Talha Fadaak

This paper uses official statistics and previous research by Saudi scholars, but mainly our own evidence from 23 interviews during 2015 and 2016 with 25-35 year old males and females, to explain why modernisation is Saudi Arabia, which includes the diversification of its economy and a huge expansion in higher education for males and females, is unlikely to lead to a higher proportion of women in the workforce. This is because the total number of jobs in the country is unlikely to increase, and opportunities for women are likely to remain limited not only by employers' hiring preferences and practices, but also by the limited range of jobs that young women and their families consider acceptable. Thus rather than following the same modernising path as Western societies, Saudi Arabia will add to the examples of multiple modernities.

This paper uses official statistics and previous research by Saudi scholars, but mainly our own evidence from 23 interviews during 2015 and 2016 with 25-35-year-old males and females, to explain why modernisation is Saudi Arabia, which includes the diversification of its economy and a huge expansion in higher education for males and females, is unlikely to lead to a higher proportion of women in the workforce. This is because the total number of jobs in the country is unlikely to increase, and opportunities for women are likely to remain limited not only by employers’ hiring preferences and practices but also by the limited range of jobs that young women and their families consider acceptable. Thus rather than following the same modernizing path as Western societies, Saudi Arabia will add to the examples of multiple modernities.

ABSTRACT This paper outlines how satellite television, the internet and cell phones have entered then spread within Saudi Arabia. We identify the short-term and discuss likely longer term outcomes in a country where, up to now, out-of-home leisure has been unusually restricted and which remains an absolute monarchy. Previous research into young people’s uses of the new media is reviewed, followed by the results of our own investigations into young Saudis’ uses of Twitter, YouTube and religious websites in 2015. We then use our findings from interviews with 23 young Saudi adults to add fine detail to what is known about uses and users of the new media. It is argued that although there has been no change up to now, the new media are very likely to be involved in the spread of support for further liberalization of uses of free time. We note that there has already been a seismic shift in Saudi political culture, which, as power passes to a new generation of young royals and government ministers, all in the context of the country’s need to rebalance its economy, make liberalization of out-of-home free time uses increasingly likely.

Youth researchers in Europe and North America have spent recent decades noting how the life stage has been extended, and how transitions from childhood to adulthood have become more complicated and not always linear. They have noted that more young people than in the past are entering the labour market then returning to education, exiting then boomeranging back into their parents’ homes.

Combating poverty in Saudi Arabia has become an important national target; this study researches poverty in Saudi Society and in particular, female poverty, focusing on poor female-headed households (FHHs) in Jeddah City. This is an exploratory study to highlight the social reality of the FHHs and their female heads, with a focus on the details of their everyday lives and their relationships with social support institutions, namely: the Social Security Department (SSD) and the Charitable Women’s Associations. The main aim of this study is to explore the social reality of these families and how, during their struggles to obtain or maintain a standard of living, they interact with these social support institutions. The study investigated a main sample of 112 FHHs represented by their female heads who were selected purposefully according to a matrix designed to ensure adequate representation across the main sample according to marital status, age group and place of residence (south or ...

Saudi Arabia may be the most religiously and politically conservative among all the Arab countries, but it is not a hermit kingdom. This is not the Middle East’s North Korea. This chapter explains how the country has been opened by (mostly temporary) inward and outward migration, and how new media have now brought the rest of the world into Saudis’ lives on a daily basis.