Modernism and the Middle East: Architecture and Politics in the Twentieth Century

10. From Modernism to Globalization: The Middle East in Context

Looking at the problems of cities today, one cannot ignore the revolutionary developments that have occurred in the world since the 1960s. Trends such as the transnationalization of capital, the internationalization of labor, the steady increase in global trading and communication , and the ensuing competition between cities have led individuals, businesses, industries, and governments to attempt to position themselves globally.1 It follows that in a globally compressed world, constituted of national societies that are becoming increasingly aware of their ethnic and racial roots, the conditions for the identification of individual and collective selves become very complex.2 It is important to take into account that any theory of globalization must recognize the distinctive cultural and unequal conditions under which the notion of the “global” was constructed.3 It also becomes di‹cult to comprehend globalization without recognizing the historical specificity of traditional cultures, their colonization, and their later emergence as nation-states. At the heart of all of these issues is the question of identity. We see this very clearly in no place more than we do in the Middle East, where the very problematic traditional/modern dialectic is often invoked. Of course, all societies are constructed in relation to one another and produced, represented, and perceived through the ideologies and narratives of situated discourse.4 For example, the definition of the “Middle East” as a category is very much dependent on the existence of a “West.” Both terms are mainly defined in 255 10 From Modernism to Globalization The Middle East in Context nezar alsayyad diªerence, constructed in opposition to the other, produced in a variety of postcolonialandanticolonialdiscourses,althoughneitherof themconstitutes a monolithic preexisting real subject itself.5 periodizing modernity in the middle east In studying the relationship between the West and the Middle East and its eªect on the corresponding identity of people and architecture, three historic phases may be discerned: the colonial period, the era of independence and nation-state building, and, the most recent phase, globalization. These phases appear to have been accompanied by three respective urban forms: the hybrid, the modern or pseudo-modern, and the postmodern. In this essay, I hope to demonstrate how constructed the notion of the Middle East has been and to show the fluidity of identity under both colonial and global conditions , often invoking examples from Egypt and other Arab counties in the Middle East. But I also want to make explicit that this historical periodization and the attempt to theorize modernity in the entire Middle East will always be an abstract exercise. Generalization about the diverse countries of the Middle East, a fragile geopolitical entity whose existence as a single cultural unit, can and should be always called into question, and may only be justified in the pursuit of general cultural knowledge of the region. Beforetheeraof colonialisminmostof theMiddleEast,settlementslargely took the form of traditionalcommunities under pre-industrialand often insularconditions .Althoughsomeformsof economicexchangeoccurredbetween this world and that of the developed world, curiosity about the “other” was limited. The vernacular forms of dwellings and settlements were shaped primarily by sociocultural concerns and the surrounding natural environments. They also reflected, possibly at the subconscious level, the identity of their inhabitants. Around the middle of the nineteenth century, the world witnessed the rise of modern industrial capitalism and the emergence of organized political dominance, represented by colonialism. The paradigm shift from the traditional to the colonial created a relationship of unequal cultural and socioeconomic exchange. And, if one analyzes the issues of identity in the Middle East, one must take this fact into account and understand the processes by which identity was violated, ignored, distorted, or stereotyped throughout history. For once the “backwardness” of this traditional Middle East population was established (at least in the minds of the great mass of citizens in the colonial motherland), reform was legitimatized. This series of events did not 256 Nezar AlSayyad necessarily have an eªect on the physical fabric of cities; everywhere the colonists went, they introduced their own brand of settlements. The colonization process aªected the overall planning model that determined the patterns of urban development. This was the era when modernist ideas flowed from the countries of the West to the Middle East. Ironically, in the 1950s and 1960s, when many Middle East countries launched their wars of liberation and independence, the colonists resorted to an age-old urban strategy. Hundreds of traditional villages were destroyed in order to...