From the Chinguetti mosque to Dubai towers, Extraversion, connections and neo-urban society in a globalized Mauritania
Résumé
In Mauritania, new exchanges and connections entail important spatial and identity changes. As the prospective future physiognomy of the capital city Nouakchott shows, the modern insertion of Mauritania into the global economy has a critical impact on a symbolic dimension, by reference to the Gulf EmiratesThrough this opposition between Chinguetti mosque and Dubai towers, I would enhance the ambivalence of globalization: on one hand, the process is structural and its effects are evident, materializing in economic development and urban changes. But for the great majority of Mauritanians, the globalization is more symbolic than real and gives rise to frustration.