Setting the Conditions for Going Global: Dubai's Transformations and the Emirati Women

This study investigated how the rapid transformation of Dubai has affected the forms and shape of Emiratis’ consumption. Analysis of participant observations, projective techniques and existential phenomenological interviews with Emirati women living in Dubai uncovered ambivalence about economic power and loss of traditions and strategies for going global including embracing local capital, brand selection and spatiotemporal restrictions. The discussion notes that the global is something that is locally constructed whereby the locals play a key role in developing global structures of common difference.