Description
Book SynopsisThe author argues that the Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia was created in 2016 was meant to introduce a new Saudi to the Western outsider audience that the new Saudi state is on a mission to transform the country from a traditional and conservative kingdom to a new state that is dedicated to social modernization and openness. The author argues that globalization and the neoliberalism capitalist mode of politics have reinforced the transformation of cultural production into global entertainment production. Therefore, the entertainment sector relies heavily on reproducing the Western culture of entertainment production and depending on Western businesses to bring entertainment into the country instead of investing in local entertainment businesses to force the state to adopt neoliberal capitalism. The author shows how the new modernity of Saudi Arabia has become a political tool through which neoliberal capitalists can create positive relationships with Western powers and, thr
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Chapter One: Why Write this Book? Why Saudi Arabia? Why Entertainment?
Chapter Two: Theorizing and Researching Saudi State: Understanding Society, Culture and Nationality
Chapter Three: Entertainment, New Saudi Arabia, and the Question of New Class
Chapter Four: The Political Economy of Cultural Production and the Struggle for Modernity
Chapter Five: Policing the Fun and Politicizing the Entertainment: The Struggle for Cultural Production
Chapter Six: The Neoliberal Politics of the Cultural Production of Entertainment
Chapter Seven: What the Future Holds for the ‘New’ Saudi Arabia
Conclusion: Why Is the New Saudi a New iPhone but Btill in an Old Nokia Software System?
Epilogue: New Saudi, New Identity, and Neoliberalism
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
