IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/253374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Circulation and containment in the knowledge-based economy: Transnational education zones in Dubai and Qatar

Author

Listed:
  • Rottleb, Tim
  • Kleibert, Jana M.

Abstract

Our analysis focuses on evolving global capitalism's production of high-skilled temporary migrant labour through the technology of special economic zones. Drawing on debates in economic geography on zones as globalised spaces of production and interdisciplinary scholarship on economic transformation in the Arabian Peninsula, we interrogate a relatively new type of zone that agglomerates foreign higher education institutions: transnational education zones. We conceptualise these zones as a distinct form of exceptional space produced by aspirations for a knowledge-based economy. Transnational education zones provide financial benefits and legal exemptions to state territory for international higher education investors who operate offshore campuses. By conducting a situated empirical analysis of transnational education zones' logics and mechanisms in Dubai and Qatar, we show how these zones function as sites of circulation and containment that allow governments to harness globally circulating people and institutions for building a knowledge-based economy, while aiming to contain their social and political impact locally. While the underlying contradictions of simultaneous circulation and containment of knowledge and knowledge workers are modulated by the exceptional character of the zones, they cannot be fully resolved. In many ways, transnational education zones constitute a continuation of established strategies for economic development by exception that have been pursued by governments in the Gulf, which aim for global connectivity and rely heavily on controlling a temporary and contingent migrant workforce.

Suggested Citation

  • Rottleb, Tim & Kleibert, Jana M., 2022. "Circulation and containment in the knowledge-based economy: Transnational education zones in Dubai and Qatar," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue (OnlineFi.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:253374
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X221077105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/253374/1/0308518x221077105.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X221077105?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michelle Buckley & Adam Hanieh, 2014. "Diversification by Urbanization: Tracing the Property-Finance Nexus in Dubai and the Gulf," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 155-175, January.
    2. Kleibert, Jana M. & Rottleb, Tim & Schulze, Marc & Bobée, Alice, 2021. "Strategy first: Ten questions to answer before starting an international campus," IRS Dialog 2/2021, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS).
    3. Michael C. Ewers & Edward J. Malecki, 2010. "Leapfrogging Into The Knowledge Economy: Assessing The Economic Development Strategies Of The Arab Gulf States," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 101(5), pages 494-508, December.
    4. Robina Mohammad & James D. Sidaway, 2016. "Shards and Stages: Migrant Lives, Power, and Space Viewed from Doha, Qatar," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(6), pages 1397-1417, November.
    5. Thomas Farole & Gokhan Akinci, 2011. "Special Economic Zones : Progress, Emerging Challenges, and Future Directions," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2341, December.
    6. Adam Hanieh, 2011. "Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-11960-4, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad Daradkeh, 2023. "Exploring the Curvilinear Relationship between Academic-Industry Collaboration Environment and Innovation Performance: A Multilevel Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Bobée, Alice & Kleibert, Jana Maria, 2022. "Choose France! Containment, circulation and postcolonial (dis)continuities in transnational education," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Latest Ar, pages 1-13.
    3. Asghar Abedini & Farshid Aram & Amin Khalili & Meysam Saket Hasanlouei & Hiva Asadi, 2022. "Localization of the Urban Planning Process with the Knowledge-Based Sustainable Development Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michelle Buckley & Adam Hanieh, 2014. "Diversification by Urbanization: Tracing the Property-Finance Nexus in Dubai and the Gulf," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 155-175, January.
    2. Venables, Anthony & Duranton, Gilles, 2018. "Place-Based Policies for Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 12889, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Ronald B. Davies & Rodolphe Desbordes, 2018. "Export Processing Zones and the Composition of Greenfield FDI," Working Papers 201807, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    4. Sharifa Aldarmaki & Bahari Yaakub Kamarul, 2022. "Measurements of Organizational Excellence - Development of Holistic Excellence Practices for Free Zones in Dubai," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 8, January -.
    5. Dirk H M Akkermans, 2017. "Net profit flow per country from 1980 to 2009: The long-term effects of foreign direct investment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-28, June.
    6. Coulibaly, Souleymane, 2012. "Rethinking the form and function of cities in post-Soviet countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6292, The World Bank.
    7. Micheline Riemsdijk, 2013. "Talent Acquisition in the IT Industry in Bangalore: A Multi-Level Study," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 104(4), pages 478-490, September.
    8. Defever, Fabrice & Reyes, José-Daniel & Riaño, Alejandro & Varela, Gonzalo, 2020. "All these worlds are yours, except india: The effectiveness of cash subsidies to export in nepal," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Faudot, Adrien, 2019. "Saudi Arabia and the rentier regime trap: A critical assessment of the plan Vision 2030," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 94-101.
    10. Nadia A. Abdelmegeed Abdelwahed & Bettina Lynda Bastian & Bronwyn P. Wood, 2022. "Women, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability: The Case of Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-18, September.
    11. Louisiana Cavalcanti Teixeira, 2020. "Labor standards and social conditions in free trade zones: the case of the Manaus free trade zone," Post-Print hal-02997102, HAL.
    12. Peter Nijkamp & Robert Stimson & Patricia Van Hemert, 2010. "Human Capital As Knowledge Resource For Regional Development," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 101(5), pages 491-493, December.
    13. Marta Castilho & Marta Menéndez & Aude A. Sztulman, 2015. "Poverty and Inequality Dynamics in Manaus: Legacy of a Free Trade Zone?," Working Papers halshs-01245394, HAL.
    14. Richard Adu-Gyamfi & Simplice A. Asongu & Tinaye S. Mmusi & Herbert Wamalwa & Madei Mangori, 2020. "A comparative study of export processing zones in the wake of sustainable development goals: Cases of Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/025, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    15. Robin Cohen & Nicholas Van Hear, 2017. "Visions of Refugia: territorial and transnational solutions to mass displacement," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 494-504, July.
    16. Lingfan Yang & Xiaolong Luo & Ziyao Ding & Xiaoman Liu & Zongni Gu, 2022. "Restructuring for Growth in Development Zones, China: A Systematic Literature and Policy Review (1984–2022)," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-32, June.
    17. Picarelli, Nathalie, 2016. "Who really benefits from export processing zones? Evidence from Nicaraguan municipalities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66652, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Khan, Karim, 2019. "Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Prospects for the Domestic Economy of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 103337, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. América Ivonne Zamora Torres, 2019. "Cambio tecnológico y eficiencia logística del transporte de carga internacional a través del modelo DEA. (Technological change and efficiency of the logistics system of international freight through t," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 183-204, November.
    20. World Bank, 2017. "Towards Privilege-Resistant Economic Policies in MENA," World Bank Publications - Reports 27525, The World Bank Group.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:253374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.