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The Limits of Belonging in Saudi Arabia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2020

Rosie Bsheer
Rosie Bsheer*
Affiliation:
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138, USA
*
[email protected]
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Extract

On 25 October 2017, the Saudi Arabian regime granted citizenship to Sophia, a humanoid robot developed in Hong Kong. Sophia became the world's first robot citizen. Some of the globe's wealthiest investors, foreign dignitaries, and foremost economists, journalists, and public relations experts celebrated the conferral firsthand. They were guests of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, where they attended the inaugural Future Investment Initiative. Sponsored by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the forum heralded the regime's renewed commitment to diversify the country's petro-economy, develop its human capital, and increase its global investment competitiveness. The national reform plan, dubbed Vision 2030, dominated the event's discussions. Vision 2030 was an ambitious blueprint that had as its goal nothing short of overhauling everyday life in Saudi Arabia. It entailed revamping bureaucratic capacity, building global gigacities, and opening the country to visitors and investors alike. Developing the tourism and entertainment sectors were key. Through these lucrative socio-technical experiments, the regime hoped to tackle the dire economic, financial, and social challenges it faced. To appeal to the global investor, it framed the reforms in the language of high-tech modernization, sustainable development, and socioreligious tolerance. Sophia, and all the trappings of modernization that “she” embodied, epitomized the ruling class's entrepreneurial vision for a new Saudi Arabia, and in turn, a new global citizen: the naturalized elite as well as the new Saudi Arabian citizen-subject (Fig. 1).

Type
Roundtable
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 748 - 753
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 See “Robot Sophia Speaks at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative,” YouTube video, 25 October 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMrX08PxUNY.

2 Nora Doaiji, “Saudi Women's Online Activism: One Year of the ‘I Am My Own Guardian’ Campaign,” Issue Paper no. 11 (Washington, DC: Arab Gulf States Institute, 2017), 1–18.

3 Rosie Bsheer, “How Mohammed bin Salman Has Transformed Saudi Arabia,” The Nation, 21 May 2018, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/how-mohammed-bin-salman-has-transformed-saudi-arabia; Jim Krane and Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, “The ‘New’ Saudi Arabia, Where Taxes Triple and Benefits Get Cut,” Forbes, 13 May 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2020/05/13/the-new-saudi-arabia-where-taxes-triple-and-benefits-get-cut/#351f72372a22.

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9 Saʿeed al-Zahrani, “Kayfa Tamma Sirqat Amwal Muʿtaqili al-Ritz fi al-Saʿudiyya,” Yaqadha Channel, 14 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNM2C0KSwuA&feature=youtu.be.

10 The name NEOM is meant to signify a new future by combining the Greek neo with the letter m from the Arabic word for future, mustaqbal.

11 Nadda Osman and Mustafa Abu Sneineh, “Saudi Activist's Killing Exposes Local Tensions over Neom Construction,” Middle East Eye, 16 April 2020, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tribal-activist-reportedly-killed-protesting-saudi-neom-megacity-project.

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