Tracing Makkah’s urban redevelopment: how the convergence of spiritual aspirations and state capitalism shapes urban production in the King Abdulaziz Al Saud Road

Al Sudairy, Jawaher (2023) Tracing Makkah’s urban redevelopment: how the convergence of spiritual aspirations and state capitalism shapes urban production in the King Abdulaziz Al Saud Road. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

In the past decade, the city of Makkah has undergone significant reconstruction that will reproduce the city’s Central District in ways that expands its capacity to accommodate pilgrims and make it more amenable to investment. These ambitions aim to fulfil Makkah’s spiritual promise to receive the transnational Muslim community, as well as elevate its role in contributing to national economic diversification. The expansion of spiritual and economic aspirations triggered an intensification of state investment in development and the release of a series of reforms that are intended to loosen the entry of tourists, counter 'informality’ and standardize service delivery. By focusing on one of the developments carried out in the city, the King Abdulaziz Al Saud Road, this research traces the processes of urban reconstruction from conception to execution, to identify the motivations and capacities that propel development as well as their implications on the city and its residents. My analysis combines the review of archival material and secondary data as well as conducting 38 interviews and site visits to KAAR as well as adjacent and peripheral neighbourhoods in the city that have absorbed expelled residents. I argue that Makkah makes visible how multifarious and even contradictory political and cultural processes are integral to urban production. In a city that remains insulated from globalization, due to religious and state restrictions on foreign investment, restructuring is sustained by the city’s spiritual economy and state investment. Such dynamics highlight how the same forces that trigger restructuring can also impede its realization. This located perspective questions theorizations that see global capitalism as the central force behind urban restructuring or perceive city-making as a primarily secular endeavour. It also interrogates common conceptions related to urban restructuring, primarily gentrification, displacement and resistance, to determine the extent to which they reflect the reality on the ground.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2023 Jawaher Al Sudairy
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD100 Land Use H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Sets:	Departments > Sociology
Supervisor:	Hall, Suzanne and Hertog, Steffen
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4559

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