Urban Sustainability and Transforming Culture in Bahrain

The deserted towns of the Arabian Gulf States were transformed at the beginning of the 20th century into developed cities a few years after the sudden growth in wealth, following the unearthing of oil, one of the main contributors to the transformation of cultures around the world. The effects of the sudden wealth have been a subject of curiosity and concern for many years. Nevertheless, limited attention has been given to the relationship between cultural transformation and urban sustainability in the Arabian Gulf States despite the vast environmental concerns the Gulf is facing today. This sudden urban transformation was argued to be a reflection of the parallel cultural transformation. Limited empirical evidence supports such claims. The study undertaken in this research attempts to investigate this relationship between cultural change and urban sustainability in the Arabian Gulf, with a special focus on the Kingdom of Bahrain.