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1 - What Is Saudi? Identity, Religiosity and Generational Divides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2019

Mark C. Thompson
Affiliation:
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia
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Summary

In the second decade of the twenty-first century new challenges proliferate, including socioeconomic pressures and regional conflicts. As young Saudi men enter a rapidly changing world, one of the core questions likely to shape the coming decades is the issue of identity. However, national identity remains a contested and complex issue. When I posed the question ‘What is Saudi?’ to my focus groups I was frequently provided with vague definitions or answers with varying degrees of disagreement amongst group members as to what actually constitutes ‘Saudi’. Whilst the majority of young men I surveyed agreed that a Saudi national identity exists, the coherence of this national identity is contested. This chapter discusses the key issue of identity as it relates to national and personal notions of identity, religiosity and generational divides.

Type
Chapter
Information
Being Young, Male and Saudi
Identity and Politics in a Globalized Kingdom
, pp. 17 - 56
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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