Geography Teaching Today

Key questions:

• Why is there a construction boom in Dubai?
• What are the human issues behind the rapid development of the city?

Key Concepts:
Place
Environmental Interaction and sustainable development
Physical & human processes
Cultural Understanding and Diversity

Why is there a construction boom in Dubai?
Dubai was a small fishing / pearl village in the18th century. In the 19th / 20th century it was a trading partner with Iran and India. In the 1960 population reached 20,000 and in 1966 oil was discovered. There was a huge increase in wealth which was used to develop Dubai with modern roads schools and hospitals, and superb communications and transport facilities. By 2006 population reached 1.1 million but now oil only accounts for 3% of total income. The economy has been diversified towards tourism and service industries and a third of the world's cranes are working relentlessly to develop Dubai into mega-metropolis. Tourism and increased real estate investment have generated the development of the largest artificial waterfront in the world (Dubai Waterfront) and man-made islands e.g. The Palm and The World. The tallest building in the world (Burj Dubai) is under construction and although its final height is being kept a secret due to competition from other buildings is expected to be over 800m. Luxury hotels (Burj al-Arab) and the World's largest shopping mall are also in Dubai. High-tech industry and business and finance are also driving construction. Dubiotech is a new Biotechnology research and development Park was built as part of Dubai's 2010 vision to establish a knowledge based economy and the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone is a zero tax zone with pro-business laws and regulations where Foreign companies can keep 100% of profits.

What are the human issues behind the rapid development of the city?
The bulk of the construction workforce is composed of poorly paid Asian immigrants, mainly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal who can end up working in dangerous conditions and live in squalid living quarters with little or no protrection. Many of the workers suffer from stress and depression. They often take out loans in order to pay an agent in their home country to find them a job but don't have the assets to get a loan from a bank so go to personal lenders with high interest rates. As a result many workers end up in debt. Labourers were not allowed to strike or form unions to protect themselves from poor treatment in the construction industry until 2007 when the UAE drafted a law that allows labourers to form unions and pursue collective bargaining.

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Starter
Main activity
Plenary

Downloads:

Mohit Mystery

Google Video clip Dubai cranes

Changing Functions of Dubai information sheet