In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a new form of globally marketed green transition in the Arab Gulf region is emerging. Project like the future city NEOM and Dubai’s Future City are conceptualized to counter climate change through grand new construction and infrastructure projects integrating green technology. This talk presents the framework of a new research project based at Roskilde University. The project hypothesizes that that green transition in the Middle East is not just a matter of technical mitigation and adaptation but just as much a product of political ideas that have consequences for national systems of control and coercion, in that many of the technologies introduced through green tech can be used for surveillance, disinformation, censorship and biometric population control. Where do futurist ideas come from, and what kind of work do they do in society?

Sune Haugbølle's expertise is global political sociology with a focus on the Middle East. he has made significant contributions in three thematic fields: social memory, the history of radical movements, and transnational solidarity. The questions he asks are informed by conceptual debates in global sociology, global history, and Middle East studies. His books and articles touch on central themes in political sociology like mass media, revolution, ideology, incarceration, transitional justice, the state, mobilization, intellectual history, and urban sociology. He draws on long experience from, and networks in, Arab countries and milieus.