Cultureshock Dubai

CultureShock! Dubai is an indispensable guide for anyone planning a stay in the Las Vegas of the Middle East. Within a single generation, Dubai has blossomed from a quiet port city to major business hub with a lion’s share of the global gold trade. The emirate will host the World Expo 2020. Leena Asher draws on her insider knowledge to take visitors through the process of settling in, whether for short or longer stays. From getting an Emirates ID, navigating banking practices and exchanging Islamic greetings to sipping Arabic coffee and camel milk, shopping at the gold, textile and spice souqs and visiting a ski resort in the desert, the book provides complete information on what’s unique about life in Dubai. How do you greet a lady in Dubai? How does one survive the 50 degree celcius desert climate? Did you know that there are gold dispensing ATMs in Dubai? Get the most of out of your stay with this essential and fun-to-read guide! About the Series CultureShock! is a dynamic, comprehensive series of guides for travellers seeking to understand the countries they are visiting, working in or moving to. Each title explains the country’s customs, traditions and social and business etiquette in a lively, informative style. CultureShock! authors have experienced the joys and pitfalls of cultural adaptation and provide warm and helpful advice to those who seek to intergrate into diverse cultures.

CultureShock! Dubai is a survival guide for anyone living, working or wanting to discover life in the City of Gold. - Insights into Dubaians and their culture and traditions - Advice on adapting to the Emirati environment - Essential information on Dubai's history, traditions, beliefs, etiquette, cuisine and leisure activities - Suggestions on how to get the most out of the travel experience - Hints on how to learn the Arabic language and do business - A useful list of Arabic words and phrases and a comprehensive resource guide - A list of books for further reading and interesting websites for additional reference - Lively and humorous illustrations that capture the essence of the text - A section of full-color photographs that give a flavor of the destination

Gives informative tips on the do's and don'ts of custom in the United Arab Emirates and provides interesting insights into the social and business attitudes of the Emirati people.

“Dubai High is that very rare thing: an honest account of a failure. This unsparing memoir of twelve months spent creating Dubai’s cultural authority, in a climate of mingled idealism and opportunism, intimately describes the complexities of working in an epicentre of globalization. It offers a dry but sympathetic view of Dubai’s bewildered Emiratis as they construct, or have constructed for them, a unique 21st-century urban prototype. It is a record not only of how the writer tried to change Dubai, but of how Dubai changed the writer.” Rem Koolhaas, December 2010

Full of people who aim to combine the ancient and the modern, the UAE is an extremely rewarding place to visit. Set on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Gulf, the country was once a poor desert land, a confederation of tribal sheikhdoms on the periphery of the Arab world, subsisting on pearl diving and fishing. It was a British protectorate until independence in 1971, after which seven of the sheikhdoms united to form a federation, the UAE. The discovery of oil in the 1950s transformed the country's fortunes, and the UAE today is a land of contrasts—embracing skyscrapers, high-tech communications, and luxury hotels, while conservative values and religion remain strong. The UAE is a major player in the shifting alliances of the Middle East and the war against radical Islam, simultaneously seeking a global leadership position while maintaining its social systems and slowly integrating women into public life without violating its core beliefs.

Transnational Geographies of the Heart explores the spatialisation of intimacy in everyday life through an analysis of intimate subjectivities in transnational spaces. Draws on ethnographic research with British migrants in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during a phase of rapid globalisation and economic diversification in 2002-2004 Highlights the negotiation of inter-personal relationships as enormously significant in relation to the dialectic of home and migration Includes four empirical chapters focused on the production of ‘expatriate’ subjectivities, community and friendships, sex and romance, and families Demonstrates that a critical analysis of the geographies of intimacy might productively contribute to our understanding of the ways in which intimate subjectivities are embodied, emplaced, and co-produced across binaries of public/private and local/global space