Society in Arabian Gulf States

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The course departs from traditional rentier state theory (RST) and its normative framework of analysis that denies agency to societies in the Gulf Arab states and frames them as passive, dominated by oil revenues. The curriculum provides a meso- and micro-perspective of the sociopolitical dynamics of the Gulf Arab states (i.e., Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). It examines in-depth social transformations at play in the Gulf Arab societies while addressing critical issues, including but not limited, to diversity of social structure, tribal dynamics, gender patterns, youth activism, citizenship and belonging, social hierarchies, labor migration and racial capitalism, neoliberal urban governance, western higher education and knowledge production, entertainment industry, mobilization and dissent, etc. The comprehensiveness of the course is somewhat unavoidable, given the wide range of issues societies in the Gulf Arab states are experiencing. However, the aim of the course is to deconstruct, challenge and de-exceptionalize certain static frames presented as the primary explanatory matrix of these societies with enough detail in the reading materials offered and the hoped-for debates.