Gulf Societies Research Articles

Smart cities and communities in the GCC region: from top-down city development to more local approaches

City planners are seeking ways to incorporate human-centric urban projects that combine smart technology, good infrastructure and people’s perception as well as their participation. Smart city developments are increasingly being applied to smaller scales at which communities can co-design hard infrastructure and the resulting services. Experiences from city projects at this level have produced a plethora of designs, challenges and success factors, particularly from cases in countries with long legacies in city development. In the Gulf Cooperation Council region, young cities and new planned cities house the bulk of the population and face environmental challenges related to urban segregation, urban sprawl and large consumption footprints. The political-economy of this region in terms of central urban planning and government-led economic development offers valuable insights on the limits and challenges in implementing projects related to smart and connected communities (SCC). SCC as a label for smart urban interventions towards more connectedness between hard and soft (human-related) infrastructure can provide opportunities for participatory and sustainable urban planning in the region. This paper analyzes the role of community-level interventions within the smart city policies of Gulf countries. It shows that only few local-level projects exist, while the barriers to large-scale SCC initiatives are related to demographics, community characteristics, technological sophistication, lack of conducive regulations, and the prevalence of central urban planning. The success of local smart city approaches in the Gulf is dependent on public leadership in terms of clearing obstacles, designing broader strategies, and expanding projects to include the residential sector. Considering the potential of SCC projects to enhance the transition to sustainability in the predominantly urban Gulf societies, broader engagement of local governments, utilities, and community-level developers can result in tangible benefits in terms of more sustainable, smart and tailored local services.

Components of Society in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

The Arabian Gulf region is considered the first settlement center for the Arabian Gulf community, in terms of the natural extension of the population and their descent from closely related tribes, and similar in characteristics, customs, traditions and tribal customs. After disagreement, rivalry, division and competition over pastures and trade or wars broke out between them, these societies began looking for places to distance themselves from. The Utub tribes descended from the Arabian Peninsula and dispersed on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, in search of trade, fishing, and the search for pearls in the depths of the sea. After the discovery of oil, the Arabian Gulf region became an attractive environment for labor, and was the focus of attention of Arab and Asian countries. And the foreign ones, and the original community mixed with the expatriates and formed a large percentage of the population and took privileges and rights. The system of naturalization and affiliation differs from one country to another in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. It may be easy to obtain Saudi citizenship and difficult to obtain Kuwaiti citizenship. During this, we will present the research by reading each Arab Gulf societies.

Towards building a strategy to direct changes in Gulf society: A study of the Grounded theory of adaptation to the Covid-19 (An interactive participatory study)

الأهداف: هدفت الدراسة إلى الإجابة عن السؤال الآتي: ما أفضل الأُطُر لبناء إستراتيجية لتوجيه التغير في المجتمع الخليجي؟ المنهج: تبنت الدراسة منهجية النظرية المجذّرة لتحقيق هدف الدراسة، وهو الوصول إلى إطار مفاهيمي يسهل عملية بناء إستراتيجية لتوجيه التغير الاجتماعي داخل عينة الدراسة التي اشتملت على أربع من دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي. النتائج: توصلت الدراسة إلى صياغة نموذج المربع الإستراتيجي ليعبر عن الإطار المفاهيمي، وهو يحوي بعدين، هما: البعد الفردي، والبعد المؤسسي، ويعبران عن المستويين (المايكرو، والماكرو) داخل البناء الاجتماعي، ويرتكز التغير داخل المستويين في أربعة محاور، وهي: الأنظمة والإجراءات، التدريب والتطوير، التقنية الرقمية، الوعي والأولويات. الخاتمة: قدّمت الدراسة عدة توصياتٍ، من أبرزها: إنشاء مركز مختص لتتبع وقياس التغيرات والمستجدات وتقديم حلول استباقية لتجنب الآثار السلبية لذلك التغير على المجتمع.

Gulf Studies: The Imperatives of Area Studies in the Gulf Region

Area Studies is in crisis, but research on Area Studies also demonstrates the relevance of and need for Area Studies through case studies in different world regions. However, there is a dearth of research on the imperatives of Gulf Area Studies in the Gulf region, which provides the rationale for this study. This study examines the imperatives of Gulf studies by addressing a wide range of questions: Why is Area Studies still relevant? What are the challenges and prospects for Area Studies in general and Gulf studies in particular? What makes a region a region and, therefore, an area of interest and research? Why is it necessary to produce Gulf-specific knowledge? What are the ways forward for Gulf studies? This paper addresses these questions within three broad themes: debates in Area Studies, the Gulf as a region, and Gulf studies within the Gulf region. Drawing on the existing scholarship, we argue that producing area-specific knowledge in the Gulf is not a luxury, but rather a necessity, despite its challenges. Decentering Gulf studies away from the Western academic umbrella to the Gulf region is a crucial move with far-reaching implications for the field of Gulf studies. However, the discipline of Gulf studies must evolve, and fundamentally reposition itself in order to keep pace with rapidly transforming Gulf society in the years to come.

Assessing the Labor Conditions of Migrant Domestic Workers in the Arab Gulf States

Millions of migrant domestic workers—the vast majority of whom are women—are employed in households across Arab Gulf societies. Despite the ubiquitous presence of these foreign workers in Gulf households, little systematic information exists regarding the working conditions and treatment of this population. Findings from a survey of Filipino and Indonesian women who were previously employed as migrant domestic workers in the Arab Gulf states suggest that more than half of households subjected workers to at least one form of mistreatment. The most common forms included excessive working hours, late payment of salary, and denial of one day off per week. A smaller percentage of women reported limited access to food and medical care, mistreatment that is correlated with physical and emotional abuse. Understanding more about the extent of mistreatment—and the correlates of abuse—assists in the development of remedies aimed at improving workplace conditions.

Cultivation in Normalization Drama: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Um Haroun Series

This study aims to identify the role that Gulf drama plays in influencing Arab viewers' opinion about normalization with the Israeli occupation state and the potential impact of this drama's discourse on the relationship between the Arab masses and the Palestinian people. It also recognizes the messages that promote the normalization of the series Um Haroun contains. MBC broadcasted Um Haroun during the month of Ramadan 2020. In this study, we investigated the series within its temporal and social context-based framing and cultivation theories. The analytical model adopted for this study is Fairclough's three stages of Critical Discourse Analysis to gain insights into the covert messages in the series as this model includes description, interpretation, and explanation. The analysis revealed that the series of Um Haroun contains messages that encourage normalization between Arabs and the Israeli occupation state, especially cultural normalization. The directors of the series practiced and institutionalized a clear framing process in a way that serves the discourse of the ruling authorities and the powerful elements in the Gulf society, to the detriment of the less powerful. They did this in several ways, including, for instance, re-framing historical events and facts to promote the idea of the Abrahamic faith covertly by endorsing concepts of coexistence and common destiny for the followers of the three religions. Considerably more work will need to be done to explore the attempts of Arab drama in changing the awareness of Arab people and influencing public opinion.

Küreselleşmenin Körfez Ülkelerindeki Etkisi ve Kadınların Değişen Rolleri: Arabistan, Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri ve Katar Üzerinden Karşılaştırmalı Bir Çalışma

The role of women in the Gulf societies has been under the influence of dramatic transformation in economy and social life in the last 30 years. The aim of the study is to examine the changing role of women in economic, political and cultural life in the Gulf societies. In the study three Gulf countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are taken as examples. The tiny country of the Gulf, Qatar, has conservative local tradition but at the same time has witnessed a rapid change in its economic, social and political life. The UAE has become the heart of economic activities in the region and is trying to integrate herself in to the global world. Saudi Arabia is the most traditional country in the Gulf and women's rights in Saudi Arabia have been severely restricted. So, it is worth to investigate the transformation of the women’s role in these three different Gulf countries. Also in the study, the influence of royal women on the modernization of women in the Gulf is discussed. Findings of the study reveal similarities and differences for the changing roles of women in these countries.

Patterns of Social Interaction and Lifeways which Affect Health and Healthcare of Families in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States

Background: Lifeways of Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf States form a unique pattern. A large portion of healthcare providers are foreign nationals. Purpose: The absence of insight into these unique lifeways by healthcare providers may limit their caring activities. Review of related literature has suggested that dissonance between clients and care providers may be a barrier to care. Method: Purnell’s Cultural Competency framework was utilized to focus on communication, family roles and organization, developmental tasks, social status, family dynamics, workforce issues, biocultural ecology, high-risk behavior, physical activity, nutrition, pregnancy, fertility, birth, spirituality, and death from the standpoint of healthcare delivery. Results: Each of the sectors discussed illuminate important ways in which Saudi and Gulf society are similar and different from the body of research related to this area. Conclusion: This inquiry has added perspectives which may be useful for provision of care by healthcare practitioners who are unfamiliar with some of the health related lifeways in Saudi Arabia and Gulf. Keywords: Lifeways; Health; Healthcare; Families; Gulf-States

A study of chemical Composition, Antioxidants, and volatile compounds in roasted Arabic coffee

Coffea arabica (Rubiaceae) is a basic drink for all Gulf societies, especially Saudi Arabia, it is the main part of the Saudi tradition. This investigation was carried out to track the chemical composition, caffeine content by UV–visible spectrophotometer, acrylamidecontent by using a gas chromatograph, free radical scavenging capacity by DPPH methods as well as determined the browning index and separated the volatiles compounds using GC–MS for the most common three degree of roasted Arabic coffee; light (180 ± 10 °C; 6.0 ± 1.0 min), medium (180 ± 10 °C; 8.0 ± 1.0 min), and dark (180 ± 10 °C; 10.0 ± 1.0 min). Data revealed that light roasted coffee has the highest significant (p < 0.05) value of moisture content (4.80%), crude protein (13.05%), and lowest value of ether extract (10.39%) and crude fiber (24.24%). The caffeine content was found to be 1.13% in light coffee, which increased to 1.17% in medium coffee, then decreased to 1.08% in dark coffee. The quantity of acrylamide detected in light roasted coffee (0.41 mg/100 g) was the greatest, whereas medium roasted coffee comparatively produced low amounts (0.31 mg/100 g). The light roasted coffee gave the highest antioxidant activity (88.72 mg TE/g), while the dark roasted coffee gave the least activity (78.76 mg TE/g). Browning index increases with roasting time. Hydrocarbons, alcohols, and esters were the most represented in roasted coffee headspace. Silanes and sec-butyl nitrite compounds were absent in the medium roasted headspace. Except for amines, all 11 classes of volatile compounds were present in the headspace of dark roasted coffee.

Challenges of Low Carbon Public Transport Systems in the Arabian Gulf City: Case of Muscat, Oman

The Arabian Gulf cities are growing. The gulf cooperation council states (GCCs) are among the richest and most urbanized in the world. As a major focus on sustainable development of cities, sustainable transportation acts to diminish the city’s energy consumption by providing a public transport system that has greater ecological obligation and societal justice. The study’s significance is to figure out the challenges in the sector of public transport in the city of Muscat. The wide spread of mass transportation plays a significant role in reducing the exhaustion of energy. Also, it contributes to make a better living experience. Provision of sustainable public transport will prevent the increasing number of motor cars and equally accompanied environmental pollution and traffic congestion. The study is based on an in-depth quantitative and qualitative research method to explore the hindrances that are encountered in the way of building sustainable infrastructure of public transport. The findings of the study revealed that public transport system face real challenges in Gulf region, particularly in Muscat. It indicated that for the well-being of Gulf society, the use of public transportation was encouraged and most of the population have their own cars. In addition to it, cultural and social preservations are raised, mainly by the people that act against the operation of public transport system. Due to the substantial effect of clean and sustainable transportation on energy consumption levels, recent years have been marked with a notable trend towards sustainable and low carbon systems, particularly the mass transportation ones.

Militarism and the Bedouin: Intersections of colonialism, gender, and race in the Arab Gulf

This article investigates the development of militarism in the Arab Gulf using the militarized representation of the Bedouin and their poetic tradition as a site for its analysis. The article traces the ways in which Bedouin ‘martial masculinities’ and Bedouin culture have been appropriated and transformed by British colonialism and postcolonial nationalisms to produce unusual patterns of militarism within the Gulf. It addresses a gap in international relations and security studies literature, in which militarism is examined through state-centric and methodologically nationalist framings that largely overlook transnational and colonial histories. The article argues that contemporary displays of militarism by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates should be read in relation to how colonialism engendered militarism across the Gulf region through the paradoxical representation of the Bedouin as a ‘martial race’ whose martial-ness was also seen as a security ‘threat’ for the colonial/postcolonial state. Militarized responses and rationalities were normalized within Gulf society through the ‘Bedouin warrior’ stereotype, which served as a timeless and fixed construct, connecting the Gulf’s disjointed past to its present-day context. Significantly, the ‘Bedouin warrior’ stereotype helps foster the belief that stability and historical continuity underpin state-modernization processes in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The article’s intervention seeks to disrupt this continuity by looking at how militarism and its martial constructs created ruptures in state trajectories, using the example of the 1996 coup attempt, citizen revocations, and the depoliticization of the poetic act as evidence for the claim that militarism engenders particular insecurities for Bedouin populations in the Arab Gulf.

Disarming the periphery: Inter-war arms control, British imperialism and the Persian Gulf

Drawing on research on the international disarmament efforts of the inter-war years as well as on arms control in the empires, this article argues that arms control in the imperial periphery was an integral and very tangible part of the inter-war years’ international disarmament policies. It demonstrates that arms control in the periphery was conceived by the imperial actors involved as a pivotal part of the disarmament policies and that the disarmament policies had far-reaching consequences for the imperial periphery. The study uses archival sources to investigate the arms control in the Persian Gulf as a case study for the consequences of the disarmament policies in the imperial periphery. By analysing the goals and ends British imperial actors sought to achieve through arms control and particularly arms trade controls in the Gulf, this approach deepens the understanding of imperial disarmament policies beyond the mere assessment that they were somehow important to imperialism. It moreover diversifies and rectifies the understanding of the ‘peace’ that was to be achieved by the inter-war disarmament. Furthermore, it analyses the concrete practices and measures that arose out of the inter-war disarmament policies as well as their effects on the actual arms trade in the Gulf. Based on these results, the study investigates how actors from the Gulf itself positioned themselves within these developments, how and why they did or did not take part in them and how the Gulf's societies in general dealt with the disarmament efforts. Hence, by shifting the level of analysis to the imperial periphery itself, the study seeks to expose the global dimension of disarmament policies and their effects on the region, its inhabitants and the imperial order, thereby stressing the importance of this perspective for a comprehensive understanding of inter-war disarmament.

المخططات المعرفية اللاتکيفية المبکرة کمنبئات بهروب الفتيات : دراسة مقارنة

يعتبر هروب الفتيات من أسرهن من الظواهر الدخيلة على المجتمعات الخليجية بشکل عام والتي بدأت بالانتشار في الآونة الأخيرة خاصة بين الفتيات المراهقات. هناک العديد من العوامل النفسية والأسرية والاجتماعية التي يمکن أن يکون لها دور في إقدام الفتاة المراهقة على هذا الفعل والذي له آثار خطيرة عليها وأسرتها ويهدد النسيج المجتمعي ککل. تهدف الدراسة الحالية إلى تناول دور المخططات المعرفية اللاتکيفية المبکرة کعوامل منبئة بهروب الفتيات بمنطقة مکة المکرمة. تکونت عينة الدراسة من جميع الفتيات الهاربات من أسرهن المقيمات في دار الرعاية الاجتماعية بجدة (ن= 33) ومجموعة ضابطة من الفتيات اللاتي لم يسبقن لهن محاولة الهرب (ن=44) في المدي العمري من 13- 20 عاما. طبق عليهن مقياس يونج للمخططات المعرفية اللاتکيفية المبکرة واستمارة بيانات ديموغرافية. تم استخدام اختبار t-test لعينتين مستقلتين والتحليل التمييزي لتحليل البيانات. توصلت الدارسة إلى عدة نتائج منها وجود فروق بين الهاربات وغير الهاربات في المخططات المعرفية اللاتکيفية المبکرة لصالح الهاربات، وأن أکثر المخططات المعرفية اللاتکيفية المبکرة تنبؤا بهروب الفتيات هي مخططات الحرمان العاطفي، الشک والتعدي والتبعية وعدم الکفاءة. أوصت الدراسة بتطوير البرامج التي تساعد المراهقين على التعبير عن الصعوبات النفسية والعاطفية، وضرورة التثقيف الوقائي للأسر عن أساليب التنشئة السوية وطرق اشباع حاجات الأبناء. The runaway of girls from their families is a peculiar phenomenon to the Gulf societies that began to spread recently, especially among adolescent females. There are many psychological, family, and social factors that can have a role in the teenage girl taking this act, which has serious implications for her, the family and threatens the community fabric as a whole. This study aims to investigate the role of early maladaptive cognitive schema as predictor of the girls' runway in in Makka Al-Mukarramah region. The sample of the study consisted of all runaway girls residing in the social care home in Jeddah(n=33) and control group of non-runaway girls (n=44) with age ranging from 13 to 20 years old .Young's scale of early maladaptive cognitive schema and a demographic data form were applied to them. Two independent samples t-test and discriminate analysis were used to for analysis of the data . The study reached several results, including the existence of differences between runaways and non-runaway girls in early maladaptive cognitive schema in favor of runaways, and that the most early maladaptive cognitive schema predicting girl's runaway are emotional deprivation, mistrust abuse, and dependence and incompetence. The study recommended developing programs that help adolescents to express their psychological and emotional difficulties, and the necessity of preventive education for families about the methods of successful socialization and methods of satisfying the needs of their children.

On the Limits of Rentier State Theory: An epistemological Insight

For decades, The rentier state theory has provided the most popular explanations for the sociopolitical dynamics in the Arab Gulf states, however, due to the rapid transformations in the Gulf societies in recent years, the theory went under severe critiques especially after its failure to predict the emergence of a new Gulf social contract after the oil crisis of 2014. This essay has tried to shed the light on one of the missing dimensions of these critiques by arguing that this failure might have occurred because the rentier state theory adhered to an obsolete epistemological paradigm of modernity that was incapable of dealing with such a complex social phenomenon from the beginning. Also, seeking epistemic healing, the essay highlighted the most recent shift in the philosophy of science toward a complexity paradigm and referred to its potentials to exceed the limits of the rentier paradigm.

Art and Migration to the Gulf: Unpacking the “Binary States, India-UAE” Exhibition at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale

This article presents an alternative narrative about the role of transnational migration in Gulf societies, that was developed in the contemporary art scene. It was presented in 2016–17 in the shape of an exhibition at the third Kochi-Muziris Biennale of Contemporary Art in Kerala, South India and explored how contemporary art can provide a space of freedom to address certain delicate issues in the Gulf context. The exhibition was put on by a collective based in Dubai, but was presented abroad at a Biennale located in the state of Kerala that is famous for its massive outmigration to the Middle East. The article examines how this context of production influenced the contents presented at the Biennale, and considers how it may have been received.

Introduction: Ethnographic Perspectives on Cosmopolitanism in the Gulf: State Narratives, Individual Trajectories and Transnational Connections

This introduction offers a general framework to this Special Section which aims to unpack the ambivalences of cosmopolitanism in the Gulf region. It argues that cosmopolitanism is a heuristic concept for the critical analysis of extreme urban diversity in non-Western, non-democratic contexts. Indeed, it acts as a tool for exploring the tensions between logics of exclusion –– underlined by policies that maintain foreign residents outside of the citizenry –– and logics of integration, triggered partly by the competition among global cities to attract talents. While this introduction outlines the many theoretical debates surrounding the notion of cosmopolitanism, the five articles adopt an empirically-grounded approach to display new interdisciplinary perspectives on cosmopolitanism in Gulf societies, based on two overarching observations. First, they deconstruct state narratives of cosmopolitanism as a normative political discourse, with its lexicon of tolerance, diversity and coexistence. Second, they advocate for an understanding of cosmopolitanism built upon the study of individual representations, trajectories, and practices rather than as an ideal of coexistence and openness to the other.

Manipulating Golden Wombs’

Manipulating Golden Wombs’

Information, peer comparison and social interdependence: theorising the impacts of COVID-19 on Gulf domestic politics

This article theorizes three layers of impacts of the Coronavirus crisis on internal GCC politics, and then identifies potential causal mechanisms operating at each level. A first and primary layer concerns governance, and revolves around the state’s performance in managing the virus outbreak. A secondary level relates to scarcity and inequality, and is linked to the state’s handling of economic and social knock-on effects of the pandemic. A tertiary level is connected to peer comparison, and involves GCC states’ (lack of) coordination of political responses at the regional or sub-regional level. Several key factors emerge from the investigation as potent catalysts for new political dynamics in the Arab Gulf states. One is the unusual availability and clarity of information about state performance surrounding Covid-19, which stands in stark contrast to the general lack of reliable governance indicators for GCC and other MENA countries. Another is the universal nature of the Coronavirus shock, which allows Gulf citizens and residents to make direct comparisons of state performance and policy responses that may reveal a disproportionately negative (or positive) personal or collective outcome. Third, the person-to-person transmission of Covid-19 shatters the traditional social and geographical segregation of Gulf societies, with once-isolated communities now directly and profoundly impacted by each other’s behavior, preferences, and incentives. Finally, variation in resource endowments and political institutions across the GCC precludes easy regional harmonization of post-Covid social and economic policy, once more inviting individual comparison with relatively advantaged or disadvantaged peers in neighboring states.

From Economic to Extrinsic Values of Sustainable Energy: Prestige, Neo-Rentierism, and Geopolitics of the Energy Transition in the Arabian Peninsula

Energy transition in the region of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) has recently commenced and is now being implemented through large-scale renewable projects, nuclear plants, and energy efficiency measures in the built environment. This paper highlights how alternative energies are associated with non-economic factors such as prestige, modernity, and (soft or symbolic) power. It analyzes the specific ways of delivering energy diversification in the Gulf through renewable megaprojects, the reorganization of the energy sector, and the incorporation of nuclear energy as an add-on source. These decisions serve GCC states in showcasing modernity, maintaining centralized control, posturing geopolitically, and extending the rent distribution mechanisms. On one hand, the energy transition in the Gulf has been domesticated through policies and strategies suiting the political systems in the region. This can have an acceleration effect on this transition. On the other hand, the implications of the adaptation of the energy transition to the reality of the Gulf remain open. The success of this transition will depend on the ability of GCC states to ecologically modernize the Gulf societies, reduce environmental risks, and enhance GCC-wide cooperation.

THE HISTORICAL APPROACH TO THE "IBN SOULA" NOVEL BY ALI AL-MAMARI

This analytical study discusses the novel bn Soula by the Omani writer Ali Al-Maamari, which shows the truth of the hidden history witnessed in the Arabian Peninsula, which was not mentioned by the books of historians before, the struggle inside it, the demands of external ambitions over its oil and its impact on the Gulf society. Al-Maamari used the history in his novel, when he strives to the imagination and passion that we rarely find in the history books. In order to lead to know the reality of the conditions experienced by the region, and to reveal the mystery lingering in the struggle of Arab oases. The study aims to introduce the author and what the novel is, the relationship of a title to its deep content. Explaining the importance of the novel, and the role of the text in events and facts. And discuss the events and the Gulf's influence on Western oil companies. The researcher adopted; The analytical method, and the descriptive inductive approach. The findings revealed: Al-Maamari was able to melt the geographical absurdity and the witness in Al-Buraimi oases, when the history was employed in a careful and honest way in the novel. He was able to document events and facts, in a way that historians and narrators of history were unable to do, but rather refrained from them for fear of tyranny or courtesy of the Sheikh or the Sultan. Al-Maamari has distinguished himself in narrating the events of history, by taking history as a material for and the realization of imagination in presenting material, with the aim of creating fun and suspense, and drawing the reader to follow the novel. He managed to escape the most difficult pitfalls of the historical narration, which is subconsciously drifting into the wild passions dictated by the real facts.