Full Description
This book discusses popular contention in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province (until 1952 the governorate of al-Ahsaʾ) under the aegis of petro-capitalism. The notion of urban revolution takes on a double meaning, namely the rapid urbanisation which broke with the region's urban past and destroyed the oasis environment and merchant economy, and the types of resistance and rebellious fervour that were triggered by the concentration of labour and industrial production in the new urban centres. The book uses archival sources from the United States, Great Britain, and Saudi Arabia as well as accounts of Saudi oil workers, activists, and other contemporaries.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
List of Figures and Tables
1 Introduction
1 The Power of Oil
2 Oil Histories
3 A Word on Sources
4 Outline of the Book
2 Society and Politics before Oil
1 The Two Oases
2 The New Saudi State
3 Some Thoughts on Sectarianism
3 The Emergent Oil Conurbation
1 Labor Camps, Boom Towns and Hinterlands
2 Conflicts Over Land and Expropriation
3 Changing Social Geographies
4 Control and Surveillance
4 Popular Politics on the Oil Frontier
1 The Saudi Labor Struggle
2 Contested Frontiers - a Politicization of Space
5 Urban Revolution
1 Ambivalent Urbanities
2 Urban Struggle and Repression
6 Fractured Cities
1 The Old Polities
2 A New Urban Reality under the Aegis of Petro-Capitalism
3 How the Urban Revolution Unfolds
4 Alliances between Labor and Urban Classes
5 Social Malaise
6 Sectarianization as Counter-Revolution
7 Rural Rebellion
Epilogue
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
