: thomas.fouquet@cnrs.fr</footnote>
Under such conditions, this contrasting understanding of cosmopolitanism can
only be a constructive one, strongly rooted in an empirical framework (in this case,
the urban temporalities of young Senegalese women). Indeed, my main ethnograph-
ical scene is Dakar by night, which I address both as a tangible, infrastructural entity
and as a moral region where some kind of subjective external projection, cultural
renegotiation and, on the whole, a change of scenery at home seem accessible or at
least possible. The urban night appears as a “time of the world” (Diouf 2013), in
contrast to the diurnal city which remains tinged with negative judgements of local-
ism among interlocutors. The particular ambiance, cultural styles (music, clothing,
dancing, etc.) and attitudes, as well as the fact that some nocturnal environments are
highly internationalized and bring together people who do not cross paths the rest of
the time, play an important role in the “cosmopolitan sense” that my interlocutors
subjectively associate with the urban night. However, far beyond the potentially
“objective cosmopolitan status” of the nocturnal city, what I want to suggest here is
that what makes the night “cosmopolitan” is first and foremost the discontent, frus-
tration, and sometimes despair that are contrastively associated with daytime. While
the city by night is related to the idea of a widening scope of possibilities, the diur-
nal one is somehow a depositary of popular grievances, especially that one of, to put
it roughly, feeling stuck (both socially and geographically).

We find here the first indications of the (urban) night cosmopolitics that are at the
core of this chapter. The alleged “openness” of nightlife often makes it suspect by
association with a fear for social, cultural and moral perdition. In Dakar, evidence
of this can be found in the plethora of sensationalist press articles or the offensives
brought by moral entrepreneurs, especially in the religious sphere, against a number
of practices that Dakar-by-night is reputed to host or promote: drinking, sexual
intimacy (possibly priced), accoutrements and dances considered, if not outrageous,
as “not virtuous.” This nocturnal stigma is actually very common worldwide, as the
urban night is commonly considered a time-space of weakened social and moral
control. However, in the Senegalese context, these denunciations may support a
much broader critique addressed to foreign (not to say Western) models that are
supposed to negatively impact Senegalese youth. So beyond the sociopolitical influ-
ence of “traditional” or “religious” moral ethics, Dakar-at-night also raises ques-
tions related to “postcoloniality.” Be it ways of clothing or speaking, usages of the
body and sexuality, modes of behaving and performing oneself publicly, the Dakar
urban night is seen as a hotspot for “imported” styles and practices that are appro-
priated locally and thus the target of judgments concerning cultural illegitimacy or
moral danger. This nocturnal stigma applies with greater force to women, as is well
shown by the popular Wolof expression jiggeen yu gën guddi, which can be literally
translated as “girls who go out at night.” This phrase conveys a presupposition of
debauchery, even working as a parabolic (d)enunciation of prostitution: seeking the
“good life” in the nocturnal world can expose women frontally to “low life” judg-
ments. More generally, the social postures adopted at night are frequently assimi-
lated to cultural impostures. Following this vulgate of “the loss,” the fact of culturally
“sleeping” with Western worlds raises the risk of being cutting off from a certain
idea of social and cultural authenticity, with all the supposedly harmful and perverse
Under such conditions, this contrasting understanding of cosmopolitanism can
only be a constructive one, strongly rooted in an empirical framework (in this case,
the urban temporalities of young Senegalese women). Indeed, my main ethnograph-
ical scene is Dakar by night, which I address both as a tangible, infrastructural entity
and as a moral region where some kind of subjective external projection, cultural
renegotiation and, on the whole, a change of scenery at home seem accessible or at
least possible. The urban night appears as a “time of the world” (Diouf 2013), in
contrast to the diurnal city which remains tinged with negative judgements of local-
ism among interlocutors. The particular ambiance, cultural styles (music, clothing,
dancing, etc.) and attitudes, as well as the fact that some nocturnal environments are
highly internationalized and bring together people who do not cross paths the rest of
the time, play an important role in the “cosmopolitan sense” that my interlocutors
subjectively associate with the urban night. However, far beyond the potentially
“objective cosmopolitan status” of the nocturnal city, what I want to suggest here is
that what makes the night “cosmopolitan” is first and foremost the discontent, frus-
tration, and sometimes despair that are contrastively associated with daytime. While
the city by night is related to the idea of a widening scope of possibilities, the diur-
nal one is somehow a depositary of popular grievances, especially that one of, to put
it roughly, feeling stuck (both socially and geographically).

We find here the first indications of the (urban) night cosmopolitics that are at the
core of this chapter. The alleged “openness” of nightlife often makes it suspect by
association with a fear for social, cultural and moral perdition. In Dakar, evidence
of this can be found in the plethora of sensationalist press articles or the offensives
brought by moral entrepreneurs, especially in the religious sphere, against a number
of practices that Dakar-by-night is reputed to host or promote: drinking, sexual
intimacy (possibly priced), accoutrements and dances considered, if not outrageous,
as “not virtuous.” This nocturnal stigma is actually very common worldwide, as the
urban night is commonly considered a time-space of weakened social and moral
control. However, in the Senegalese context, these denunciations may support a
much broader critique addressed to foreign (not to say Western) models that are
supposed to negatively impact Senegalese youth. So beyond the sociopolitical influ-
ence of “traditional” or “religious” moral ethics, Dakar-at-night also raises ques-
tions related to “postcoloniality.” Be it ways of clothing or speaking, usages of the
body and sexuality, modes of behaving and performing oneself publicly, the Dakar
urban night is seen as a hotspot for “imported” styles and practices that are appro-
priated locally and thus the target of judgments concerning cultural illegitimacy or
moral danger. This nocturnal stigma applies with greater force to women, as is well
shown by the popular Wolof expression jiggeen yu gën guddi, which can be literally
translated as “girls who go out at night.” This phrase conveys a presupposition of
debauchery, even working as a parabolic (d)enunciation of prostitution: seeking the
“good life” in the nocturnal world can expose women frontally to “low life” judg-
ments. More generally, the social postures adopted at night are frequently assimi-
lated to cultural impostures. Following this vulgate of “the loss,” the fact of culturally
“sleeping” with Western worlds raises the risk of being cutting off from a certain
idea of social and cultural authenticity, with all the supposedly harmful and perverse
consequences that this conveys (Mbembe 2006). It should be added that these con-
figurations appear exacerbated for the urban night, so the social judgments that the
nocturnal city engenders reactivate and locate in a more global horizon the classical
binary of “tradition versus modernity.” This is further evidence of the cosmopoliti-
cal dynamics that “inhabit,” cross or impregnate the nocturnal city.

At the same time, according to many of my interlocutors in Dakar, the attraction
of nightlife is closely linked to the opportunities it provides for reaching something
broader than a “here and now” very commonly experienced as social frustration and
geographical blocking. In this view, Dakar by night appears as a window open to the
world, especially in a context where the heightened desire for migration and mobil-
ity goes hand in hand with the difficulties or even impossibility of realizing them for
those excluded from global movement.

In the cases sketched here of dangerous nights versus nocturnal opportunities and openness, the urban night is conceived as an emblematic site of circulation and domestication of globalized trends. From this point of view, the nocturnal city takes shape and meaning on a terrain of confrontation articulating different visions of the place one occupies or *should* occupy in world processes. While this tension between “cosmopolitans and locals” (Hannerz 1990) might appear trivial, it still needs to be considered empirically, in particular regarding its tangible urban translations. This chapter engages with grassroots cosmopolitical expressions that unfold in the social and temporal margins of Dakar, where indocility and critical postures are interwoven with hopes for a better future. The problem is thus how to deal with the making of a *cosmopolitanism by contrast* organized between the Here and the (imagined) Elsewhere, the Self and the Other, the actual and the potential. My broader concern is to show that night cosmopolitics and its very concrete urban translations are not isolated phenomena but echo some major aspects of the politics of Dakar’s residents.

## 4.2 The “Night Adventurers” in Dakar: Toward a Nocturnal Change of Scenery at Home

The main empirical evidence used in this study derives from my long-lasting ethnography among young Senegalese women who frequent nocturnal Dakar, “the night adventurers” as I have called them. I need to briefly explain how I came to deal with such questions, and more broadly with nocturnal issues.

I started fieldwork in Yeumbeul, a very popular neighborhood in the suburbs of Dakar, in 2000. The research agenda initially concerned unemployed young men. I was interested in how they elaborate their own path into the city whilst being largely politically and economically excluded from it. I observed that most of them were literally *not going anywhere*: with no financial resources to move at a larger scale in the city, they spent all day and night sticking around in their under-serviced neighborhood. To put it simply: these young men were caught in social and spatial stag nation. In the meantime, their conversations invariably converged to the issue of
consequences that this conveys (Mbembe 2006). It should be added that these con-
figurations appear exacerbated for the urban night, so the social judgments that the
nocturnal city engenders reactivate and locate in a more global horizon the classical
binary of “tradition versus modernity.” This is further evidence of the cosmopoliti-
cal dynamics that “inhabit,” cross or impregnate the nocturnal city.

At the same time, according to many of my interlocutors in Dakar, the attraction
of nightlife is closely linked to the opportunities it provides for reaching something
broader than a “here and now” very commonly experienced as social frustration and
geographical blocking. In this view, Dakar by night appears as a window open to the
world, especially in a context where the heightened desire for migration and mobil-
ity goes hand in hand with the difficulties or even impossibility of realizing them for
those excluded from global movement.

In the cases sketched here of dangerous nights versus nocturnal opportunities and openness, the urban night is conceived as an emblematic site of circulation and domestication of globalized trends. From this point of view, the nocturnal city takes shape and meaning on a terrain of confrontation articulating different visions of the place one occupies or *should* occupy in world processes. While this tension between “cosmopolitans and locals” (Hannerz 1990) might appear trivial, it still needs to be considered empirically, in particular regarding its tangible urban translations. This chapter engages with grassroots cosmopolitical expressions that unfold in the social and temporal margins of Dakar, where indocility and critical postures are interwoven with hopes for a better future. The problem is thus how to deal with the making of a *cosmopolitanism by contrast* organized between the Here and the (imagined) Elsewhere, the Self and the Other, the actual and the potential. My broader concern is to show that night cosmopolitics and its very concrete urban translations are not isolated phenomena but echo some major aspects of the politics of Dakar’s residents.

## 4.2 The “Night Adventurers” in Dakar: Toward a Nocturnal Change of Scenery at Home

The main empirical evidence used in this study derives from my long-lasting ethnography among young Senegalese women who frequent nocturnal Dakar, “the night adventurers” as I have called them. I need to briefly explain how I came to deal with such questions, and more broadly with nocturnal issues.

I started fieldwork in Yeumbeul, a very popular neighborhood in the suburbs of Dakar, in 2000. The research agenda initially concerned unemployed young men. I was interested in how they elaborate their own path into the city whilst being largely politically and economically excluded from it. I observed that most of them were literally *not going anywhere*: with no financial resources to move at a larger scale in the city, they spent all day and night sticking around in their under-serviced neighborhood. To put it simply: these young men were caught in social and spatial stag nation. In the meantime, their conversations invariably converged to the issue of
migration: how to leave Senegal, and to go where? The important thing was to leave; departure was considered the only option. There was a heuristic tension between this strongly desired *mobility* and the forced or unwilled *immobility* these individuals found themselves in.

I was struck by another thing in these months spent living in the suburbs of Dakar. I observed that the gendered constructions of youth status were highly contrasted when it came to mobility. Young men were free to move at will, meaning that they were socially legitimate to go where they wanted to go, even if, as I just mentioned, they were generally not going anywhere. For most young suburban women, though, the legitimate perimeter of circulation was, basically, the domestic one. However, every evening, I could notice that a significant number of young suburban women, all made up and perfumed and dressed in revealing and trendy clothes, were “taking off” to downtown Dakar. The term “taking off” is intentional: all this actually looked like the departure on a trip, even if it was repeated night after night on the small scale of a journey of a few kilometers to the city center.

My ambition was not to focus on urban marginality or on “deviant” behaviors such as prostitution but rather on the tension between mobility and immobility. In that respect, these “night-girls” seem emblematic. They engage nightly with night-clubs and bars through social practices in which sexuality, seduction and their economic extensions are closely linked. However, what they actually do and seek out during their night activities cannot be confined to economic-sexual issues. While the resources provided by male partners are pivotal, they are far from being exclusive. Gains in autonomy and symbolic struggles are also central (Fouquet 2014a), even if they are often forgotten or overlooked due to the “unconventional” sexual materiality of these configurations and the moralistic or miserabilist judgements they polarize. In that respect, I could discern at least three main topics crossing the practices and trajectories of these women. First, the problem is to break with some of the constraints imposed by social seniors to emancipate oneself from the status of social junior. Frequenting nightlife, the financial earnings deriving from that activity, as well as the rupture that doing so organizes towards the banality of everyday life, are means of asserting social autonomy and taking distance from the feeling of dependency and submission toward parents and relatives. Second, in a more gendered perspective, frequenting nightlife is about departing from models of femininity that my interlocutors strongly reject, the social roles of daughter and wife that are seen as synonymous with subordination and constraint. Finally, and probably most importantly, nightlife is a means of asserting oneself as a modern and cosmopolitan individual through clothing, dancing, talking and, more broadly, taking the stage. Simply put, instead of reaching the faraway places they long for (Europe and North America, basically), these young women circulate, in a “broadminded” [esprit du large] manner (Mbembe 2006, 2), in moral regions inside the nocturnal city. This is also one of the main reasons that led me to use the notions of adventure (l'aventure) and adventurers (les aventurières) for the interpretation of these female trajectories. Indeed, over the last few decades, the concept of adventure has been increasingly used to define and describe a particular type of migrant departing on the road to exile (Bredeloup 2014). What is at stake in my usage of adventure is to engage with
migration: how to leave Senegal, and to go where? The important thing was to leave; departure was considered the only option. There was a heuristic tension between this strongly desired *mobility* and the forced or unwilled *immobility* these individuals found themselves in.

I was struck by another thing in these months spent living in the suburbs of Dakar. I observed that the gendered constructions of youth status were highly contrasted when it came to mobility. Young men were free to move at will, meaning that they were socially legitimate to go where they wanted to go, even if, as I just mentioned, they were generally not going anywhere. For most young suburban women, though, the legitimate perimeter of circulation was, basically, the domestic one. However, every evening, I could notice that a significant number of young suburban women, all made up and perfumed and dressed in revealing and trendy clothes, were “taking off” to downtown Dakar. The term “taking off” is intentional: all this actually looked like the departure on a trip, even if it was repeated night after night on the small scale of a journey of a few kilometers to the city center.

My ambition was not to focus on urban marginality or on “deviant” behaviors such as prostitution but rather on the tension between mobility and immobility. In that respect, these “night-girls” seem emblematic. They engage nightly with night-clubs and bars through social practices in which sexuality, seduction and their economic extensions are closely linked. However, what they actually do and seek out during their night activities cannot be confined to economic-sexual issues. While the resources provided by male partners are pivotal, they are far from being exclusive. Gains in autonomy and symbolic struggles are also central (Fouquet 2014a), even if they are often forgotten or overlooked due to the “unconventional” sexual materiality of these configurations and the moralistic or miserabilist judgements they polarize. In that respect, I could discern at least three main topics crossing the practices and trajectories of these women. First, the problem is to break with some of the constraints imposed by social seniors to emancipate oneself from the status of social junior. Frequenting nightlife, the financial earnings deriving from that activity, as well as the rupture that doing so organizes towards the banality of everyday life, are means of asserting social autonomy and taking distance from the feeling of dependency and submission toward parents and relatives. Second, in a more gendered perspective, frequenting nightlife is about departing from models of femininity that my interlocutors strongly reject, the social roles of daughter and wife that are seen as synonymous with subordination and constraint. Finally, and probably most importantly, nightlife is a means of asserting oneself as a modern and cosmopolitan individual through clothing, dancing, talking and, more broadly, taking the stage. Simply put, instead of reaching the faraway places they long for (Europe and North America, basically), these young women circulate, in a “broadminded” [esprit du large] manner (Mbembe 2006, 2), in moral regions inside the nocturnal city. This is also one of the main reasons that led me to use the notions of adventure (l'aventure) and adventurers (les aventurières) for the interpretation of these female trajectories. Indeed, over the last few decades, the concept of adventure has been increasingly used to define and describe a particular type of migrant departing on the road to exile (Bredeloup 2014). What is at stake in my usage of adventure is to engage with
social mobilities at a local, rather than an international, scale and by women rather than men, who have up to now been the main objects of study for adventure in the context of migration.

The night adventure appears first and foremost as an intimate and transformative experience:

> During the night, I see what other people will never see or even imagine... What I see is another world that's opening up. This world is real, and it doesn't exist at the same time. It is in my head [samay xalat, my thoughts] or in my body when I get dressed to go out, when I dance, when men look at me with desire ... It is a world of the night that disappears during the day. But here, in my head and in my body, that's where it still exists in some ways. In any case, it is this world that I prefer, because I tell myself that it is a good life that can be found here or that seems reachable. Even if, for real, it slips away from me, again and again and again ... But I keep on running after it! (25-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2016).<fnref n="1" />

This is a good illustration of how the urban night is addressed among the night adventurers. The sexual transactions in which they are involved often mask the complexity of their trajectories. In fact, my interlocutors all evoke the urban night as the place where the tension between the feeling of insignificance and social incapacity felt by many young Senegalese and the desire to access a “good life” (Feldman 2002) inspired by a certain idea of autonomy, self-realization, and material modernity is resolved. However, this fundamental opposition follows a clear line of fracture between daytime and nighttime that these young women redraw in practices and discourses night after night. In other words, frequenting Dakar nightlife makes it possible to approach certain conceptions of a desirable existence while adopting *de facto* critical postures vis-à-vis the local living conditions. Another interlocutor put it this way:

> [Going out at night] well, to me, it is not really a problem of escaping. But simply ... I prefer the nighttime. It's cooler, you know. Dakar during the day, it's a real mess: traffic jams, heat, noise ... And what is there to do during the day? Going to the market? No thank you! [...] At night, you see, everyone is well dressed, you meet people you don't know ... Nobody monitors nobody, you do what you like. You don't get bothered and you don't feel ashamed to do what you want! [...] And then, you tell your own story, that's the big time, you know... you can never predict how far it will lead you! (22-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2016)

In line with this nocturnal indeterminacy and its inner “productivity” (Cooper and Pratten 2015), frequenting the city by night also gives rise to a sensation of self-transformation or self-invention. In that respect, the uses of the body and, more broadly, of style become crucial arguments for the making of such self-narrations.

> Making oneself beautiful [before going out at night] is a way to respect oneself, I think. When you go out, it's not to show your problems. You enjoy the nightlife and then you want to show something else. There are things you can do at night, I mean the way you dress, where you go ... things that make you feel like someone else. [...] When I go out at night, I

<footnote n="1">¹Quotations will be sourced by the gender and the age of the interlocutor, the type of interaction (informal discussion, ethnographic interview), the language(s) used, the place, the year.</footnote>
social mobilities at a local, rather than an international, scale and by women rather
than men, who have up to now been the main objects of study for adventure in the
context of migration.

The night adventure appears first and foremost as an intimate and transformative
experience:

During the night, I see what other people will never see or even imagine... What I see is another world that's opening up. This world is real, and it doesn't exist at the same time. It is in my head [samay xalat, my thoughts] or in my body when I get dressed to go out, when I dance, when men look at me with desire ... It is a world of the night that disappears during the day. But here, in my head and in my body, that's where it still exists in some ways. In any case, it is this world that I prefer, because I tell myself that it is a good life that can be found here or that seems reachable. Even if, for real, it slips away from me, again and again and again ... But I keep on running after it! (25-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2016).<fnref n="1" />

This is a good illustration of how the urban night is addressed among the night
adventurers. The sexual transactions in which they are involved often mask the
complexity of their trajectories. In fact, my interlocutors all evoke the urban night
as the place where the tension between the feeling of insignificance and social incapa-
cacity felt by many young Senegalese and the desire to access a "good life" (Feldman
2002) inspired by a certain idea of autonomy, self-realization, and material moder-
nity is resolved. However, this fundamental opposition follows a clear line of frac-
ture between daytime and nighttime that these young women redraw in practices
and discourses night after night. In other words, frequenting Dakar nightlife makes
it possible to approach certain conceptions of a desirable existence while adopting
*de facto* critical postures vis-à-vis the local living conditions. Another interlocutor
put it this way:

[Going out at night] well, to me, it is not really a problem of escaping. But simply ... I prefer the nighttime. It's cooler, you know. Dakar during the day, it's a real mess: traffic jams, heat, noise ... And what is there to do during the day? Going to the market? No thank you! [...] At night, you see, everyone is well dressed, you meet people you don't know ... Nobody monitors nobody, you do what you like. You don't get bothered and you don't feel ashamed to do what you want! [...] And then, you tell your own story, that's the big time, you know... you can never predict how far it will lead you! (22-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2016)

In line with this nocturnal indeterminacy and its inner “productivity” (Cooper and Pratten 2015), frequenting the city by night also gives rise to a sensation of self-transformation or self-invention. In that respect, the uses of the body and, more broadly, of style become crucial arguments for the making of such self-narrations.

Making oneself beautiful [before going out at night] is a way to respect oneself, I think. When you go out, it's not to show your problems. You enjoy the nightlife and then you want to show something else. There are things you can do at night, I mean the way you dress, where you go ... things that make you feel like someone else. [...] When I go out at night, I

<footnote n="1">¹Quotations will be sourced by the gender and the age of the interlocutor, the type of interaction (informal discussion, ethnographic interview), the language(s) used, the place, the year.</footnote>
want everyone to look at me, like: this girl, she has something, she really is someone... Not just "somebody," I mean. (24-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2004)

This work on appearance does more than support “fictitious upward mobility” (Mitchell 1996 [1956], 18). It is also at the very basis of the making of a “stylistic space of cosmopolitanism” (Ferguson 1999, 107) where references to a transnational blackness (Fouquet 2014b) are highly pervasive:

> Man, you should have seen that, I was on top, classy, really stylish! We went to *Le Dolce* [a Dakar night club], there were too many people there! Pam! I stepped in [imitating a model on a podium], there was that sound of Rihanna that I like too much ... [...] I was wearing my pink Kangol cap ... *Teu teu teu*, do you know New York?! I made it the real American way, boy! (23-year-old female, informal discussion in Wolof, Dakar, 2007)

In this context, the particular attention night adventurers pay to appearance goes beyond seduction strategies or eroticization of the body. It can be understood as a way to affirm their social (though fragile) power and, more broadly, their presence in the world: not really from “here” but not actually “elsewhere,” they are, rather, in a crafty, critical and stylized cosmopolitan “middle.” This assertion could resonate with Michel Foucault’s notion of “utopian bodies.” Following Foucault, the makeup and dress codes are “operations by which the body is torn away from its proper space and projected into another space” (2009, 16).

These feelings of being somewhere else and maybe being someone else are made possible and strengthened by participating in nightlife, not only synchronically but also diachronically, that is, when considering “night careers” (*carrières de la nuit*). I thus refer to a social and cultural (l)earning process – by definition practical – that unfolds over the long term. The social skills and savoir-faire that these young women progressively acquire whilst attending the internationalized nocturnal milieux of Dakar allow them to pursue and enforce distinctive practices. This allows the young women to distance themselves from what they label as the “real prosti-tute/hooker” (*caga* in Wolof). In fact, the crucial factor in determining who is the “real hooker” is primarily based on judgments of ignorance, as mentioned by this interlocutor:

> Personally, if I see a real *caga* [hooker], I tell myself that it's a girl who just knows nothing, a real ignorant! Here in Senegal, we say it goes like this: *bala ngay xam, xamadi rey la* [proverb: until you know, ignorance will kill you], it is a way to express that this thing, ignorance, is not good at all. You need to think a lot, you need to understand the situation to be very crafty, otherwise you're going to be the loser. (25-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2004)

More broadly, the problem is to distance themselves from what they see as the typi-cal young Senegalese “who know nothing,” are “not openminded enough” or even “under-developed” (*pas assez évolués*). These subaltern cosmopolitan experiences of the city thus appear, to borrow the terms of Deleuze and Guattari (1975), “immediately-political” (*immédiat-politique*), especially in how they display resis-tance or at least indocility toward local mainstreams and socially assigned positions.
want everyone to look at me, like: this girl, she has something, she really is someone... Not just "somebody," I mean. (24-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2004)

This work on appearance does more than support “fictitious upward mobility” (Mitchell 1996 [1956], 18). It is also at the very basis of the making of a “stylistic space of cosmopolitanism” (Ferguson 1999, 107) where references to a transnational blackness (Fouquet 2014b) are highly pervasive:

> Man, you should have seen that, I was on top, classy, really stylish! We went to *Le Dolce* [a Dakar night club], there were too many people there! Pam! I stepped in [imitating a model on a podium], there was that sound of Rihanna that I like too much ... [...] I was wearing my pink Kangol cap ... *Teu teu teu*, do you know New York?! I made it the real American way, boy! (23-year-old female, informal discussion in Wolof, Dakar, 2007)

In this context, the particular attention night adventurers pay to appearance goes beyond seduction strategies or eroticization of the body. It can be understood as a way to affirm their social (though fragile) power and, more broadly, their presence in the world: not really from “here” but not actually “elsewhere,” they are, rather, in a crafty, critical and stylized cosmopolitan “middle.” This assertion could resonate with Michel Foucault’s notion of “utopian bodies.” Following Foucault, the makeup and dress codes are “operations by which the body is torn away from its proper space and projected into another space” (2009, 16).

These feelings of being somewhere else and maybe being someone else are made possible and strengthened by participating in nightlife, not only synchronically but also diachronically, that is, when considering “night careers” (*carrières de la nuit*). I thus refer to a social and cultural (l)earning process – by definition practical – that unfolds over the long term. The social skills and savoir-faire that these young women progressively acquire whilst attending the internationalized nocturnal milieux of Dakar allow them to pursue and enforce distinctive practices. This allows the young women to distance themselves from what they label as the “real prosthesis/hooker” (*caga* in Wolof). In fact, the crucial factor in determining who is the “real hooker” is primarily based on judgments of ignorance, as mentioned by this interlocutor:

> Personally, if I see a real *caga* [hooker], I tell myself that it's a girl who just knows nothing, a real ignorant! Here in Senegal, we say it goes like this: *bala ngay xam, xamadi rey la* [proverb: until you know, ignorance will kill you], it is a way to express that this thing, ignorance, is not good at all. You need to think a lot, you need to understand the situation to be very crafty, otherwise you're going to be the loser. (25-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2004)

More broadly, the problem is to distance themselves from what they see as the typical young Senegalese “who know nothing,” are “not openminded enough” or even “under-developed” (*pas assez évolués*). These subaltern cosmopolitan experiences of the city thus appear, to borrow the terms of Deleuze and Guattari (1975), “immediately-political” (*immédiat-politique*), especially in how they display resistance or at least indocility toward local mainstreams and socially assigned positions.
## 4.3 Urban Night Cosmopolitics

The social practices and self-narrations depicted above also have concrete translations in Dakar's nocturnal geography. They support a singular mode of being in town characterized mostly by movement. In fact, my interlocutors maintain that they want things to be in motion and, even more, “to go fast”:

> Well, to me, nightlife provides the opportunity not to be stuck in a slow life... I mean, here in Dakar things are so slowwwwwly coming! If you look at most of Dakar girls, well, they stay at their father's house quietly and shyly... After that, they stay at their husband's house... If they happen to find a guy who can marry them, indeed...

> And what will they have seen in their lifetime, aside from the house of Others??! Do they even know this town in which they are born and they grew up, except those interior domestic places I mean? You, you know Dakar far better than them! [...] And are they living their own life, or the life of somebody else?! Personally, I want things to go fast, I want things that give me the feeling of moving forward! One day, if you happen to see me walking in the streets of NYC, baby, just don't be surprised! (26-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2015)

This quotation raises several issues. First, it is significant that past, present and future biographical times are critically related to urban references – near or faraway, closed or opened, actual or potential. These patterns testify not only to the entanglement of imaginaries of time and space in the production of urbanites but allow for the urban night to be considered a “potential space” (Fouquet 2017). According to Donald W. Winnicott, this notion evokes an intermediate zone of experience situated between the inner life of the subject and the surrounding reality. This intermediate zone of experience centers on the question of creativity through which everyone interacts with their social, cultural and material environment by linking it to their intimate world. For Winnicott, creativity consists of a general posture towards existence, “a colouring of the whole attitude to external reality [...] that makes the individual feel that life is worth living.” He adds: “Contrasted with this is a relationship to external reality which is one of compliance: the world and its details being recognized but only as something to be fitted in with or demanding adaptation” (2005 [1971], 87). Investigating the urban night as a cosmopolitan “potential space” implies identifying some local spots that, nightly, take the shape and meaning of a “social elsewhere.” The detailed and concrete observation of these very specific “heterotopias” (Foucault 2009) – both urban and nocturnal, and admitting the wide range of issues and forms they condense in various local contexts – can richly contribute to the debate on cosmopolitanism and its “empirical [urban] turn”.

The issue of “slowness” in the quotation is also significant in how it refers, in a contrasting way, to the different rhythms of the city. According to most of my interlocutors, the nocturnal city is related to a certain idea of social velocity and cultural fertility. Daytime, on the other hand, is associated with collective inertia, a time of restriction. Such representations are widely shared by young people in West Africa who often contrast the rapid pace of globalization with the slowness of their own societies. If this is a common way of criticizing the alleged “backwardness” of
## 4.3 Urban Night Cosmopolitics

The social practices and self-narrations depicted above also have concrete translations in Dakar's nocturnal geography. They support a singular mode of being in town characterized mostly by movement. In fact, my interlocutors maintain that they want things to be in motion and, even more, “to go fast”:

> Well, to me, nightlife provides the opportunity not to be stuck in a slow life... I mean, here in Dakar things are so slowwwwwly coming! If you look at most of Dakar girls, well, they stay at their father's house quietly and shyly... After that, they stay at their husband's house... If they happen to find a guy who can marry them, indeed...

> And what will they have seen in their lifetime, aside from the house of Others??! Do they even know this town in which they are born and they grew up, except those interior domestic places I mean? You, you know Dakar far better than them! [...] And are they living their own life, or the life of somebody else?! Personally, I want things to go fast, I want things that give me the feeling of moving forward! One day, if you happen to see me walking in the streets of NYC, baby, just don't be surprised! (26-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2015)

This quotation raises several issues. First, it is significant that past, present and future biographical times are critically related to urban references – near or faraway, closed or opened, actual or potential. These patterns testify not only to the entanglement of imaginaries of time and space in the production of urbanites but allow for the urban night to be considered a “potential space” (Fouquet 2017). According to Donald W. Winnicott, this notion evokes an intermediate zone of experience situated between the inner life of the subject and the surrounding reality. This intermediate zone of experience centers on the question of creativity through which everyone interacts with their social, cultural and material environment by linking it to their intimate world. For Winnicott, creativity consists of a general posture towards existence, “a colouring of the whole attitude to external reality [...] that makes the individual feel that life is worth living.” He adds: “Contrasted with this is a relationship to external reality which is one of compliance: the world and its details being recognized but only as something to be fitted in with or demanding adaptation” (2005 [1971], 87). Investigating the urban night as a cosmopolitan “potential space” implies identifying some local spots that, nightly, take the shape and meaning of a “social elsewhere.” The detailed and concrete observation of these very specific “heterotopias” (Foucault 2009) – both urban and nocturnal, and admitting the wide range of issues and forms they condense in various local contexts – can richly contribute to the debate on cosmopolitanism and its “empirical [urban] turn”.

The issue of “slowness” in the quotation is also significant in how it refers, in a contrasting way, to the different rhythms of the city. According to most of my interlocutors, the nocturnal city is related to a certain idea of social velocity and cultural fertility. Daytime, on the other hand, is associated with collective inertia, a time of restriction. Such representations are widely shared by young people in West Africa who often contrast the rapid pace of globalization with the slowness of their own societies. If this is a common way of criticizing the alleged “backwardness” of
Africa in the world system, the problem here is not to evaluate whether this “backwardness” is valid or not but rather to understand the “politics of contrasts” that such a valuation reflects.

This clearly resonates with what I have observed in Dakar. Using a biographical approach, I have been able to gauge how much social mobility was at the core of “night careers.” From the very stigmatized small bars up to the trendiest nightclubs, this upward mobility is underpinned by the “cosmopolitan skills” the young women gradually acquire whilst frequenting the internationalized milieus of the Dakar nightscape. What is interesting here is that performing such a cosmopolitan self is, in many respects, a way to challenge social and moral mainstreams that are seen as too “local” and “outdated.” The assertion of global cultural abilities provides leverage for critical postures towards the local living conditions.

More broadly, night adventurers assert themselves as modern and cosmopolitan urban subjects by occupying unconventional places and times in the city. This is, paradoxically, how they gain the feeling of really being part of the city and of living an authentic urban experience, even if it is one *always already* linked to a desired elsewhere. For most of my interlocutors, going out nightly is a way of reaching a larger world – even by proxy. This is the case, in particular, with trendy, cosmopolitan nightclubs. As an interlocutor, Zeyna, once told me:

> When I see the new nightclubs, I tell myself that Senegal is on its way to development. It is in those places that you really see the changes ... not when staying at home, I mean. You see everything that is new: the sounds, design, clothing, dance ... Everything. And then you feel that Senegal is up-to-date. It makes me proud, in a way. [...] In some places, I feel ... I don't know ... like I am a tourist visiting unknown places. [Laughter] You know, in Senegal, we have this proverb: "*Ku du toxu doo xam fu dëkk neexe*" [who never moves can't know where it's good to live] ... That means ... you must be curious in life, you must travel, whatever. (24-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2008)

All this occurs in a wider context of a large number of Senegalese youths expressing the desire to migrate. Traveling abroad is a crucial issue; migration appears as a major, if not unique, social lever of self-improvement for young Africans largely stuck in “waithood” (Honwana 2012). In this respect, we can also rely on Zygmunt Bauman’s idea that “mobility climbs to the rank of the uppermost among the coveted values – and freedom to move, perpetually a scarce and unequally distributed commodity, fast becomes the main stratifying factor of our late-modern or postmodern times. [...] Being local in a globalized world is a sign of social deprivation and degradation” (1998, 2). In line with this “culture of migration,” so-called “subaltern” and “ordinary cosmopolitanisms” (Zeng 2014; Lamont and Aksartova 2002) in many African contexts can be viewed as describing the condition of non-mobile individuals – that is, those (the vast majority, in fact) who are incapable of traveling abroad despite intense desires to do so.

In this respect, the usages of the nocturnal city provide an image of a cosmopolitanism that unfolds both *temporarily* and *by contrast*, that is, relating in both cases to a time marker which underlies deep urban reconfigurations. This idea is to be understood in different and yet complementary ways. One might immediately refer to the contrasting temporalities of the city (alternating day and night time). But this
Africa in the world system, the problem here is not to evaluate whether this “backwardness” is valid or not but rather to understand the “politics of contrasts” that such a valuation reflects.

This clearly resonates with what I have observed in Dakar. Using a biographical approach, I have been able to gauge how much social mobility was at the core of “night careers.” From the very stigmatized small bars up to the trendiest nightclubs, this upward mobility is underpinned by the “cosmopolitan skills” the young women gradually acquire whilst frequenting the internationalized milieus of the Dakar nightscape. What is interesting here is that performing such a cosmopolitan self is, in many respects, a way to challenge social and moral mainstreams that are seen as too “local” and “outdated.” The assertion of global cultural abilities provides leverage for critical postures towards the local living conditions.

More broadly, night adventurers assert themselves as modern and cosmopolitan urban subjects by occupying unconventional places and times in the city. This is, paradoxically, how they gain the feeling of really being part of the city and of living an authentic urban experience, even if it is one *always already* linked to a desired elsewhere. For most of my interlocutors, going out nightly is a way of reaching a larger world – even by proxy. This is the case, in particular, with trendy, cosmopolitan nightclubs. As an interlocutor, Zeyna, once told me:

> When I see the new nightclubs, I tell myself that Senegal is on its way to development. It is in those places that you really see the changes ... not when staying at home, I mean. You see everything that is new: the sounds, design, clothing, dance ... Everything. And then you feel that Senegal is up-to-date. It makes me proud, in a way. [...] In some places, I feel ... I don't know ... like I am a tourist visiting unknown places. [Laughter] You know, in Senegal, we have this proverb: "*Ku du toxu doo xam fu dèkk neexe*" [who never moves can't know where it's good to live] ... That means ... you must be curious in life, you must travel, whatever. (24-year-old female, interview in Wolof and French, Dakar, 2008)

All this occurs in a wider context of a large number of Senegalese youths expressing the desire to migrate. Traveling abroad is a crucial issue; migration appears as a major, if not unique, social lever of self-improvement for young Africans largely stuck in “waithood” (Honwana 2012). In this respect, we can also rely on Zygmunt Bauman’s idea that “mobility climbs to the rank of the uppermost among the coveted values – and freedom to move, perpetually a scarce and unequally distributed commodity, fast becomes the main stratifying factor of our late-modern or postmodern times. [...] Being local in a globalized world is a sign of social deprivation and degradation” (1998, 2). In line with this “culture of migration,” so-called “subaltern” and “ordinary cosmopolitanisms” (Zeng 2014; Lamont and Aksartova 2002) in many African contexts can be viewed as describing the condition of non-mobile individuals – that is, those (the vast majority, in fact) who are incapable of traveling abroad despite intense desires to do so.

In this respect, the usages of the nocturnal city provide an image of a cosmopolitanism that unfolds both *temporarily* and *by contrast*, that is, relating in both cases to a time marker which underlies deep urban reconfigurations. This idea is to be understood in different and yet complementary ways. One might immediately refer to the contrasting temporalities of the city (alternating day and night time). But this
somehow “natural” boundary articulates strong social, cultural and even political issues. Indeed, the urban night scenes bring together a mix of individuals from highly diverse social, economic, and geographical origins: local populations, migrants or visitors from other African countries, as well as Europeans, Asians, North-Americans and so on. In these places, moreover, gender barriers, while not disappearing, are reorganized. We can acknowledge that this temporary cosmopolitanism depends on urban nocturnal transformations and thus sets itself against the stricter social segmentation of the diurnal city. In other words, while the night lays a veil of globality and “cosmopolity” on the experiences of the city, it mirrors critical assessments toward the diurnal city and, by extension, against the local living conditions that are seen and often lived under a sensation of closure and hindrance. One thus gets a sense that the very idea of a cosmopolitanism by contrast is inherently political, or at least that it contains strong critical effects.

What may be described here in general terms as “grassroots cosmopolitics” (Fouquet 2018) raises the question of resistance and its infrapolitical lineaments. It seems quite obvious that the social trajectories of night adventurers are not, in the strictest sense, political. For sure, these young women do not seek to transform systemic local and global domination; they also do not display any kind of formal politicization. Yet this difficult question raises several issues. The first concerns the social judgments and moral denunciations that these female trajectories focus in Senegal. I would argue that these social and moral controversies have a cosmopolitical significance. The “night girls” are generally presented as emblematic of the disorders of modernity and, more precisely, embodiments of the culturally deleterious effects of globalization. The dominant social discourse in Senegal denounces these young women for being Westernized, thus suffering from some kind of inferiority complex – the “complex of the post-colonized.” They are seen as shameful and pale copies of Westerners, allegedly made visible by “fason Toubab” (“behaving like a European/White person”). More generally, their attitudes, their manner of dressing and talking, the places they frequent and people they meet are brought out to argue that these “night girls” lack any kind of reflexivity or critical understanding of the foreign cultural models they seem to adore. These social judgments claim that the “night girls” are caught in a cultural gap which is also a moral trap. These views rely on a certain historical understanding rooted in the colonial experience and in the nationalist meta-narratives emerging from the struggle for independence. As such, these narratives organize a prescriptive moral framework with regard to such contested terms as “Africanity” and “modernity.”

I would argue that the night adventurers in Dakar are *de facto* involved in debates on modernity and Africanity. This is not to assert an essentialized “African” or “Senegalese modernity.” Rather, I wish to emphasize the need to consider modernity, as well as cosmopolitanism, in the light of socially and materially rooted narratives. These terms should also be regarded as terrains of contestation: as repertoires through which one can take a distance from certain types of social assignments whilst asserting one’s own version of what is or should be a good life, the best way to manage one’s present and future. As it concerns my interlocutors in Dakar, the lack of power that they can rely on means that the use of their bodies, of seduction
somehow “natural” boundary articulates strong social, cultural and even political issues. Indeed, the urban night scenes bring together a mix of individuals from highly diverse social, economic, and geographical origins: local populations, migrants or visitors from other African countries, as well as Europeans, Asians, North-Americans and so on. In these places, moreover, gender barriers, while not disappearing, are reorganized. We can acknowledge that this temporary cosmopolitanism depends on urban nocturnal transformations and thus sets itself against the stricter social segmentation of the diurnal city. In other words, while the night lays a veil of globality and “cosmopolity” on the experiences of the city, it mirrors critical assessments toward the diurnal city and, by extension, against the local living conditions that are seen and often lived under a sensation of closure and hindrance. One thus gets a sense that the very idea of a cosmopolitanism *by contrast* is inherently political, or at least that it contains strong critical effects.

What may be described here in general terms as “grassroots cosmopolitics” (Fouquet 2018) raises the question of resistance and its infrapolitical lineaments. It seems quite obvious that the social trajectories of night adventurers are not, in the strictest sense, political. For sure, these young women do not seek to transform systemic local and global domination; they also do not display any kind of formal politicization. Yet this difficult question raises several issues. The first concerns the social judgments and moral denunciations that these female trajectories focus in Senegal. I would argue that these social and moral controversies have a cosmopolitical significance. The “night girls” are generally presented as emblematic of the disorders of modernity and, more precisely, embodiments of the culturally deleterious effects of globalization. The dominant social discourse in Senegal denounces these young women for being Westernized, thus suffering from some kind of inferiority complex – the “complex of the post-colonized.” They are seen as shameful and pale copies of Westerners, allegedly made visible by “fason Toubab” (“behaving like a European/White person”). More generally, their attitudes, their manner of dressing and talking, the places they frequent and people they meet are brought out to argue that these “night girls” lack any kind of reflexivity or critical understanding of the foreign cultural models they seem to adore. These social judgments claim that the “night girls” are caught in a cultural gap which is also a moral trap. These views rely on a certain historical understanding rooted in the colonial experience and in the nationalist meta-narratives emerging from the struggle for independence. As such, these narratives organize a prescriptive moral framework with regard to such contested terms as “Africanity” and “modernity.”

I would argue that the night adventurers in Dakar are *de facto* involved in debates on modernity and Africanity. This is not to assert an essentialized “African” or “Senegalese modernity.” Rather, I wish to emphasize the need to consider modernity, as well as cosmopolitanism, in the light of socially and materially rooted narratives. These terms should also be regarded as terrains of contestation: as repertoires through which one can take a distance from certain types of social assignments whilst asserting one’s own version of what is or should be a good life, the best way to manage one’s present and future. As it concerns my interlocutors in Dakar, the lack of power that they can rely on means that the use of their bodies, of seduction
and sexuality, as well as the ubiquitous concern with personal style, appear as con-
ditions of possibility for repositioning themselves in power relations by mobilizing
the arguments of cosmopolitanism in contrast to an allegedly “backward” local con-
text. Once again, it is about “being cosmopolitan rather than…”.

In this manner, these concrete experiences of cosmopolitanism delimitate first
and foremost a space of resistance and/or indocility. They thus cannot be confined
to a simplistic diagnostic of shameful Westernization, mimicry, self-depreciation
and so on. These are all clues to understanding how young women get involved in
contradictory debates on modernity and Africanity and, in particular, how “style” is
used far beyond the simple desire to be fashionable. This is another argument in
favor of a cosmopolitical analysis of the urban night: it is constructed as a potential
space, a time space where the dual register of the “real” and of the “possible” is, in
some ways, redesigned. The “real,” on the one hand, refers to the finiteness of what
has actually happened. In turn, the “possible” situates this reality in a much broader
horizon of past, present and future potentialities. This discussion is closely linked to
Arjun Appadurai’s proposition about the importance of the work of imagination:
“lives today are as much acts of projection and imagination as they are enactments
of known scripts or predictable outcomes” (1996, 61).

We now can get to what can be considered the main feature of the nighttime: the
fact that it participates in a strengthening of the role of imagination. It is, in a way,
the work of the imagination is the real “plus”, thus following Henri Bergson’s
(1938) analysis of the relationship between the “real and the possible”.<fnref n="2" /> From this
point of view, the fundamental virtue of the night is to bring along a regime of inde-
terminacy and unpredictability. This can be understood notably from a very intimate
point of view as the sensory experience of the nocturnal is characterized by deep
transformations in our ways of seeing, touching, smelling, feeling, etc. In fact, the
nocturnal city, along with its specific infrastructures and ambiances, reshapes our
relationship to “reality.” But nighttime also carries out a kind of social, moral and
political indeterminacy, as the dominant norms are altered or at least reconfigured.
And, on the whole, all of this situates the nocturnal experiments within the realm of
the potential, whereas daytime is seen as something basically predictable.

Moreover, according to my interlocutors in Dakar, daytime reality is assimilated
to a subtraction: it refers neither to what is actually happening nor to what is prob-
ably going to happen. In fact, reality is above and before all what seems to be pre-
excluded, or excluded a priori, from the realm of possibilities. In this respect, the
construction of the urban night as a potential space refers to the idea of seeking an
alternative mode of experimentation and personal achievement. The problem is
surely not to infer an ability to totally avoid or eliminate constraints; rather, it is, in
my mind, a matter of finding a way to negotiate difficulties and dealing creatively
with them. In this sense, night potentialities somehow challenge what is seen as

<footnote n="2">²Bergson (1938) notably suggests that the possible is more than the real as it superimposes an act of the mind over the reality. In other words, the possible is the real “plus” an act of the mind (“une opération de la pensée”).</footnote>
and sexuality, as well as the ubiquitous concern with personal style, appear as con-
ditions of possibility for repositioning themselves in power relations by mobilizing
the arguments of cosmopolitanism in contrast to an allegedly “backward” local con-
text. Once again, it is about “being cosmopolitan rather than…”.

In this manner, these concrete experiences of cosmopolitanism delimitate first
and foremost a space of resistance and/or indocility. They thus cannot be confined
to a simplistic diagnostic of shameful Westernization, mimicry, self-depreciation
and so on. These are all clues to understanding how young women get involved in
contradictory debates on modernity and Africanity and, in particular, how “style” is
used far beyond the simple desire to be fashionable. This is another argument in
favor of a cosmopolitical analysis of the urban night: it is constructed as a potential
space, a time space where the dual register of the “real” and of the “possible” is, in
some ways, redesigned. The “real,” on the one hand, refers to the finiteness of what
has actually happened. In turn, the “possible” situates this reality in a much broader
horizon of past, present and future potentialities. This discussion is closely linked to
Arjun Appadurai’s proposition about the importance of the work of imagination:
“lives today are as much acts of projection and imagination as they are enactments
of known scripts or predictable outcomes” (1996, 61).

We now can get to what can be considered the main feature of the nighttime: the
fact that it participates in a strengthening of the role of imagination. It is, in a way,
the work of the imagination is the real “plus”, thus following Henri Bergson’s
(1938) analysis of the relationship between the “real and the possible”.<fnref n="2" /> From this
point of view, the fundamental virtue of the night is to bring along a regime of inde-
terminacy and unpredictability. This can be understood notably from a very intimate
point of view as the sensory experience of the nocturnal is characterized by deep
transformations in our ways of seeing, touching, smelling, feeling, etc. In fact, the
nocturnal city, along with its specific infrastructures and ambiances, reshapes our
relationship to “reality.” But nighttime also carries out a kind of social, moral and
political indeterminacy, as the dominant norms are altered or at least reconfigured.
And, on the whole, all of this situates the nocturnal experiments within the realm of
the potential, whereas daytime is seen as something basically predictable.

Moreover, according to my interlocutors in Dakar, daytime reality is assimilated
to a subtraction: it refers neither to what is actually happening nor to what is prob-
ably going to happen. In fact, reality is above and before all what seems to be pre-
excluded, or excluded a priori, from the realm of possibilities. In this respect, the
construction of the urban night as a potential space refers to the idea of seeking an
alternative mode of experimentation and personal achievement. The problem is
surely not to infer an ability to totally avoid or eliminate constraints; rather, it is, in
my mind, a matter of finding a way to negotiate difficulties and dealing creatively
with them. In this sense, night potentialities somehow challenge what is seen as

<footnote n="2">²Bergson (1938) notably suggests that the possible is more than the real as it superimposes an act of the mind over the reality. In other words, the possible is the real “plus” an act of the mind (“une opération de la pensée”).</footnote>
daytime finiteness and predictability. Participation in nightlife thus appears as a way of negotiating uncertainty by exploring its “productivity” (Cooper and Pratten 2015).

## 4.4 Conclusion: Cosmopolitanism as a Posture, the City as Accomplice

It seems quite obvious that participating in (and composing) a cosmopolitan life-style has an economic and social cost that not everyone can afford. Hence, the problem must be considered upstream, according to the meaning ascribed to the notion of cosmopolitanism itself. If we consider it primarily as a *condition*, according to some criteria viewed as representative of a kind of minimum program (global mobility, possession of certain property/wealth and access to certain social spheres), then it remains largely exclusive. Cosmopolitanism points, broadly, to a small elite, remaining inseparable from the possession of capital, not only economical but also cultural and social.

But on the other hand, if we look at cosmopolitanism as a *posture*, the question becomes at once more complex, less clear-cut, but perhaps more heuristic. By cosmopolitan as a posture, I mean a way of being in the world and in society, a way to formulate aspirations and to express commitment to certain images and ideas of the good life, success and prestige. This is a way to define the value of things and individuals, to prioritize some ways of being and behaving. In this respect, the question arises as to which “jury” evaluates one’s cosmopolitan credibility and social value. In line with some analyses presented in this chapter, it should be emphasized that the value (whether that of an object or an individual) does not exist in itself but is always negotiated in and through relationships: there are only *politics* of value (Appadurai 1986). On an ethnographic level, there is still room for studies on the tricks deployed by “subordinates” to capture “the exteriority upon which the dominant base their power” (Bayart 1999), and on the alternative ways “subordinates” assert their membership in “world society” (Ferguson 2002) as actors, rather than powerless spectators. Indeed, one can well imagine that an individual may not be socially recognized or identified as “cosmopolitan” (due to not possessing both the material and symbolical arguments that constitute such a “condition”) but still conceive him or herself as such, organizing his or her according to what is perceived as modern and cosmopolitan. The consequences induced by these self-identifications are by no means negligible, and there is no reason why we should not grant them real attention insofar as they mirror the desires of individuals and underlie specific processes of subjectivation. In any case, these cosmopolitan aspirants, or “wan nabes,” can be regarded as an integral part of the current discussions on cosmopolitanism. At this point, it is of interest to remember what Georg Simmel said about the “fashionable person” and put in its place the “cosmopolitan individual”:

> The cosmopolitan individual [fashionable person] is regarded with mingled feelings of approval and envy; we envy him as an individual but approve of him as a member of a set
daytime finiteness and predictability. Participation in nightlife thus appears as a way of negotiating uncertainty by exploring its “productivity” (Cooper and Pratten 2015).

## 4.4 Conclusion: Cosmopolitanism as a Posture, the City as Accomplice

It seems quite obvious that participating in (and composing) a cosmopolitan life-style has an economic and social cost that not everyone can afford. Hence, the problem must be considered upstream, according to the meaning ascribed to the notion of cosmopolitanism itself. If we consider it primarily as a *condition*, according to some criteria viewed as representative of a kind of minimum program (global mobility, possession of certain property/wealth and access to certain social spheres), then it remains largely exclusive. Cosmopolitanism points, broadly, to a small elite, remaining inseparable from the possession of capital, not only economical but also cultural and social.

But on the other hand, if we look at cosmopolitanism as a *posture*, the question becomes at once more complex, less clear-cut, but perhaps more heuristic. By cosmopolitan as a posture, I mean a way of being in the world and in society, a way to formulate aspirations and to express commitment to certain images and ideas of the good life, success and prestige. This is a way to define the value of things and individuals, to prioritize some ways of being and behaving. In this respect, the question arises as to which “jury” evaluates one’s cosmopolitan credibility and social value. In line with some analyses presented in this chapter, it should be emphasized that the value (whether that of an object or an individual) does not exist in itself but is always negotiated in and through relationships: there are only *politics* of value (Appadurai 1986). On an ethnographic level, there is still room for studies on the tricks deployed by “subordinates” to capture “the exteriority upon which the dominant base their power” (Bayart 1999), and on the alternative ways “subordinates” assert their membership in “world society” (Ferguson 2002) as actors, rather than powerless spectators. Indeed, one can well imagine that an individual may not be socially recognized or identified as “cosmopolitan” (due to not possessing both the material and symbolical arguments that constitute such a “condition”) but still conceive him or herself as such, organizing his or her according to what is perceived as modern and cosmopolitan. The consequences induced by these self-identifications are by no means negligible, and there is no reason why we should not grant them real attention insofar as they mirror the desires of individuals and underlie specific processes of subjectivation. In any case, these cosmopolitan aspirants, or “wan nabes,” can be regarded as an integral part of the current discussions on cosmopolitanism. At this point, it is of interest to remember what Georg Simmel said about the “fashionable person” and put in its place the “cosmopolitan individual”:

> The cosmopolitan individual [fashionable person] is regarded with mingled feelings of approval and envy; we envy him as an individual but approve of him as a member of a set
or group. Yet even this envy has a peculiar coloring. There is a shade of envy which includes a species of ideal participation in the envied object itself. [...] The moment we envy an object or a person, we are no longer absolutely excluded from it. (Simmel 1989 [1904], 133)

Following this idea of envy as an ideational or embryonic expression of ownership and belonging, it can be argued that the paradigm of “lèche vitrine” – the frustrated spectator who is unable to go through the mirror or to acquire what she or he longs – supports a fundamentally simplistic interpretation of the “arts of being global” (Ong and Roy 2011) of African youth. Of course, individual expressions or postures that assert themselves as cosmopolitan are not all identical to “the” cosmopolitanism that serves as a title of nobility for transnationalized elites. This does not invalidate these individual expressions or postures but rather is an invitation to highlight the plurality and heterogeneity of cosmopolitanism as a field of study.

It seems quite clear that the alternative social trajectories led by the “night adventurers” in Dakar constitute solid examples of crafty and fundamentally vitalized cosmopolitan experiences. These young women surely demonstrate an art of being-in-town that is at the same time an art of being-in-the-world, the body, the city and the imaginary as accomplices. Moreover, they encourage us to follow the (sometimes harsh) small and winding paths paved with the fictions of the self and the multiple opportunities the city offers, rather than the comfortable ballads suggested by the meta-narratives of modernity (Englund and Leach 2000). The metropolis, and perhaps especially at night, is full of these small arteries that no map mentions.

## References

Appadurai, A. (Ed.). (1986). *The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Appadurai, A. (1996). *Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Bauman, Z. (1998). *Globalization: The human consequences*. New York: Columbia University Press.

Bayart, J.-F. (1999). L'Afrique dans le monde: une histoire d'extraversion. *Critique internationale*, **5**, 97-120.

Bergson, H. (1938). *La pensée et le mouvant*. Paris: PUF.

Bredeloup, S. 2014. *Migrations d'aventures. Terrains africains*. Paris: Éditions du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques.

Calhoun, C. (2002). The class consciousness of frequent travelers: Toward a critique of actually existing cosmopolitanism. *South Atlantic Quarterly*, *101*(4), 869–897.

Cooper, E., & Pratten, D. (2015). *Ethnographies of uncertainty in Africa*. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Delueze, G., & Guattari, F. (1975). *Kafka: pour une littérature mineure*. Paris: PUF.

Diouf, M. (2013). Les jeunes dakarois, la scène urbaine et le temps du monde à la fin du XXe siècle. In M. Diouf & R. Fredericks (Eds.), *Les arts de la citoyenneté au Sénégal* (pp. 49-91). Paris: Karthala.

Englund, H., & Leach, J. (2000). Ethnography and the meta-narratives of modernity. *Current Anthropology*, *41*(2), 225–248.

Feldman, F. (2002). The good life: A defense of attitudinal hedonism. *Philosophy and Phenomenological Research*, *65*(3), 604–628.
or group. Yet even this envy has a peculiar coloring. There is a shade of envy which includes a species of ideal participation in the envied object itself. [...] The moment we envy an object or a person, we are no longer absolutely excluded from it. (Simmel 1989 [1904], 133)

Following this idea of envy as an ideational or embryonic expression of ownership and belonging, it can be argued that the paradigm of “lèche vitrine” – the frustrated spectator who is unable to go through the mirror or to acquire what she or he longs – supports a fundamentally simplistic interpretation of the “arts of being global” (Ong and Roy 2011) of African youth. Of course, individual expressions or postures that assert themselves as cosmopolitan are not all identical to “the” cosmopolitanism that serves as a title of nobility for transnationalized elites. This does not invalidate these individual expressions or postures but rather is an invitation to highlight the plurality and heterogeneity of cosmopolitanism as a field of study.

It seems quite clear that the alternative social trajectories led by the “night adventurers” in Dakar constitute solid examples of crafty and fundamentally vitalized cosmopolitan experiences. These young women surely demonstrate an art of being-in-town that is at the same time an art of being-in-the-world, the body, the city and the imaginary as accomplices. Moreover, they encourage us to follow the (sometimes harsh) small and winding paths paved with the fictions of the self and the multiple opportunities the city offers, rather than the comfortable ballads suggested by the meta-narratives of modernity (Englund and Leach 2000). The metropolis, and perhaps especially at night, is full of these small arteries that no map mentions.

## References

Appadurai, A. (Ed.). (1986). *The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Appadurai, A. (1996). *Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization*. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Bauman, Z. (1998). *Globalization: The human consequences*. New York: Columbia University Press.

Bayart, J.-F. (1999). L'Afrique dans le monde: une histoire d'extraversion. *Critique internationale*, **5**, 97-120.

Bergson, H. (1938). *La pensée et le mouvant*. Paris: PUF.

Bredeloup, S. 2014. *Migrations d'aventures. Terrains africains*. Paris: Éditions du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques.

Calhoun, C. (2002). The class consciousness of frequent travelers: Toward a critique of actually existing cosmopolitanism. *South Atlantic Quarterly*, **101**(4), 869–897.

Cooper, E., & Pratten, D. (2015). *Ethnographies of uncertainty in Africa*. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Delueze, G., & Guattari, F. (1975). *Kafka: pour une littérature mineure*. Paris: PUF.

Diouf, M. (2013). Les jeunes dakarois, la scène urbaine et le temps du monde à la fin du XXe siècle. In M. Diouf & R. Fredericks (Eds.), *Les arts de la citoyenneté au Sénégal* (pp. 49-91). Paris: Karthala.

Englund, H., & Leach, J. (2000). Ethnography and the meta-narratives of modernity. *Current Anthropology*, **41**(2), 225-248.

Feldman, F. (2002). The good life: A defense of attitudinal hedonism. *Philosophy and Phenomenological Research*, **65**(3), 604-628.
Ferguson, J. (1999). *Expectations of modernity: Myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt*. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Ferguson, J. (2002). Of mimicry and membership: Africans and the New World Society. *Cultural Anthropology*, 17(4), 551–569.

Fouquet, M. (2009). *Le corps utopique. Les heterotopies*. Paris: Editions Lignes.

Fouquet, T. (2008). Migrations et ‘glocalisation’ dakaroises. In M. C. Diop (Ed.), *Le Sénégal des migrations. Mobilités, identités et sociétés* (pp. 241–273). Paris: Karthala/Crepos.

Fouquet, T. (2014a). La clandestinité comme stratégie. Sur la sexualité transactionnelle à Dakar. In C. Broqua & C. Deschamps (Eds.), *L'échange économique sexuel* (pp. 125–152). Paris: EHESS.

Fouquet, T. (2014b). Penser la *Blackness* depuis le continent africain : un renversement heuristique. *Politique africaine*, 136, 5–19.

Fouquet, T. (2017). La nuit urbaine, un espace potential ? Hypothèses dakaroises. *Cultures & Conflits*, 105-106, 83-97.

Fouquet, T. (2018). Grassroots Cosmopolitics: Critical notes on a cosmopolitan Africa. *African Identities*, 16(2), 219–230.

Geschiere, P., & Rowlands, M. (1996). The domestication of modernity: Different trajectories. *Africa*, *66*(4), 552–554.

Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture. *Theory, Culture & Society*, 7, 237–251.

Honwana, A. (2012). *The time of youth: Work, social change and politics in Africa*. Sterling: Kumarian Press.

Lamont, M., & Aksartova, S. (2002). Ordinary cosmopolitanisms: Strategies for bridging racial boundaries among working-class men. *Theory, Culture & Society*, 19(4), 1–25.

Mbembe, A. (2006). La colonie : son petit secret et sa part Maudite. *Politique africaine*, 102, 101–127.

Mitchell, C. (1996 [1956]). The Kalela Dance / La danse du kalela. Aspects des relations sociales chez les citadins africains en Rhodésie du Nord. Trans. M. Agier & S. Nahrath. *Enquête*, 4(éditions Parenthèses), 213–243.

Ong, A., & Roy, A. (Eds.). (2011). *Worlding cities. Asian experiments and the art of being global*. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sassen, S. (2010). Cityness: Roaming thoughts about making and experiencing cityness. *Ex aequo*, 22, 13–18 (online).

Simmel, G. (1989 [1904]). La mode. In *Philosophie de la Modernité*. Trans. J.-L. Vieillard-Barron. Paris: Payot.

Winnicott, D. W. (2005 [1971]). *Playing and reality*. London: Routledge.

Zeng, M. (2014). Subaltern cosmopolitanism: Concept and approaches. *The Sociological Review*, 62(1), 137–148.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>
Ferguson, J. (1999). *Expectations of modernity: Myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt*. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Ferguson, J. (2002). Of mimicry and membership: Africans and the New World Society. *Cultural Anthropology*, 17(4), 551–569.

Fouquet, M. (2009). *Le corps utopique. Les heterotopies*. Paris: Editions Lignes.

Fouquet, T. (2008). Migrations et ‘glocalisation’ dakaroises. In M. C. Diop (Ed.), *Le Sénégal des migrations. Mobilités, identités et sociétés* (pp. 241–273). Paris: Karthala/Crepos.

Fouquet, T. (2014a). La clandestinité comme stratégie. Sur la sexualité transactionnelle à Dakar. In C. Broqua & C. Deschamps (Eds.), *L'échange économique sexuel* (pp. 125–152). Paris: EHESS.

Fouquet, T. (2014b). Penser la *Blackness* depuis le continent africain : un renversement heuristique. *Politique africaine*, 136, 5–19.

Fouquet, T. (2017). La nuit urbaine, un espace potential ? Hypothèses dakaroises. *Cultures & Conflits*, 105–106, 83–97.

Fouquet, T. (2018). Grassroots Cosmopolitics: Critical notes on a cosmopolitan Africa. *African Identities*, 16(2), 219–230.

Geschiere, P., & Rowlands, M. (1996). The domestication of modernity: Different trajectories. *Africa*, 66(4), 552–554.

Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture. *Theory, Culture & Society*, 7, 237–251.

Honwana, A. (2012). *The time of youth: Work, social change and politics in Africa*. Sterling: Kumarian Press.

Lamont, M., & Aksartova, S. (2002). Ordinary cosmopolitanisms: Strategies for bridging racial boundaries among working-class men. *Theory, Culture & Society*, 19(4), 1–25.

Mbembe, A. (2006). La colonie : son petit secret et sa part Maudite. *Politique africaine*, 102, 101–127.

Mitchell, C. (1996 [1956]). The Kalela Dance / La danse du kalela. Aspects des relations sociales chez les citadins africains en Rhodésie du Nord. Trans. M. Agier & S. Nahrath. *Enquête*, 4(éditions Parenthèses), 213–243.

Ong, A., & Roy, A. (Eds.). (2011). *Worlding cities. Asian experiments and the art of being global*. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sassen, S. (2010). Cityness: Roaming thoughts about making and experiencing cityness. *Ex aequo*, 22, 13–18 (online).

Simmel, G. (1989 [1904]). La mode. In *Philosophie de la Modernité*. Trans. J.-L. Vieillard-Barron. Paris: Payot.

Winnicott, D. W. (2005 [1971]). *Playing and reality*. London: Routledge.

Zeng, M. (2014). Subaltern cosmopolitanism: Concept and approaches. *The Sociological Review*, 62(1), 137–148.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

# Chapter 5
## Urban Cosmopolitanisms in the Arab World: Contributing to Theoretical Debates from the Middle East

Franck Mermier

### 5.1 Introduction

A positive re-evaluation of the idea of cosmopolitanism has taken place in recent years, particularly in the field of anthropology. As Michel Agier has shown in *La Condition cosmopolite* (2013), cosmopolitanism is a way of revising notions of identity and national borders. Yet the shared experience of the “cosmopolitan condition as the fact of living in the here and now (locally), but with an imagined wider world as both the condition of that life and a way beyond it” (97) described by Agier is no longer restricted to a small, internationally mobile elite associated with globalization. Pnina Werbner supports this assertion when stating that a vernacular, historically and spatially situated version of cosmopolitanism must be put at the core of anthropology. In her view, cosmopolitan spaces “are trans-ethnic, collectively emergent ‘worlds,’ shared discourses that transcend cultural boundaries and parochial lifestyles. According to this definition, a cosmopolitan is a person who actively belongs to, participates in and contributes to the creation of such trans-ethnic cultural and ideological worlds” (2008, 50).<fnref n="1" />

City-based cosmopolitanism has other connotations related to the ethnic, religious or cultural diversity of the urban environment. Whether considered diachronically or synchronically, this type of cosmopolitanism has existed in various forms, covering communities that are open or segregated from one another to a greater or lesser extent. These various forms of urban cosmopolitanism are often seen as determining or altering the urban character of the cities concerned, functioning as a differentiating factor.

<footnote n="1">¹See also her introduction to that volume.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

# Chapter 5
## Urban Cosmopolitanisms in the Arab World: Contributing to Theoretical Debates from the Middle East

Franck Mermier

### 5.1 Introduction

A positive re-evaluation of the idea of cosmopolitanism has taken place in recent years, particularly in the field of anthropology. As Michel Agier has shown in *La Condition cosmopolite* (2013), cosmopolitanism is a way of revising notions of identity and national borders. Yet the shared experience of the “cosmopolitan condition as the fact of living in the here and now (locally), but with an imagined wider world as both the condition of that life and a way beyond it” (97) described by Agier is no longer restricted to a small, internationally mobile elite associated with globalization. Pnina Werbner supports this assertion when stating that a vernacular, historically and spatially situated version of cosmopolitanism must be put at the core of anthropology. In her view, cosmopolitan spaces “are trans-ethnic, collectively emergent ‘worlds,’ shared discourses that transcend cultural boundaries and parochial lifestyles. According to this definition, a cosmopolitan is a person who actively belongs to, participates in and contributes to the creation of such trans-ethnic cultural and ideological worlds” (2008, 50).<fnref n="1" />

City-based cosmopolitanism has other connotations related to the ethnic, religious or cultural diversity of the urban environment. Whether considered diachronically or synchronically, this type of cosmopolitanism has existed in various forms, covering communities that are open or segregated from one another to a greater or lesser extent. These various forms of urban cosmopolitanism are often seen as determining or altering the urban character of the cities concerned, functioning as a differentiating factor.

<footnote n="1">¹See also her introduction to that volume.</footnote>
This chapter is situated in a broader discussion on cosmopolitanism and cities in the Arab Middle East. It echoes the recent scientific interest for cities in the Arab world which reflects the urban turn that has taken place in anthropology and the social sciences in general. The urban turn has had extremely positive effects by bringing fruitful comparisons within the Arab world and across regions, leading to new perspectives for the study of cosmopolitanism. Cities in the Arab Middle East form an interurban constellation of contrasting contexts. They are interconnected and complementary. Looking into urban settings in the Arab world leads to various sociological, anthropological, and geographic questions: what are the concrete forms of social identification in Arab cities? How do social interactions unfold in such contexts? How are gender, class or ethnic relations shaped in urban environments? As the combined relevance of social roles and spaces translate into different modes across contexts, this chapter will particularly focus on the case of Aden (Yemen) under British occupation. If much has been written on the cosmopolitanism of Mediterranean cities, few analytic endeavours have been undertaken to study the urban cosmopolitanism in the pre-oil era Arabian Peninsula (Fuccaro 2009). The case of Aden is particularly well-suited to highlighting an example of segregated cosmopolitanism which engendered a new urban identity based upon exclusive citizenship. This has led to violent struggles in and for the city between rival political groups. Aden also exemplifies the power of nostalgia through the selective remembrance of an idealized cosmopolitanism.

## 5.2 The End of Colonial Cosmopolitanism

For Arab cities, marketplaces have often been seen as public spaces *par excellence* by exhibiting forms of ethnic and religious diversity that are held together by commerce (Mermier 2011). The figure of the merchant as a nodal point in networks of urban space is also familiar from the cosmopolitanism of Mediterranean cities during the Ottoman era.<fnref n="2" /> Much research, mostly marked by a nostalgia for a period believed to have been a model of community co-existence, has been carried out on these spaces. Such city cosmopolitanism has been described as

> a complex urban system open to universal values and the outside world and bringing together different communities that were termed ethnicities, peoples, or nations, according to the places concerned and the vocabulary of the time. The cosmopolitan city offers a variegated social and cultural landscape, which entails a way of living the city and of living in the city. (Escallier 2003)

The inhabitants of the Near East were supposed to embody this condition of “urban cosmopolitanism” thanks to their remarkable adaptive capacity.

<footnote n="2">²For criticisms of this idea and of seeing entire cities in terms of cosmopolitanism, when strictly speaking the term should only apply to individuals, see Gekas 2009, 104.</footnote>
This chapter is situated in a broader discussion on cosmopolitanism and cities in the Arab Middle East. It echoes the recent scientific interest for cities in the Arab world which reflects the urban turn that has taken place in anthropology and the social sciences in general. The urban turn has had extremely positive effects by bringing fruitful comparisons within the Arab world and across regions, leading to new perspectives for the study of cosmopolitanism. Cities in the Arab Middle East form an interurban constellation of contrasting contexts. They are interconnected and complementary. Looking into urban settings in the Arab world leads to various sociological, anthropological, and geographic questions: what are the concrete forms of social identification in Arab cities? How do social interactions unfold in such contexts? How are gender, class or ethnic relations shaped in urban environments? As the combined relevance of social roles and spaces translate into different modes across contexts, this chapter will particularly focus on the case of Aden (Yemen) under British occupation. If much has been written on the cosmopolitanism of Mediterranean cities, few analytic endeavours have been undertaken to study the urban cosmopolitanism in the pre-oil era Arabian Peninsula (Fuccaro 2009). The case of Aden is particularly well-suited to highlighting an example of segregated cosmopolitanism which engendered a new urban identity based upon exclusive citizenship. This has led to violent struggles in and for the city between rival political groups. Aden also exemplifies the power of nostalgia through the selective remembrance of an idealized cosmopolitanism.

## 5.2 The End of Colonial Cosmopolitanism

For Arab cities, marketplaces have often been seen as public spaces *par excellence* by exhibiting forms of ethnic and religious diversity that are held together by commerce (Mermier 2011). The figure of the merchant as a nodal point in networks of urban space is also familiar from the cosmopolitanism of Mediterranean cities during the Ottoman era.<fnref n="2" /> Much research, mostly marked by a nostalgia for a period believed to have been a model of community co-existence, has been carried out on these spaces. Such city cosmopolitanism has been described as

> a complex urban system open to universal values and the outside world and bringing together different communities that were termed ethnicities, peoples, or nations, according to the places concerned and the vocabulary of the time. The cosmopolitan city offers a variegated social and cultural landscape, which entails a way of living the city and of living in the city. (Escallier 2003)

The inhabitants of the Near East were supposed to embody this condition of “urban cosmopolitanism” thanks to their remarkable adaptive capacity.

<footnote n="2">²For criticisms of this idea and of seeing entire cities in terms of cosmopolitanism, when strictly speaking the term should only apply to individuals, see Gekas 2009, 104.</footnote>
Today, this “Mediterranean of cities” has disappeared as a result of the growth of nation-states and nationalism, the marginalization of former urban elites, and the movement of rural populations to cities. In the eastern Mediterranean, this was a form of life most often associated with the countries of the Levant, including not only Lebanon and Syria but also Jordan, Palestine, parts of Turkey, and, for some, certain cities like Alexandria and Smyrna (Mansel 2010). This “Levantine society” only finally disappeared with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, which Robert Ilbert called “the end of an urban order” (1991). Writing of Alexandria’s cosmopolitanism at this time, Ilbert adds that the “coexistence of communities having different languages, cultures and religions living in the same space” (1992, 171) contributed to a “community of interest imposed by a Levantine bourgeoisie of fluid national links underpinned by a communitarian system that reserved the most important place to notables” (1992, 185).

The anthropologist Jean Métral employed this idea of “urban order” in an article on public space in the cities of the Levant, particularly Aleppo and Beirut, in order to identify three types of cities that could be seen to characterize the period between the early nineteenth century and the end of the Second World War. These cities included Mediterranean ports such as Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Smyrna, Beirut and Alexandria “in which there flourished a particular form of cosmopolitanism”; cities of the interior such as Ankara, Aleppo, Damascus and Cairo “where nationalism grew and was consolidated”; and, finally, desert trading centres that served as the “home of tribal patrimonialism” (1995, 263). The cosmopolitanism of the port cities was rooted in a form of urban life that depended on community belonging, but this did not mean that any one community dominated others. It was a cosmopolitanism based on exchange, a shared urban culture and belonging, and centered on the *souq*, the public space *par excellence* of the city.

For Sami Zubaida, cosmopolitanism is not so much a matter of cultures and nationalities mixing (as often happens in big cities) but instead certain ways of living and thinking. As Zubaida puts it, such styles of life are “deracinated from communities and cultures of origin, from conventional living, from family and home-centredness, and have developed into a culturally promiscuous life, drawing on diverse ideas, traditions and innovations” (1999, 15–16).

The idea of cosmopolitanism as a mosaic of communities living side by side can once again be traced back to the traditional elitist model of communities led by notables. It plays down the forms of exclusion that may have contributed to the growth of nationalistic feeling or the outbreak of civil war, as took place in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990, even if it could be argued in the case of Beirut that the civil war that incontestably reduced the presence of foreign communities in the city pushed Lebanon as a whole “into the avant-garde of a new wave of globalization ... As a result, Lebanon paradoxically emerged from the civil war with a notably efficient networked economy that was connected to the ‘global village’ that the world economy had in the meantime become” (Corm 1998, 16–17).

Zubaida rightly remarks that nostalgia for this type of cosmopolitanism fails to link it with the European imperialism of the time and the forms of segregation that prevented the “natives” from going into certain social spaces (1999, 26). However,
Today, this “Mediterranean of cities” has disappeared as a result of the growth of nation-states and nationalism, the marginalization of former urban elites, and the movement of rural populations to cities. In the eastern Mediterranean, this was a form of life most often associated with the countries of the Levant, including not only Lebanon and Syria but also Jordan, Palestine, parts of Turkey, and, for some, certain cities like Alexandria and Smyrna (Mansel 2010). This “Levantine society” only finally disappeared with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, which Robert Ilbert called “the end of an urban order” (1991). Writing of Alexandria’s cosmopolitanism at this time, Ilbert adds that the “coexistence of communities having different languages, cultures and religions living in the same space” (1992, 171) contributed to a “community of interest imposed by a Levantine bourgeoisie of fluid national links underpinned by a communitarian system that reserved the most important place to notables” (1992, 185).

The anthropologist Jean Métral employed this idea of “urban order” in an article on public space in the cities of the Levant, particularly Aleppo and Beirut, in order to identify three types of cities that could be seen to characterize the period between the early nineteenth century and the end of the Second World War. These cities included Mediterranean ports such as Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Smyrna, Beirut and Alexandria “in which there flourished a particular form of cosmopolitanism”; cities of the interior such as Ankara, Aleppo, Damascus and Cairo “where nationalism grew and was consolidated”; and, finally, desert trading centres that served as the “home of tribal patrimonialism” (1995, 263). The cosmopolitanism of the port cities was rooted in a form of urban life that depended on community belonging, but this did not mean that any one community dominated others. It was a cosmopolitanism based on exchange, a shared urban culture and belonging, and centered on the *souq*, the public space *par excellence* of the city.

For Sami Zubaida, cosmopolitanism is not so much a matter of cultures and nationalities mixing (as often happens in big cities) but instead certain ways of living and thinking. As Zubaida puts it, such styles of life are “deracinated from communities and cultures of origin, from conventional living, from family and home-centredness, and have developed into a culturally promiscuous life, drawing on diverse ideas, traditions and innovations” (1999, 15–16).

The idea of cosmopolitanism as a mosaic of communities living side by side can once again be traced back to the traditional elitist model of communities led by notables. It plays down the forms of exclusion that may have contributed to the growth of nationalistic feeling or the outbreak of civil war, as took place in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990, even if it could be argued in the case of Beirut that the civil war that incontestably reduced the presence of foreign communities in the city pushed Lebanon as a whole “into the avant-garde of a new wave of globalization ... As a result, Lebanon paradoxically emerged from the civil war with a notably efficient networked economy that was connected to the ‘global village’ that the world economy had in the meantime become” (Corm 1998, 16–17).

Zubaida rightly remarks that nostalgia for this type of cosmopolitanism fails to link it with the European imperialism of the time and the forms of segregation that prevented the “natives” from going into certain social spaces (1999, 26). However,
two cities of the interior, Aleppo and Cairo, experienced significant forms of cosmopolitanism at this time. Though partially characterized by the presence of Europeans, both cities also saw the coexistence of other communities from the region. The Syrian-Lebanese community in Cairo, for example, or the Turkmens and Kurds in Aleppo, still make up a significant proportion of the populations of these cities. What was until recently the mixed composition of the population in Baghdad is another case in point (see Bader 2014).

Yet the idea of an “oriental cosmopolitanism” linked to the ports of the Levant is too narrow to be used analytically except as a way of fleshing out the familiar idea of Mediterranean cities as exhibiting values of openness and tolerance that were opposed to nationalist attempts at closure. This stereotypical opposition between city and nation holds, even today, a strong ideological charge.

Questions have been raised regarding the extent to which social practices in these cities conformed to this conceptually problematic notion of cosmopolitanism. Henk Driessen, for example, has rightly pointed out that the idea of cosmopolitanism has been used to describe a huge variety of historical situations from ancient Greece to today’s post-modern “multicultural” metropolises. At the very least, he says, the use of the idea as an anthropological concept runs up against certain epistemological obstacles, its ambiguity coming from the attempt to “reconcile difference with equality and universal with pluralism” (Driessen 2005, 137). Cosmopolitanism has also had a close relationship with power, having been used at different times by various elites to entrench their cultural domination. It has existed in different forms in different historical epochs, closely associated with the notion of tolerance, with all the ambiguities that this implies (Driessen 2005).

Will Hanley, a historian of Alexandria, has also drawn attention to the fact that research on the cosmopolitanism of the “Middle East” has in general been reluctant to draw on theoretical work. As a result, he writes in an incisive article (2008), research on cosmopolitanism has just as often been used to obscure reality as to illuminate it, having the effect of hiding reality behind a thick cloak of nostalgia. The recognition that cosmopolitanism comes in many forms as well as taking into account popular cosmopolitan practices would, Hanley continues, allow much of the research carried out in this “cultural area” to rid itself of the elitist prism through which reality is often viewed and strip away obsessions with identity. The historian Edhem Eldem has also made a convincing case for seeing the Ottoman cosmopolitanism that developed from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards as a sort of Levantine cosmopolitanism. This was above all a form of “social praxis” characterized by the spread of a particular French cultural model into certain districts of Istanbul and by a particular capacity to move between different social and cultural worlds (Eldem 2013).

The upshot of such considerations is that ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity are not sufficient for labelling the cosmopolitan character of a city without taking into consideration how diversity is constituted and experienced. The big cities of the Arabian Peninsula today, characterized as they are by pronounced ethnic and spatial segregation, should not be seen in the same way as the port cities of the Mediterranean during the Ottoman period or twenty-first century Beirut or Cairo.
two cities of the interior, Aleppo and Cairo, experienced significant forms of cosmopolitanism at this time. Though partially characterized by the presence of Europeans, both cities also saw the coexistence of other communities from the region. The Syrian-Lebanese community in Cairo, for example, or the Turkmens and Kurds in Aleppo, still make up a significant proportion of the populations of these cities. What was until recently the mixed composition of the population in Baghdad is another case in point (see Bader 2014).

Yet the idea of an “oriental cosmopolitanism” linked to the ports of the Levant is too narrow to be used analytically except as a way of fleshing out the familiar idea of Mediterranean cities as exhibiting values of openness and tolerance that were opposed to nationalist attempts at closure. This stereotypical opposition between city and nation holds, even today, a strong ideological charge.

Questions have been raised regarding the extent to which social practices in these cities conformed to this conceptually problematic notion of cosmopolitanism. Henk Driessen, for example, has rightly pointed out that the idea of cosmopolitanism has been used to describe a huge variety of historical situations from ancient Greece to today’s post-modern “multicultural” metropolises. At the very least, he says, the use of the idea as an anthropological concept runs up against certain epistemological obstacles, its ambiguity coming from the attempt to “reconcile difference with equality and universal with pluralism” (Driessen 2005, 137). Cosmopolitanism has also had a close relationship with power, having been used at different times by various elites to entrench their cultural domination. It has existed in different forms in different historical epochs, closely associated with the notion of tolerance, with all the ambiguities that this implies (Driessen 2005).

Will Hanley, a historian of Alexandria, has also drawn attention to the fact that research on the cosmopolitanism of the “Middle East” has in general been reluctant to draw on theoretical work. As a result, he writes in an incisive article (2008), research on cosmopolitanism has just as often been used to obscure reality as to illuminate it, having the effect of hiding reality behind a thick cloak of nostalgia. The recognition that cosmopolitanism comes in many forms as well as taking into account popular cosmopolitan practices would, Hanley continues, allow much of the research carried out in this “cultural area” to rid itself of the elitist prism through which reality is often viewed and strip away obsessions with identity. The historian Edhem Eldem has also made a convincing case for seeing the Ottoman cosmopolitanism that developed from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards as a sort of Levantine cosmopolitanism. This was above all a form of “social praxis” characterized by the spread of a particular French cultural model into certain districts of Istanbul and by a particular capacity to move between different social and cultural worlds (Eldem 2013).

The upshot of such considerations is that ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity are not sufficient for labelling the cosmopolitan character of a city without taking into consideration how diversity is constituted and experienced. The big cities of the Arabian Peninsula today, characterized as they are by pronounced ethnic and spatial segregation, should not be seen in the same way as the port cities of the Mediterranean during the Ottoman period or twenty-first century Beirut or Cairo.
The cosmopolitanism seen in Manama in Bahrain, for example, is built on a
spatial segregation that applies to all the communities in the city, whether native or
foreign, and is a model that characterizes all the cities of the Gulf (Gardner 2010).
The type of cosmopolitanism that characterizes the Gulf, in fact, is a version of the
“communitarian cosmopolitanism” identified by Francesca Trivellato in her study
of community relations in sixteenth-century Livorno (2009).<fnref n="3" /> The cosmopolitan of
contemporary Gulf cities emphasizes segregation because, having been built on a
system of ethnic stratification based on nationality, it intends to maintain the supe-
rior status of “nationals” over immigrants.

However, ethnic stratification has had different characteristics in different societ-
ies, these being a function as much of the individual history of the society concerned
as of the methods used to “manage” difference and openness to globalization. The
position of each city in the region to which it belongs is also important – the Gulf
cities, for example, are part of regional circulation systems like the Arabian
Peninsula and the wider Arab world. This regional positioning affects social spaces
and forms of sociability as well as professional, cultural and leisure activities in dif-
ferent ways, which means that these cities are part of a larger inter-urban space
where local differences support and complement each other.

Moreover, the nostalgia for colonial cosmopolitanism can also serve to reinforce
pretensions of cultural superiority when the loss of the political status of a city in a
larger national unit has led to political or economic marginalization. This has been
the case in Yemen, where Aden has lost out to the capital, Sanaa. The memory of the
Antonin Besse family, forced to leave South Yemen after the nationalizations in
1969, is still alive today among Aden's intellectual elite, for example. This elite has
reacted to the marginalization of Aden by mourning the loss of its former cultural
and political dynamism, which was paradoxically linked to the British occupation.
By contrast, the nostalgia felt by some residents of Alexandria for the cosmopolitan
vestiges of the past does not have the same political content; instead, it is kept alive
by rivalry with Cairo, where the country's political power and cultural institutions
are located. The intellectuals around the magazine *Amkina* (Places) in Alexandria
are far removed from their Aden counterparts, who gather around the newspapers
*Al-Ayyam* and *Aden al-Ghad*. While they may not have heard of one another, these
intellectuals are linked by a shared desire to rehabilitate a cosmopolitan past. This
is all the more attractive in the case of Aden as a way of fighting against the margin-
alization of the city and its former elite.

<footnote n="3">³There are various types of “communitarian cosmopolitanism” that can be used to describe different forms of multiculturalism. For an example of the notion in the context of a Mediterranean city, see Trivellato 2009. For a political science definition from contemporary Europe, see Bellamy and Castiglione 1998.</footnote>
The cosmopolitanism seen in Manama in Bahrain, for example, is built on a
spatial segregation that applies to all the communities in the city, whether native or
foreign, and is a model that characterizes all the cities of the Gulf (Gardner 2010).
The type of cosmopolitanism that characterizes the Gulf, in fact, is a version of the
“communitarian cosmopolitanism” identified by Francesca Trivellato in her study
of community relations in sixteenth-century Livorno (2009).<fnref n="3" /> The cosmopolitan of
contemporary Gulf cities emphasizes segregation because, having been built on a
system of ethnic stratification based on nationality, it intends to maintain the supe-
rior status of “nationals” over immigrants.

However, ethnic stratification has had different characteristics in different societ-
ies, these being a function as much of the individual history of the society concerned
as of the methods used to “manage” difference and openness to globalization. The
position of each city in the region to which it belongs is also important – the Gulf
cities, for example, are part of regional circulation systems like the Arabian
Peninsula and the wider Arab world. This regional positioning affects social spaces
and forms of sociability as well as professional, cultural and leisure activities in dif-
ferent ways, which means that these cities are part of a larger inter-urban space
where local differences support and complement each other.

Moreover, the nostalgia for colonial cosmopolitanism can also serve to reinforce
pretensions of cultural superiority when the loss of the political status of a city in a
larger national unit has led to political or economic marginalization. This has been
the case in Yemen, where Aden has lost out to the capital, Sanaa. The memory of the
Antonin Besse family, forced to leave South Yemen after the nationalizations in
1969, is still alive today among Aden's intellectual elite, for example. This elite has
reacted to the marginalization of Aden by mourning the loss of its former cultural
and political dynamism, which was paradoxically linked to the British occupation.
By contrast, the nostalgia felt by some residents of Alexandria for the cosmopolitan
vestiges of the past does not have the same political content; instead, it is kept alive
by rivalry with Cairo, where the country's political power and cultural institutions
are located. The intellectuals around the magazine *Amkina* (Places) in Alexandria
are far removed from their Aden counterparts, who gather around the newspapers
*Al-Ayyam* and *Aden al-Ghad*. While they may not have heard of one another, these
intellectuals are linked by a shared desire to rehabilitate a cosmopolitan past. This
is all the more attractive in the case of Aden as a way of fighting against the margin-
alization of the city and its former elite.

<footnote n="3">³There are various types of “communitarian cosmopolitanism” that can be used to describe different forms of multiculturalism. For an example of the notion in the context of a Mediterranean city, see Trivellato 2009. For a political science definition from contemporary Europe, see Bellamy and Castiglione 1998.</footnote>
## 5.3 Aden: Colonial Cosmopolitanism

Aden under British rule (1839–1967) represented a singular version of a colonial “communitarian cosmopolitan” that differed immensely from all the other cities of today’s Yemen. The birth of a new urban society was thus directly linked to the colonial presence and functions of the British in the city, which reconfigured the relationships with the local and far-away environment. A cosmopolitan city, Aden became a bridge between Arabia, Europe, Africa, and Asia, reproducing in its spatial configurations and its division of labor the social and ethnic hierarchies of the British Empire and mercantile capitalism.

While mosques, churches, synagogues, and Hindu and Parsi temples showcased the main faiths of its inhabitants, different rites and different ethnic and cultural identities were superimposed on these religious divisions. The descendants of several hundred Muslim residents of Aden in 1839 progressively mixed with the families of immigrants coming from North Yemen and the southern protectorates, as well as Indian Muslims, to form the social group of Aden residents.<fnref n="4" /> A separate category emerged in the heart of the population that was differentiated from Yemenis from the North and Arabs from the sultanates under British protection.

The British colonial project to install in Aden a coal depot and a military post on the maritime route to India, as well as the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, led to a rapid development of the city’s economy. Aden’s maritime traffic increased so that by 1958 its port was the second-most heavily utilized in the world, after New York (Stookey 1982). After 1960, Aden replaced Cyprus as the military headquarters of the British command in the Middle East, which led to a major increase in the number of military officers and their families. During the British period, the city was almost better connected with the rest of the world than with the rest of Yemen not only because of its developed economy but also its extra-territorial political status.

Aden was placed under the direct control of the Government of Bombay before becoming, in 1937, a Crown colony. The rest of the territory of south Yemen was divided into two protectorates, that of the east, containing the sultanates of Hadhramaut and Wahidi, and that of the west, containing the regions of Yafi, Awlawi, and Radfan. The British powers decided to progressively introduce a dose of “home-rule” or local representation in the government, even going so far as to organize elections in December 1955 for the legislative council. In September 1962, while a military coup put an end to the regime of the Imam of Sanaa, Aden joined the Federation of the Arab Emirates of the South which brought together 15 small states (excepting Hadhramaut).

Modern educational institutions, associations, cultural clubs, unions and political parties were created in Aden during the colonial period. An independent Arabic-language press emerged. At the same time, the influence of British culture profoundly marked Aden’s elites. In the 1950s, Aden was also strongly influenced

<footnote n="4">⁴In 1839 the city had only 1289 inhabitants – 617 Arabs, 574 Jews, 63 Somalis, and 35 Indians. See Gavin 1975, 445.</footnote>
## 5.3 Aden: Colonial Cosmopolitanism

Aden under British rule (1839–1967) represented a singular version of a colonial “communitarian cosmopolitan” that differed immensely from all the other cities of today’s Yemen. The birth of a new urban society was thus directly linked to the colonial presence and functions of the British in the city, which reconfigured the relationships with the local and far-away environment. A cosmopolitan city, Aden became a bridge between Arabia, Europe, Africa, and Asia, reproducing in its spatial configurations and its division of labor the social and ethnic hierarchies of the British Empire and mercantile capitalism.

While mosques, churches, synagogues, and Hindu and Parsi temples showcased the main faiths of its inhabitants, different rites and different ethnic and cultural identities were superimposed on these religious divisions. The descendants of several hundred Muslim residents of Aden in 1839 progressively mixed with the families of immigrants coming from North Yemen and the southern protectorates, as well as Indian Muslims, to form the social group of Aden residents.<fnref n="4" /> A separate category emerged in the heart of the population that was differentiated from Yemenis from the North and Arabs from the sultanates under British protection.

The British colonial project to install in Aden a coal depot and a military post on the maritime route to India, as well as the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, led to a rapid development of the city’s economy. Aden’s maritime traffic increased so that by 1958 its port was the second-most heavily utilized in the world, after New York (Stookey 1982). After 1960, Aden replaced Cyprus as the military headquarters of the British command in the Middle East, which led to a major increase in the number of military officers and their families. During the British period, the city was almost better connected with the rest of the world than with the rest of Yemen not only because of its developed economy but also its extra-territorial political status.

Aden was placed under the direct control of the Government of Bombay before becoming, in 1937, a Crown colony. The rest of the territory of south Yemen was divided into two protectorates, that of the east, containing the sultanates of Hadhramaut and Wahidi, and that of the west, containing the regions of Yafi, Awlawi, and Radfan. The British powers decided to progressively introduce a dose of “home-rule” or local representation in the government, even going so far as to organize elections in December 1955 for the legislative council. In September 1962, while a military coup put an end to the regime of the Imam of Sanaa, Aden joined the Federation of the Arab Emirates of the South which brought together 15 small states (excepting Hadhramaut).

Modern educational institutions, associations, cultural clubs, unions and political parties were created in Aden during the colonial period. An independent Arabic-language press emerged. At the same time, the influence of British culture profoundly marked Aden’s elites. In the 1950s, Aden was also strongly influenced

<footnote n="4">⁴In 1839 the city had only 1289 inhabitants – 617 Arabs, 574 Jews, 63 Somalis, and 35 Indians. See Gavin 1975, 445.</footnote>
by Indian culture, not only when it came to music and fashion but also language. The different categories of Aden society, hailing from old trading families to employees or migrants from the southern part of North Yemen, all shared a negative perception of the rest of Yemen as they developed a strong feeling of belonging in the city proper (Lackner 1985, 20).

The British colonial order thus gave rise to a gradual ethnic status system that reproduced the regional and ethnic divisions of the professional world. Europeans were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by Indians, Jews, Arabs, and Somalis – even if the Arabs saw themselves after the Europeans and put Muslim Indians ahead of Jews, Hindus and Somalis (Bujra 1971, 196–7). The stratification of group status that characterized Yemeni society, with its regional variations, was reinforced by the ethnic hierarchy unique to a colonial society.<fnref n="5" /> This led to new categorizations, like Aden residents themselves who were differentiated based on this two-pronged ladder of status (see Dahlgren 2010, 76–8).

Aden's ancient colonial cosmopolitanism has become fictionalized in the works of several contemporary Yemeni writers. The novels of Ali Al-Muqri (2014) and Ahmad Zayn (2015) embed their novelistic texture within a specific place, Aden, a city rendered through multiple intersecting story lines. These works express a certain nostalgia for the city's colonial cosmopolitanism, modernity, and openness. These two authors recreate, through fiction, another historical story where the colonizer and the colonized did not so much oppose each other but instead interpenetrated each other – so the deadly combats of the different nationalist movements reach their end point through the suppression of a cosmopolitan polyphony that these novels aim to rediscover.

## 5.4 The Cosmopolitan Capital: Forms of Social and Urban Differentiation

Drawing on criticisms of how the darker sides of violence, exclusion and social hierarchy are left out of the nostalgic vision of a cosmopolitan past, Diane Singerman and Paul Amar have identified various types of cosmopolitanism in contemporary Cairo (2006, 30). These range from nostalgia for a former multiculturalism and particular understanding of the city's heritage to the model represented today by the cities of the Gulf, though understood in specifically Egyptian terms. While Singerman and Amar admit that cosmopolitanism has often been the prisoner of transnational, normative, universalist or imperialist discourses, they argue that it can

<footnote n="5">⁵The traditional social hierarchy in Yemen, with its regional variations, was composed of status groups graded in the hierarchical system according to certain criteria, the most important of which are ancestry (*asl*) and professional activity. The descendants of the Prophet took their place at the top of the hierarchy. The other status groups were tribesmen, city dwellers of tribal origin, and at the bottom of the social order were those without tribal origin who held occupations considered dirty or vile. See Mermier 2001, 276–7.</footnote>
by Indian culture, not only when it came to music and fashion but also language. The different categories of Aden society, hailing from old trading families to employees or migrants from the southern part of North Yemen, all shared a negative perception of the rest of Yemen as they developed a strong feeling of belonging in the city proper (Lackner 1985, 20).

The British colonial order thus gave rise to a gradual ethnic status system that reproduced the regional and ethnic divisions of the professional world. Europeans were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by Indians, Jews, Arabs, and Somalis – even if the Arabs saw themselves after the Europeans and put Muslim Indians ahead of Jews, Hindus and Somalis (Bujra 1971, 196–7). The stratification of group status that characterized Yemeni society, with its regional variations, was reinforced by the ethnic hierarchy unique to a colonial society.<fnref n="5" /> This led to new categorizations, like Aden residents themselves who were differentiated based on this two-pronged ladder of status (see Dahlgren 2010, 76–8).

Aden's ancient colonial cosmopolitanism has become fictionalized in the works of several contemporary Yemeni writers. The novels of Ali Al-Muqri (2014) and Ahmad Zayn (2015) embed their novelistic texture within a specific place, Aden, a city rendered through multiple intersecting story lines. These works express a certain nostalgia for the city's colonial cosmopolitanism, modernity, and openness. These two authors recreate, through fiction, another historical story where the colonizer and the colonized did not so much oppose each other but instead interpenetrated each other – so the deadly combats of the different nationalist movements reach their end point through the suppression of a cosmopolitan polyphony that these novels aim to rediscover.

## 5.4 The Cosmopolitan Capital: Forms of Social and Urban Differentiation

Drawing on criticisms of how the darker sides of violence, exclusion and social hierarchy are left out of the nostalgic vision of a cosmopolitan past, Diane Singerman and Paul Amar have identified various types of cosmopolitanism in contemporary Cairo (2006, 30). These range from nostalgia for a former multiculturalism and particular understanding of the city's heritage to the model represented today by the cities of the Gulf, though understood in specifically Egyptian terms. While Singerman and Amar admit that cosmopolitanism has often been the prisoner of transnational, normative, universalist or imperialist discourses, they argue that it can

<footnote n="5">⁵The traditional social hierarchy in Yemen, with its regional variations, was composed of status groups graded in the hierarchical system according to certain criteria, the most important of which are ancestry (*asl*) and professional activity. The descendants of the Prophet took their place at the top of the hierarchy. The other status groups were tribesmen, city dwellers of tribal origin, and at the bottom of the social order were those without tribal origin who held occupations considered dirty or vile. See Mermier 2001, 276–7.</footnote>
carry an alternative, liberating ethic that is far removed from narrow conceptions of nationalism or identity politics when critically employed (4). However, any illuminating value that the term has does not appear to be much advanced by extending the concept, in the shape of “cosmopolitanism from below,” to a whole collection of heterogeneous practices associated with very different groups and actors on the grounds that all these seem to contest dominant nationalist narratives from vantage points in separate public spheres.

Examples chosen to illustrate this notion of cosmopolitanism go from the emergence of a new understanding of regional identity among returnees from the Arabian Peninsula living in Upper Egypt to activities to help preserve the heritage of Egypt's historic city-centres and rehabilitate the architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They also include contemporary Nubian cultural practices, Sufi pilgrimages, and new forms of popular music. As a result, the concept of “cosmopolitanism from below” appears too much like an ideological attempt to rescue popular practices – it is hard to be entirely free from the suspicion that its proponents have been carried away by their own rhetoric. In the context of Cairo, Asef Bayat proposes the notion of “everyday cosmopolitanism,” which means “the idea and practice of transcending self – at the various levels of individual, family, tribe, religion, ethnicity, community, and nation – to associate with agonistic others in everyday life” (2010, 187). However, this concept’s scope seems to be restricted to the inter-sectarian relationship between Copts and Muslims and praising the role of the modern city which “severely undermines the traditional pattern of immediate, local, interpersonal, and territorial ethno-religious communities” (2010).

Mark Allen Peterson separates himself from these conceptions of cosmopolitanism in his study of cosmopolitanism in Cairo when writing of

those practices, especially the practices of consumption, through which the Egyptian upper classes and those with upwardly mobile aspirations construct themselves as transnational elites whose unequal control over Egypt's economic and political resources is justified by their modernity, and whose modernity is in turn revealed by their cosmopolitanism: their Western educations, their easy movement across transnational borders, their consumption of transnational goods, and the general display of tastes in music, literature, film, clothing, and technologies that distinguishes them from the masses. (2011, 23)

“Cosmopolitan capital” thus becomes an important marker of class differentiation for the urban elite, particularly in Cairo, and perhaps even the most important one as it consists of “forms of cultural capital that are marked by familiarity with and mastery of globally dominant cultural codes” (de Koning 2009, 9). This system of class differentiation includes the use of English and of a dialect of Arabic sprinkled with English, a Western education, the mixing of the sexes, certain styles of clothing and forms of consumption and leisure, and the choice of places to live and socialize. These things function as social and cultural markers for a section of Cairo’s upper classes, distinguishing them from places and practices considered to be popular. The latter include the theatres and cinemas of the downtown area once associated with the upper classes but today belonging to young people from the popular classes (Singerman and Amar 2006, 32).
carry an alternative, liberating ethic that is far removed from narrow conceptions of nationalism or identity politics when critically employed (4). However, any illuminating value that the term has does not appear to be much advanced by extending the concept, in the shape of “cosmopolitanism from below,” to a whole collection of heterogeneous practices associated with very different groups and actors on the grounds that all these seem to contest dominant nationalist narratives from vantage points in separate public spheres.

Examples chosen to illustrate this notion of cosmopolitanism go from the emergence of a new understanding of regional identity among returnees from the Arabian Peninsula living in Upper Egypt to activities to help preserve the heritage of Egypt's historic city-centres and rehabilitate the architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They also include contemporary Nubian cultural practices, Sufi pilgrimages, and new forms of popular music. As a result, the concept of “cosmopolitanism from below” appears too much like an ideological attempt to rescue popular practices – it is hard to be entirely free from the suspicion that its proponents have been carried away by their own rhetoric. In the context of Cairo, Asef Bayat proposes the notion of “everyday cosmopolitanism,” which means “the idea and practice of transcending self – at the various levels of individual, family, tribe, religion, ethnicity, community, and nation – to associate with agonistic others in everyday life” (2010, 187). However, this concept’s scope seems to be restricted to the inter-sectarian relationship between Copts and Muslims and praising the role of the modern city which “severely undermines the traditional pattern of immediate, local, interpersonal, and territorial ethno-religious communities” (2010).

Mark Allen Peterson separates himself from these conceptions of cosmopolitanism in his study of cosmopolitanism in Cairo when writing of

those practices, especially the practices of consumption, through which the Egyptian upper classes and those with upwardly mobile aspirations construct themselves as transnational elites whose unequal control over Egypt's economic and political resources is justified by their modernity, and whose modernity is in turn revealed by their cosmopolitanism: their Western educations, their easy movement across transnational borders, their consumption of transnational goods, and the general display of tastes in music, literature, film, clothing, and technologies that distinguishes them from the masses. (2011, 23)

“Cosmopolitan capital” thus becomes an important marker of class differentiation for the urban elite, particularly in Cairo, and perhaps even the most important one as it consists of “forms of cultural capital that are marked by familiarity with and mastery of globally dominant cultural codes” (de Koning 2009, 9). This system of class differentiation includes the use of English and of a dialect of Arabic sprinkled with English, a Western education, the mixing of the sexes, certain styles of clothing and forms of consumption and leisure, and the choice of places to live and socialize. These things function as social and cultural markers for a section of Cairo’s upper classes, distinguishing them from places and practices considered to be popular. The latter include the theatres and cinemas of the downtown area once associated with the upper classes but today belonging to young people from the popular classes (Singerman and Amar 2006, 32).
The spatial and social segregation of Cairo today is in large part linked to the political and economic choices that were made during the watershed of the so-called *Infitah* (opening) in the Sadat period (see Vignal and Denis 2006). However, in reality, this segregation also owes much to the existing class system. Cairo-style cosmopolitanism does not look far beyond the national context, including a strong element of Egyptianness that is obliged to rub along as best it can with transnational dimensions of identity (Peterson 2011, 13). In fact, these transnational identities only take on a meaning in relation to “particular worlds and places” and the (hierarchical) relations that structure them (Friedman and Rabau 2000, 200). What this local Cairo version of “consumerist cosmopolitanism” most reveals, if it were thought necessary to point this out, is that the spread of “consumerist cosmopolitanism” on a global scale requires less the homogenization of tastes and practices than an ongoing and hierarchical reconfiguration of these by local strategies of distinction (Calhoun 2002, 105).

## 5.5 Cosmopolitanism Beyond Arab Cities

From particular forms of sociability located in particular times and places to urban imaginaries, each form of city living is unique because each manifests ways of living and forms of social relationships that relate to particular and transitory social spaces.<fnref n="6" /> In a particularly illuminating article, Henri Lefebvre and Catherine Régulier have set out further perspectives suggesting ways forward for research on urban living: “the idea and the reality of the separation public/private are not the same everywhere. More specifically, there are not the same things which are hidden, shown, or which we are going to see outside” (Lefebvre and Régulier 1986, 10).

In the Arab world, the city often acts as a cultural reference point, carrying with it a whole set of values and representations linked to social position and struggles for social status in different societies. Whereas Lyn Lofland found that spatial ordering replaced “appearential” ordering in Western urban contexts, it seems that both forms of social identification coexist and intersect in Arab cities (1973, 27). The city, a disputed space, even a space for conquest, as well as a geopolitical space, may thus seem to be caught in the crossfire between, on the one hand, the domination of particular communities and, on the other, the individual or collective fault lines that aim to subvert them. Perhaps in the final analysis it is this dialectical relationship between the public and the private (the personal and the social) that lies at the root of urban life and determines both its cultural specificities and universalist dimensions. This tension, felt to a greater or a lesser extent depending on the individual city, is a cultural factor that has a different weight depending on the society concerned. However, it determines, though necessarily in different ways, the uses

<footnote n="6">⁶See the conception of social space developed by Henri Lefebvre in *La production de l'espace* (2000).</footnote>
The spatial and social segregation of Cairo today is in large part linked to the political and economic choices that were made during the watershed of the so-called *Infitah* (opening) in the Sadat period (see Vignal and Denis 2006). However, in reality, this segregation also owes much to the existing class system. Cairo-style cosmopolitanism does not look far beyond the national context, including a strong element of Egyptianness that is obliged to rub along as best it can with transnational dimensions of identity (Peterson 2011, 13). In fact, these transnational identities only take on a meaning in relation to “particular worlds and places” and the (hierarchical) relations that structure them (Friedman and Rabau 2000, 200). What this local Cairo version of “consumerist cosmopolitanism” most reveals, if it were thought necessary to point this out, is that the spread of “consumerist cosmopolitanism” on a global scale requires less the homogenization of tastes and practices than an ongoing and hierarchical reconfiguration of these by local strategies of distinction (Calhoun 2002, 105).

## 5.5 Cosmopolitanism Beyond Arab Cities

From particular forms of sociability located in particular times and places to urban imaginaries, each form of city living is unique because each manifests ways of living and forms of social relationships that relate to particular and transitory social spaces.<fnref n="6" /> In a particularly illuminating article, Henri Lefebvre and Catherine Régulier have set out further perspectives suggesting ways forward for research on urban living: “the idea and the reality of the separation public/private are not the same everywhere. More specifically, there are not the same things which are hidden, shown, or which we are going to see outside” (Lefebvre and Régulier 1986, 10).

In the Arab world, the city often acts as a cultural reference point, carrying with it a whole set of values and representations linked to social position and struggles for social status in different societies. Whereas Lyn Lofland found that spatial ordering replaced “appearential” ordering in Western urban contexts, it seems that both forms of social identification coexist and intersect in Arab cities (1973, 27). The city, a disputed space, even a space for conquest, as well as a geopolitical space, may thus seem to be caught in the crossfire between, on the one hand, the domination of particular communities and, on the other, the individual or collective fault lines that aim to subvert them. Perhaps in the final analysis it is this dialectical relationship between the public and the private (the personal and the social) that lies at the root of urban life and determines both its cultural specificities and universalist dimensions. This tension, felt to a greater or a lesser extent depending on the individual city, is a cultural factor that has a different weight depending on the society concerned. However, it determines, though necessarily in different ways, the uses

<footnote n="6">⁶See the conception of social space developed by Henri Lefebvre in *La production de l'espace* (2000).</footnote>
that are made of public space, the forms of anonymity and sociability that can be observed, and the various forms of cosmopolitanism, including “discrepant cosmopolitanism,” in each Arab city.

## References

Agier, M. (2013). *La Condition cosmopolite. L'anthropologie à l'épreuve du piège identitaire*. Paris, La Découverte.

Al-Muqri, A. (2014). *Bukhûr Adanî*. Beirut: Dar Al-Saqi.

Bader, A. (2014, July 20–21). Adieu Bagdad la cosmopolite! *Le Monde*, p. 16.

Bayat, A. (2010). *Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East*. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bellamy, R., & Castiglione, D. (1998). Between cosmopolis and community: Three models of rights and democracy within the European Union. In D. Archibugi, D. Held, & M. Köhler (Eds.), *Reimagining political community* (pp. 152–178). Oxford: Polity Press.

Bujra, A. (1971). *The politics of stratification: A study of political change in a south Arabian town*. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Calhoun, C. (2002). The class consciousness of frequent travellers: Towards a critique of actually existing cosmopolitanism. In S. Vertovec & R. Cohen (Eds.), *Conceiving cosmopolitanism. theory, context, and practice* (pp. 86–109). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Corm, G. (1998). Le Liban dans les filets séculaires de la glo balisation. *Les Cahiers de l'Orient*, 52, 15–27.

Dahlgren, S. (2010). *Contesting realities: The public sphere and morality in southern Yemen*. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

de Koning, A. (2009). *Global dreams: Class, gender, and public space in cosmopolitan Cairo*. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Driessen, H. (2005). Mediterranean port cities: Cosmopolitanism reconsidered. *History and Anthropology*, 16(1), 137.

Eldem, E. (2013). Istanbul as a cosmopolitan city. Myths and realities. In A. Quayson & G. Daswani (Eds.), *A companion to diaspora and transnationalism* (pp. 212–230). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Escallier, R. (2003). Le cosmopolitisme méditerranéen: ré-flexions et interrogations. *Cahiers de la Méditerranée*, 67/2003 (online).

Friedman, J., & Rabau, S. (2000). Des racines et (dé)routes. Tropes pour trekkers. *L'Homme*, 156, 187–206.

Fuccaro, N. (2009). Histories of City and state in the Persian Gulf. In *Manama since 1800*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gardner, A. (2010). *City of strangers: Gulf migration and the Indian community in Bahrain*. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Gavin, R. J. (1975). *Aden under British rule. 1839–1967*. London: Hurst.

Gekas, A. (Sakis). (2009). Class and cosmopolitanism: The historiographical fortunes of merchants in eastern Mediterranean ports. *Mediterranean Historical Review*, 24(2), 95–114.

Hanley, W. (2008). Grieving cosmopolitanism in Middle East studies. *History Compass*, 6(5), 1346–1367.

Ilbert, R. (1991). De Beyrouth à Alger, la fin d'un ordre urbain. *Vingtième Siècle*, 32, 15–32.

Ilbert, R. (1992). Alexandrie cosmopolite. In P. Dumont & F. Georgeon (Eds.), *Villes ottomanes à la fin de l'empire* (pp. 171–185). Paris: L'Harmattan.

Lackner, H. (1985). *P. D. R. Yemen: Outpost of socialist development in Arabia*. London: Ithaca Press.

Lefebvre, H. (2000). *La production de l'espace*. Paris: Anthropos.
that are made of public space, the forms of anonymity and sociability that can be
observed, and the various forms of cosmopolitanism, including “discrepant cosmo-
politanism,” in each Arab city.

References

Agier, M. (2013). *La Condition cosmopolite. L'anthropologie à l'épreuve du piège identitaire*. Paris, La Découverte.

Al-Muqri, A. (2014). *Bukhûr Adanî*. Beirut: Dar Al-Saqi.

Bader, A. (2014, July 20–21). Adieu Bagdad la cosmopolite! *Le Monde*, p. 16.

Bayat, A. (2010). *Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East*. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bellamy, R., & Castiglione, D. (1998). Between cosmopolis and community: Three models of rights and democracy within the European Union. In D. Archibugi, D. Held, & M. Köhler (Eds.), *Reimagining political community* (pp. 152–178). Oxford: Polity Press.

Bujra, A. (1971). *The politics of stratification: A study of political change in a south Arabian town*. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Calhoun, C. (2002). The class consciousness of frequent travellers: Towards a critique of actually existing cosmopolitanism. In S. Vertovec & R. Cohen (Eds.), *Conceiving cosmopolitanism. theory, context, and practice* (pp. 86–109). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Corm, G. (1998). Le Liban dans les filets séculaires de la glo balisation. *Les Cahiers de l'Orient*, 52, 15–27.

Dahlgren, S. (2010). *Contesting realities: The public sphere and morality in southern Yemen*. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

de Koning, A. (2009). *Global dreams: Class, gender, and public space in cosmopolitan Cairo*. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Driessen, H. (2005). Mediterranean port cities: Cosmopolitanism reconsidered. *History and Anthropology*, 16(1), 137.

Eldem, E. (2013). Istanbul as a cosmopolitan city. Myths and realities. In A. Quayson & G. Daswani (Eds.), *A companion to diaspora and transnationalism* (pp. 212–230). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Escallier, R. (2003). Le cosmopolitisme méditerranéen: ré-flexions et interrogations. *Cahiers de la Méditerranée*, 67/2003 (online).

Friedman, J., & Rabau, S. (2000). Des racines et (dé)routes. Tropes pour trekkers. *L'Homme*, 156, 187–206.

Fuccaro, N. (2009). Histories of City and state in the Persian Gulf. In *Manama since 1800*. Cambridge: Cambridge University.

Gardner, A. (2010). *City of strangers: Gulf migration and the Indian community in Bahrain*. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Gavin, R. J. (1975). *Aden under British rule. 1839–1967*. London: Hurst.

Gekas, A. (Sakis). (2009). Class and cosmopolitanism: The historiographical fortunes of merchants in eastern Mediterranean ports. *Mediterranean Historical Review*, 24(2), 95–114.

Hanley, W. (2008). Grieving cosmopolitanism in Middle East studies. *History Compass*, 6(5), 1346–1367.

Ilbert, R. (1991). De Beyrouth à Alger, la fin d'un ordre urbain. *Vingtième Siècle*, 32, 15–32.

Ilbert, R. (1992). Alexandrie cosmopolite. In P. Dumont & F. Georgeon (Eds.), *Villes ottomanes à la fin de l'empire* (pp. 171–185). Paris: L'Harmattan.

Lackner, H. (1985). *P. D. R. Yemen: Outpost of socialist development in Arabia*. London: Ithaca Press.

Lefebvre, H. (2000). *La production de l'espace*. Paris: Anthropos.
Lefebvre, H., & Régulier, C. (1986). Essai de rythmanalyse des villes méditerranéennes. *Peuples méditerranéens*, 37, 5–16.

Lofland, L. H. (1973). *A world of strangers: Order and action in urban public space*. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.

Mansel, P. (2010). *Levant: Splendour and catastrophe on the Mediterranean*. London: John Murray.

Mermier, F. (2011). Yaman–Ethnology and social structure of the Yemeni highlands. *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 9, 276–277.

Mermier, F. (2011). Souk et citadinité dans le monde arabe. In F. Mermier & M. Peraldi (Eds.), *Mondes et places du marché en Méditerranée. Formes sociales et spatiales de l'échange* (pp. 19–42). Paris: Karthala/CJB/IFPO.

Métral, J. (1995). Ordres urbains et cosmopolismes en Méditerranée orientale. In I. Joseph (Ed.), *Prendre place. Espace public et culture dramatique* (pp. 261–271). Paris: Editions Recherche/Plan Urbain, Association des Amis de Pontigny-Cerisy.

Peterson, M. A. (2011). *Connected in Cairo: Growing up cosmopolitan in the modern Middle East*. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Singerman, D., & Amar, P. (2006). Contesting myths, critiquing cosmopolitanism, and creating the New Cairo School of Urban studies. In D. Singerman & P. Amar (Eds.), *Cairo Cosmopolitan. politics, culture, and urban space in the new globalized Middle East* (pp. 3–43). Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Stookey, R. (1982). *South Yemen: A Marxist republic in Yemen*. London: Westview Press.

Trivellato, F. (2009). *The familiarity of strangers: The Sephardic diaspora, Livorno, and cross-cultural trade in the early modern period*. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Vignal, L., & Denis, E. (2006). Cairo as regional/Global economic capital. In D. Singerman & P. Amar (Eds.), *Cairo cosmopolitan: Politics, culture, and urban space in the new globalized Middle East* (pp. 99–151). Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Werbner, P. (2008). The cosmopolitan encounter: Social anthropology and the kindness of strangers. In P. Webner (Ed.), *Anthropology and the new cosmopolitanism* (pp. 47–68). Oxford: Berg.

Zayn, A. (2015). *Steamer point*. Beirut/Cairo: Dar al-Tanwir.

Zubaida, S. (1999). Cosmopolitanism and the Middle East. In R. Meijer (Ed.), *Cosmopolitanism, identity and authenticity in the Middle East* (pp. 15–33). Richmond: Curzon.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>
Lefebvre, H., & Régulier, C. (1986). Essai de rythmanalyse des villes méditerranéennes. *Peuples méditerranéens*, 37, 5–16.

Lofland, L. H. (1973). *A world of strangers: Order and action in urban public space*. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.

Mansel, P. (2010). *Levant: Splendour and catastrophe on the Mediterranean*. London: John Murray.

Mermier, F. (2011). Yaman–Ethnology and social structure of the Yemeni highlands. *Encyclopaedia of Islam*, 9, 276–277.

Mermier, F. (2011). Souk et citadinité dans le monde arabe. In F. Mermier & M. Peraldi (Eds.), *Mondes et places du marché en Méditerranée. Formes sociales et spatiales de l'échange* (pp. 19–42). Paris: Karthala/CJB/IFPO.

Métral, J. (1995). Ordres urbains et cosmopolismes en Méditerranée orientale. In I. Joseph (Ed.), *Prendre place. Espace public et culture dramatique* (pp. 261–271). Paris: Editions Recherche/Plan Urbain, Association des Amis de Pontigny-Cerisy.

Peterson, M. A. (2011). *Connected in Cairo: Growing up cosmopolitan in the modern Middle East*. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Singerman, D., & Amar, P. (2006). Contesting myths, critiquing cosmopolitanism, and creating the New Cairo School of Urban studies. In D. Singerman & P. Amar (Eds.), *Cairo Cosmopolitan. politics, culture, and urban space in the new globalized Middle East* (pp. 3–43). Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Stookey, R. (1982). *South Yemen: A Marxist republic in Yemen*. London: Westview Press.

Trivellato, F. (2009). *The familiarity of strangers: The Sephardic diaspora, Livorno, and cross-cultural trade in the early modern period*. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Vignal, L., & Denis, E. (2006). Cairo as regional/Global economic capital. In D. Singerman & P. Amar (Eds.), *Cairo cosmopolitan: Politics, culture, and urban space in the new globalized Middle East* (pp. 99–151). Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Werbner, P. (2008). The cosmopolitan encounter: Social anthropology and the kindness of strangers. In P. Webner (Ed.), *Anthropology and the new cosmopolitanism* (pp. 47–68). Oxford: Berg.

Zayn, A. (2015). *Steamer point*. Beirut/Cairo: Dar al-Tanwir.

Zubaida, S. (1999). Cosmopolitanism and the Middle East. In R. Meijer (Ed.), *Cosmopolitanism, identity and authenticity in the Middle East* (pp. 15–33). Richmond: Curzon.

**Open Access** This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>
Part II

Urbanity and Everyday Cosmopolitanism
in Ordinary Places
Part II

Urbanity and Everyday Cosmopolitanism
in Ordinary Places
Chapter 6

Cosmopolitan Dubai: Consumption
and Segregation in a Global City

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

Check for
updates

Delphine Pagès-El Karoui

**6.1 Introduction**

The tremendous rise of Dubai has been based upon aggressive strategies of post-oil diversification. To gain world recognition, Dubai has also played the card of the global city. The “corporate city” has deployed a spectacular urbanism and developed globalized landscapes to promote a new model of urbanity for an ultra-consumerist, leisure society (Kanna 2011; Davidson 2008). This rapid economic development has turned Dubai in a major hub for commerce, finance, real estate and tourism, attracting people from all over the world. Among other amazing records (largest mall, biggest airport, most luxurious hotel), Dubai now detains the one as the most cosmopolitan city, with 91% of its residents being foreign.

Interesting enough, despite the cosmopolitan turn in the social sciences (Delanty 2009), research on cosmopolitanism applied to Dubai remains underdeveloped (Bayat 2008; Masad 2008; Pagès-El Karoui 2018) when compared to the wealth of literature about other Middle East cities (see Mermier in this book) and cosmopolitan colonial Alexandria. Cosmopolitanism in Dubai is necessarily paradoxical because non-integrative: its extremely diverse society (more than 200 nationalities coexisting together) is highly marked by strong social and racial hierarchies and an intense segregation. In this Gulf monarchy ruled as an ethnocracy (Longva 2005), Emirati nationals are a small minority. The non-integrative context of migration policies (see Assaf and Thiollet in this book) sets a profound divide between nationals, who benefit from the redistribution of wealth and the welfare state, and foreigners, who are deliberately excluded from state largesse and live in a precarious and transient status (Elsheshtawy 2019; Khalaf et al. 2014). They remain “impossible

D. Pagès-El Karoui (✉)

CERMOM, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, IC Migrations,
Paris, France
Chapter 6

Cosmopolitan Dubai: Consumption
and Segregation in a Global City

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

Check for
updates

Delphine Pagès-El Karoui

**6.1 Introduction**

The tremendous rise of Dubai has been based upon aggressive strategies of post-oil diversification. To gain world recognition, Dubai has also played the card of the global city. The “corporate city” has deployed a spectacular urbanism and developed globalized landscapes to promote a new model of urbanity for an ultra-consumerist, leisure society (Kanna 2011; Davidson 2008). This rapid economic development has turned Dubai in a major hub for commerce, finance, real estate and tourism, attracting people from all over the world. Among other amazing records (largest mall, biggest airport, most luxurious hotel), Dubai now detains the one as the most cosmopolitan city, with 91% of its residents being foreign.

Interesting enough, despite the cosmopolitan turn in the social sciences (Delanty 2009), research on cosmopolitanism applied to Dubai remains underdeveloped (Bayat 2008; Masad 2008; Pagès-El Karoui 2018) when compared to the wealth of literature about other Middle East cities (see Mermier in this book) and cosmopolitan colonial Alexandria. Cosmopolitanism in Dubai is necessarily paradoxical because non-integrative: its extremely diverse society (more than 200 nationalities coexisting together) is highly marked by strong social and racial hierarchies and an intense segregation. In this Gulf monarchy ruled as an ethnocracy (Longva 2005), Emirati nationals are a small minority. The non-integrative context of migration policies (see Assaf and Thiollet in this book) sets a profound divide between nationals, who benefit from the redistribution of wealth and the welfare state, and foreigners, who are deliberately excluded from state largesse and live in a precarious and transient status (Elsheshtawy 2019; Khalaf et al. 2014). They remain “impossible

D. Pagès-El Karoui (✉)

CERMOM, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, IC Migrations,
Paris, France
citizens” (Vora 2013) who can be deported at any time, whatever the length of their stay in Dubai.

Although Dubai and the UAE are increasingly promoting “tolerance” policies (Pagès-El Karoui, forthcoming 2021b), they are far from offering a real cosmopolitan political project which would imply, for instance, more integrative policies for foreigners. In such a context, the use of cosmopolitanism may be problematic when considering its normative dimension. In this case, Dubai seems to embody a superficial or pseudo-“cosmopolitanism” “which focuses only on the use of the lifestyle of other cultures to enrich one’s material life without normative engagement” (Delanty 2009, 220). This idea is applied to the case of Dubai by the French geographer Denis Retaillé in his book on the places of globalization. He speaks of Dubai in terms of a “cosmopolitisme de décor” [surface cosmopolitanism] (2012, 16). He opposes Dubai’s current “fake” cosmopolitanism with the more “authentic” and inclusive cosmopolitanism in the pre-oil period that arose out of trade and commerce around the Indian Ocean. In doing so, Retaillé reproduces both the traditional debate between “superficial” and “authentic” cosmopolitanism (Molz 2011) and the common account of contemporary Dubai as ostentatious and soulless.

Provocatively, I argue that even if we reject the normative stance of traditional notions of cosmopolitanism, it is still an important heuristic concept, provided that it is empirically grounded, for thinking about diversity in multicultural cities (Pagès-El Karoui, forthcoming 2021a). Contributions to the theory of cosmopolitanism can emerge from non-normative approaches of the concept. Instead of discarding cosmopolitan as fake and superficial, how could we describe its specificities in the Gulf context? So, the real question is not whether Dubai is a cosmopolitan city but, rather, what kind of cosmopolitanism does Dubai embody?

There are two different ways of defining a cosmopolitan city. First, in a sense closely linked to cultural globalization (echoing the idea that cosmopolitanism is a cultural orientation towards globalization), a cosmopolitan city is a place open to the world, where inhabitants’ practices and landscapes are strongly influenced by lifestyles, ideas, and products coming from elsewhere. This is how, in a context totally disconnected from migration, Latham (2006) has described Auckland, sharply contrasting the emergence of new bars, restaurants and cafés inspired by France or Italy to local pubs. Second, a cosmopolitan city may refer to a place people of diverse origins and backgrounds live and coexist, whatever the degree of interaction between them (although some scholars would restrict its use only to strong interactions, which is not my case). This plurality may be either the result of past or current migrations or of an internal ethnic diversity.

Dubai embodies perfectly this double meaning of the cosmopolitan city with its cosmopolitan landscapes (for instance, its bars and restaurants offering food and drinks from all over the world) and the hyper diversity of its population. To characterize Dubai's cosmopolitanism, we need to articulate it with three core concepts, consumption, segregation and globalization (which serves as a backdrop to the first two terms). In the first part of this chapter, I explore cosmopolitanism in Dubai through this nexus between consumption, segregation, and globalization. Then, through two case studies, I illustrate how the state and its corporations shape some