His work explores the urban experience of city dwellers, focusing on urbanisation in developing societies, informal urbanism, urban history and environment-behaviour studies, particularly in Middle Eastern cities. The author of more than 70 publications, he is an esteemed cultural commentator and has been invited to present his research at international institutions. His multimedia work has been exhibited internationally. Elsheshtawy’s is behind dubaization.com, hailed by The Guardian as one of the leading blogs in the world; and uaemodern.com exploring the modernist urban and architectural landscape of the UAE.