Why Community Still Matters in an Increasingly Digital Gulf

The Gulf is growing into one of the most information connected regions globally. Thanks to smart phones, artificial intelligence, and smart government platforms and cashless services, the way of working, shopping and communicating, as well as accessing public services is being revolutionized in most parts of the world.

There’s a paradox at the very center of this metamorphosis, however. The nearer the Gulf gets to its digitalized future, the more significant its physical communities will grow. While technology can make life more efficient, certain aspects like trust, belonging or social solidarity can not be generated automatically.

The Majlis Has Survived Every Technological Revolution

Very few institutions embody this attitude more so than traditional Majlis. It has been in use for centuries and has been a meeting point for families, elders, businesspeople and community members to connect, discuss and debate issues, as well as to settle disputes.

The optimum functioning of the modern Gulf may involve electronic communications and correspondence companies, and control of government services using the internet, but the concept of the Majlis is still valid. Important relationships are further enhanced by conversation, visit and in-person conversation.

In this, Ibn Khaldun’s notion of social solidarity, asabiyyah, in the general sense, is reflected. Fostered here is the concept of shared connections, which is quite “new” in that it is still highly original as a concept even if it is potentially older forms of terminology: societies require bonds of commonality that technology could produce.

Smart Cities Need Human Spaces

The Gulf’s aspirations for the cities are building new communities. Modern infrastructure has captured international attention with spectacular mega-projects in Saudi Arabia, expanding residential and business districts in Dubai.Built structures, ranging from mega-projects in Saudi Arabia to growing districts of homes and businesses in Dubai, have drawn the masses from all around the world.

That variegation is a tremendous power but at the same time may be an anonymous sense. Some people live in a highly sophisticated city and have many friends to chat with online and yet they still miss the buzz of their neighbor’s shirts out the front door.

That’s why parks, cultural facilities and sporting venues, community cafés and events are important. They can help create informal settings in which individuals can get to know one another, and then slowly build up rapport.

Relationships Remain the Currency of Business

It’s never been so easy to recruit, research a company’s worthiness for investment, or even plot a course through a business, but relationships are critical for commercial trust.

A pitch deck may be sent by email, a video conference set up, and some due diligence processed digitally by the startup. However, a partnership can still fall through or succeed based on a trusted introduction or face-to-face meeting.

This is not just the issue of wasta. Reputation, reliability and mutual confidence – at its best these are the foundations of a business-to-business relationship. Communities can help people learn the nature of the credential, while digital systems can authenticate them.

Rise of the “Phygital” Community

The option of ‘technology vs tradition’ is therefore confusing. In the future, the Gulf is more likely to be phygital: marrying the physical with the digital.

Establish a neighborhood WhatsApp group to make a community assembly. An entrepreneur and a fellow entrepreneur could be introduced via LinkedIn and later connect at a shared workspace. A digital government platform can gather residents’ feedback prior to collaboration time.

Technology becomes more valuable the deeper it helps strengthen the real-life relationship instead of detracting from it.

Young People Need Community Too 

Identity is a gift that community can offer the younger generation in times of tremendous transformation, especially for young people in the gulf.

Cities that are very different from their parents’ are the environment in which young professionals are surrounded. International contacts abound, and career prospects, too, are expanding beyond boundaries of nations and culture.

Community spaces can offer a sense of community culture to youth without having to reject global cultural influences. They can access today’s digital life and experience a connection with language, heritage, family and place.

Gulf’s Digital Future Needs a Human Core

Community should not be a hindrance to modernisation in the Gulf. It should see ‘the community’ as a community of modernization itself.

Not all sensors or algorithms are the same among the smartest cities. The cities might be those where technology facilitates participation, connections, and trust.These are the cities where people can do more with technology to be a part of, connect to, and build trust.

Today the Majlis might have an electronic counterpart, but there still has not been an alteration to its basic functions. Around the desks, or at the table is a form of infrastructure in an increasingly automated gulf that might become one of the most precious assets in the area.

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