Crafting continuity and change: narratives of Saudi men and women inhabiting socio-cultural norms within undergoing change
Publication Date
July 25, 2023
Creator
Abstract
This thesis explores gender relations in contemporary Saudi Arabia. It seeks to inform an understanding of how Saudi men and women inhabit and negotiate gender norms in relation to various normative references e.g., nation, religious traditions, and defining masculinity and femineity. It also aims to look for contradistinction and complexity to understand sociological, historical, economic, and political issues that have impacted on gender relations. This thesis uses a constructivist–interpretivist paradigm through narrative interviewing with a sample of 16 men and women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It applies narrative analysis using postcolonial critique of Western liberal feminists. This thesis shows the participants’ understanding of themselves in relation to their parents and kinship. It illustrates how the centrality of family sets ideals for both men and women that organises social relation which should not be understood as patriarchal oppression of women. The participants are strategically negotiating their choices, freedom and independence, reflecting their religious agentic capacity to find an alternative path towards social change that would not correspond to the universal language on liberation. They promote religious interpretation to be more reflexive on light of their contemporary context to the pursuit of wisdom that neither surrenders to social custom in relation to gender relation nor abandons. The meanings men and women assign to their understanding of their identities are built on being Saudi.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Yip, Andrew
Kabesh, Amal Treacher
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Sociology and Social Policy
eprints ID
73074
UoN Repository URI
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as