Fragmentation and Continuity in Qatar’s Urbanism: Towards a Hub Vision

Abstract

In the past two decades Doha has witnessed enormous urban growth driven by various projects and strategies, which were launched to realise the vision of a hub city within international networks. Successively, the increasing investments in combination with liberalisation strategies have affected the decentralisation of urban governance, while dramatically transforming Doha’s urban structure and built environment. This chapter explores the recent developments in Qatar’s “urbanism”. The impact of large-scale investments of oil and gas revenues on urbanism in Qatar’s capital city of Doha is discussed to offer insights into recent developments by adopting a multi-layered methodological approach that includes two major components. The first is a series of interviews with experts and planners working on strategies and plans within the public sector, while the second is a review of recently published data and figures regarding investments in relation to positioning Doha as future “hub city”. The methodology helps identify investment strategies and aspects of decentralised urban governance within which urban development is undertaken. The chapter concludes with a brief on how a new form of urban governance may enable the effective implementation of a hub vision in the case of Qatar.