Farming the desert
Agriculture in the oil frontier, the case of the United Arab Emirates, 1940s to 1990s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12534017 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sabrina Joseph (0000-0002-0840-9973, Zayed University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 678-694 |
| Publication date | 2017-05-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1353-0194 • E-ISSN: 1469-3542 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13530194.2017.1320977 |
| OpenAlex | W2611007011 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
This article examines the social and political factors that contributed to the development of agriculture in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the 1940s onwards, expanding upon Jason Moore’s concept of the ‘commodity frontier’. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, agricultural production emerged as a ‘secondary commodity frontier’ propelled by the primary commodity in the region—oil. The example of the UAE illustrates how the dynamics inherent in the primary commodity frontier can generate ‘secondary frontiers’. Furthermore, commodity frontiers are not necessarily exclusively motivated by market forces, as emphasized by Jason Moore. Indeed, the spread of agriculture in the UAE was not primarily tied to the export of any particular crop. Rather, the newly formed state after 1971, like colonial forces prior to this period, promoted agriculture in part to improve local people’s standard of living. Modern agriculture, furthermore, transformed local power structures and facilitated the country’s transition from a traditional to a modern state and its integration into a global capitalist economy
Agriculture · Colonialism · Commodity · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Geography · Market economy · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts
Oman’s Trade Potentials with Indian Ocean Rim Countries
Rethinking Commodity Frontiers
The Animus of Cloud Seeding
Ecosystems as Commodity Frontiers—Challenges Faced by Land Set Aside as Protected Areas (PAs) in the Dubai Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Redefining the Hydro-Social Contract in Saudi Arabia
Food as a weapon? The geopolitics of food and the Qatar–Gulf rift
The power of food security
Logistics of the neoliberal food regime
Locusts on the Arabian Oil Commodity Frontier
The Political Lives of Deserts
Geopolitics, Food Security, and Imaginings of the State in Qatar's Desert Landscape
| Citations per year | 1.57 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |