Regional solidarity undermined? Higher education developments in the Arabian gulf, economy and time

ABSTRACT

The paper theorises fragility of regional solidarities in light of the emerging ways in which two Arabian Gulf states, Bahrain and Oman, are undertaking their transition to a knowledge economy. The paper shows ways in which regional symbolic solidarity goals of common economic and educational development in the Gulf region are challenged by locally focussed priorities at the level of each nation state. These findings carry important theoretical implications as the time of transition to a knowledge economy seems to drive readjustments in thinking about what the ‘Gulf-wide unity is for’, prompting its repositioning from an alliance established to protect and facilitate regional development to a means supporting local ends. The paper therefore challenges the spatial focus in some theoretical frameworks used in analyses of the sociology of regional solidarities and calls for the need of temporal lenses in such analyses.

KEYWORDS:

• Regionalism
• temporalities
• policy-making
• Arabian gulf
• higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Aneta Hayes is a Lecturer in Education at Keele University. Her research explores higher education markets, international policy borrowing, the scope and nature of HE business. Aneta is particularly interested in developing understandings of priorities that drive HE developments internationally and how these priorities affect engagement with international input. Theoretically, Aneta’s work is located in temporalities and spatialities of higher education policy making.

Khalaf Marhoun Al'Abri is Assistant Professor at the College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University. Khalaf has published in areas of internationalisation and globalisation of higher education, as well as local higher education architecture and policy making.