Large investments in the real estate and tourism sectors and rising numbers of tourists and immigrants have led to a sustained boom in Dubai and Las Vegas.

At the same time, against the background of an urban governance and the transfer of competences to private and semi-state actors in both metropolises, a brisk urban transformation has been embarked upon, leading to the creation of countless entertainment, shopping, and artificial worlds. This development is primarily characterised by the theming of everyday life, but above all an “Economy of Fascination”. The casino and hotel landscapes simulating various scenes from Ancient Rome to modern New York, artificial islands in the shapes of palm trees or whole world maps as well as other superlatives in the form of themed shopping malls and sports arenas are the most visible results of these rapid changes. This paper develops guidelines for a research perspective called „Economy of Fascination“ and turns to Dubai and Las Vegas to exemplify the approach. An analytical understanding first builds on general trends and development lines against the backdrop of urban governance, entertainment orientation, and commercialisation. They form the starting point for an analysis of the mechanisms of „attention“ and „fascination“, which are considered to be the main aspects of an „Economy of Fascination“.

In 1960 telde Las Vegas 65 duizend inwoners, vijftig jaar later zijn dat er meer dan twee miljoen. En het aantal toeristen is nog veel imponerender: sinds 2000 zijn het er elk jaar meer dan 35 miljoen, het dubbele aantal van 1989.

Een andere woestijnstad, Dubai, maakte een vergelijkbare explosieve groei door. Tussen 1995 en 2008 vervijfvoudigde het aantal bezoekers tot bijna 8 miljoen. Het aantal reiziger dat aankwam op Dubai International Airport steeg in de zelfde periode van 7 naar 35 miljoen.

De Duitse geograaf Heiko Schmid brengt deze ontwikkelingen en de gangmakers ervan gedetailleerd in beeld in Economy of Fascination. Hij bezocht beide steden herhaaldelijk en sprak er met vele tientallen sleutelfi guren. Ook liet hij studenten honderden straatenquêtes afnemen, maar daarvan vind je weinig terug in het boek. Dat geldt ook voor de theorieën die Schmid in een lang en loodzwaar hoofdstuk over (stedelijke) semiotiek behandelt. De empirische hoofdstukken zijn heel goed te begrijpen zonder alle theoretische refl ecties. Een boek voor wie meer wil weten van Las Vegas en/of Dubai dan wat een reisgids te bieden heeft.

geografie jaargang 19 nummer 6 Juni 2010

Die beiden Wüstenstädte mit ihren Kunstwelten in sehr unterschiedlichen kulturellen Zusammenhängen werden grundsätzlich und vergleichend vorgestellt. Angetrieben von der Ökonomie der Faszination haben sich beide städtische Räume entwickelt und ihre ganz eigene Faszination entwickelt. Aus dem Inhalt: The Themed City; The Economy of Fascination; Dubai and Las Vegas as Examples of Themed Urban Landscapes; Corporate-Driven Governance: Actors and Alliances; Attention-Binding Strategies and Media Staging; The Dark Side of Success; The Significance of an "Economy of Fascination" Reasearch Perspective.

Geographie und Schule 32. Jg., Heft 186, August 2010

Heiko Schmid’s study on “Dubai and Las Vegas as Themed Urban Landscapes” is being published as the 11th volume in the series “Urbanization of the Earth”, a series of urban geographies with an explicit focus on urban structures, forms and functions in regional contexts. Previous volumes in this series covered broad geographical analyses of African, Latin American, Indonesian and Australian cities, followed by more regional surveys on urbanization in China, Saudi-Arabia and Russia and finally by a very focussed study of the city of Istanbul (see review Erdkunde 61 (3), 300). Thus, the present volume marks a distinct shift, not only in its scientific theme and topic, but also in its scope and prevailing research interest: Cities no longer as expressions of regional diversities and historical and/or geographical differentiations, but as expressions of rapidly growing artificiality in an increasingly competitive globalized world.

The very title of the book “Economy of Fascination” and its focus on two more or less artificial urban creations sets the frame: Dubai and Las Vegas. In line with globally developing new lifestyles – especially in societies and economies of advanced standings – an increasingly great number of globally thinking and acting individuals as well as groups (actors) demand and produce new forms of urbanities and urbanisms: Cities as commercialized entertainment centres or – vice versa – commercially attractive entertainments as new forms of everyday life experiences in urban environments. These are the preconditions of an “economy of fascination”, in which “themes” (theme parks, themed shopping malls and/or thematically focussed attractions of different kinds) go hand in hand with increasingly distractive demands by people and the commercial interests of investors, developers and urban administrators. Themed cities – themed urban landscapes – experience orientation – attention and fascination: These are just a few key-words of a new form of urban geography in which the analysis of artificially created urban attention setters and entertainment centres, their successes and failures, are the focus of the research.

Not surprisingly, on the contrary: With good reason and remarkable conviction, Heiko Schmid puts the emphasis of his study on both theoretical and methodological considerations of this new phenomenon of urban developments. After a short characterization of what is to be understood by a “themed city” (Chapter 1), the following more or less theoretical discussion of the research potentials of an “economy of fascination” may well be considered as the crucial and focal chapter of this study (Chapter 2). Based specifically on Franck’s indepth analyses of “attention” as a “new currency” (real and virtual!) and “mental capitalism” as an economic resource, Schmid convincingly outlines the monetary impacts of both attention and fascination on people’s perceptions and behaviours. Their transfer into (urban) semiotics and – from there – into a “theory of symbolic consumption” in combination with basic ideas of action theory create a logical and well-argued foundation for an “Economy of Fascination”, exemplified and summarized in figure 10 of this transdisciplinary based and knowledgeable discussion. Its methodological consequences and its empirical implementation conclude this thoughtful chapter, which goes far beyond its “themed cities” approach, but can claim general validity for forthcoming studies along the lines of an economy and geography of fascination. Chapter 3 is no more than a descriptive introduction and exemplification of what is to be understood by a themed urban landscape, introducing Dubai and Las Vegas as case studies and conspicuous examples of this new form of urban development and economy. As such, however, it serves as an indispensable introduction into the chapters on “Corporate-driven Governance: Actors and Alliances” (Chapter 4), on “Attention- Binding Strategies and Media Staging” (Chapter 5) and finally the sobering and almost contradictory analysis of “The Dark Side of Success” (Chapter 6). In an admirably coherent way, the author succeeds in scrutinising the often very clandestine decision-making processes of different and superficially unequal actors, their elaborate pursuits of marketing strategies as well as their often blunt and simple, yet effective strategies in selling their seemingly attention-deserving and fascinating urban attractions. The more one might have expected a somewhat closer look at the ecological, economic and social problems of these partly virtual, in any case artificial, urban worlds. Their sustainability and their capacities to survive in an increasingly fragile and ecologically and socio-economically vulnerable world may have deserved a somewhat lengthier discussion, especially in view of the fact that both Dubai and Las Vegas have been more or less seriously affected by recent crises.

Volume 11 of the old-established series “Urbanization of the Earth” marks a shift, if not to say a break in the philosophy of that series. It also marks the beginning of a new, different understanding of urban geography. As such, Heiko Schmid – at the same time new editor of the series – presents a refreshingly different and admirably coherent look at the phenomenon of urbanity in a post-industrial economy and society. Not an analysis of regional urban landscapes nor a specific case study, but a problem is the focus of this study. By combining research results and theoretical considerations of a great number of disciplines and amalgamating them into a convincing research design of an “Economy of Fascination”, the author endeavours and succeeds in proposing an innovative approach to urban (geographical) research. The question, however, remains to what extent “attention”, “fascination”, “theming” and related developments will shape urban landscapes in the future and for how long? Increasingly rapid changes of attitudes and behaviours, increasingly short lifespans of specific lifestyles, economic crises: Fascinations come and go! This, however, may be an interesting perspective for the future of “Urbanization of the Earth”. It remains to be seen how this series will develop in the future, to what extent new themes and topics of urban geography will replace the regional approach of the past and what specific aspects of post-modern urbanization trends will be shaping the new profile of “Urbanization of the Earth”.

Eckart Ehlers

ERDKUNDE Heft 65/1 (2011), Seite 89-90