Harvey Molotch and Davide Ponzini present their new book on what Gulf cities can teach today. The New Arab Urban: Gulf Cities of Wealth, Ambition, and Distress reconsiders the reduction of the region to architectural futurism versus environmental backwardness and radical inequality to examine how cities today connect through new patterns of real estate investment, design, and migration, and what we can learn by attending to trends that have emerged in the Gulf and are now appearing in other world regions as well.

They will be joined in conversation by Sarah Moser, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, McGill University.

Harvey Molotch is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at both New York University and University of California, Santa Barbara. His books include Urban Fortunes (with John Logan), Where Stuff Comes From, and Against Security.

Davide Ponzini is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at Politecnico di Milano. Among recent publications, he is co-author of the book Place-Making and Urban Development (with Pier Carlo Palermo) and Starchitecture: Scenes, Actors, and Spectacles in Contemporary Cities (with the photographer Michele Nastasi).