"Cultivating "Omani ambitions
Entrepreneurship, distributive labor, and the temporalities of diversification in the Arab Gulf
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2048979 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robin Thomas Steiner (Westminster University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 80-92 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economic Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2330-4847 • E-ISSN: 2330-4847 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/sea2.12163 |
| OpenAlex | W2989389786 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 24 |
Despite substantial investments in the diversification and development of their economies, Oman and other Arab Gulf states have yet to experience structural changes that meaningfully reduce their dependence on oil. Pointing out that the "problem" of oil dependence has never existed independent of a development apparatus attempting to solve it, this article explores how developmental discourses and institutions in Oman produce unintended (but nevertheless salient) distributive effects. With scholarship on the region dominated by work on the rentier state that dismisses the importance of developmental institutions and the labor of citizens in systems of rent distribution, this article proposes a new framework that investigates how rentier development operates as a discourse in ways that shape the allocation of resources and the behavior of citizen-subjects. Through the lens of an Omani entrepreneur named Mohammed and the organizations and individuals who encouraged and supported him, this article draws on insights from the anthropology of development to describe how efforts to transform mind-sets and instill entrepreneurial dispositions generate not a structural change in Oman's economy but distributive arrangements that enable citizens to earn livelihoods and support through the enactment of virtues that resonate with the state's development narratives
Business · Developmental state · Diversification (marketing strategy · Economic growth · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Livelihood · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · State (computer science · Development, Ethics, and Society · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Water Governance and Infrastructure
International development and the social sciences
The price of wealth
Studies in the economic history of the Middle East
Employment and Career Motivation in the Arab Gulf States
The Will to Improve
In the Time of Oil
Dubai, the City as Corporation
Time and the Other
The Wages of Oil
Oil and Politics in the Gulf
Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats
Democracy and Youth in the Middle East
Women in Civil Society
The political economy of state-formation in the Arab Middle East
Oil Monarchies
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj
The most eastern of the West, the most western of the East
The anti-politics machine
Encountering Development
The emergence of the oil welfare state
Once you support, you are supported
The Bumipreneur dilemma and Malaysia's technology start-up ecosystem
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |