Toward Creative Cities: Assessing the Culturally Emerging Creative Doha City- Qatar

Abstract

Through the holistic visionary plan 2032, Qatar is aiming for a future knowledge and economic creative based development. It is taking one main pillar in the country vision strategy to build a well-established human force that will sustain the country growth. Doha City is assigned to be a cultural and creative hub that attracts creative workers from around the globe and establish its local creative human capital. Since the 2011-2016 national development strategy plan varied initiatives have been serving the country to put itself on the creative map such as Katara and Qatar museum authority investments. In that regard, one can raise two essential questions: 1) is this vision enough to start the creative culture economy and reduce its dependency on the oil-based economy to accelerate the creative city growth? 2) or do we need to adjust our city planning to flourish and support Doha creative cultural aspect? This study responds to these questions in the analysis chapter of it through running a comparative study of the creative cultural state of Doha before the strategic plan and after it, to assess the move toward the creative city planning direction. In the end, strategies are proposed to promote the level of activities in Doha physical environment to support its global position.