Infrastructures of Entrepreneurship: State Reform and Development in Oman

Titled “Infrastructures of Entrepreneurship: State Reform and Development in Oman,” this dissertation explores how under pressure from low oil prices, enormous budget deficits, and a faltering economic model the Omani state has been renegotiating its relationship with global capitalism in a dawning post-oil era. To apprehend this development, I ethnographically explore how the Omani government has embarked on a multi-sited program of economic reform, in which the promotion of entrepreneurship plays an important role. Based on 12 months of archival and field research in London and Muscat, I demonstrate how the state reform project, meant to revitalize the engines of capital accumulation in one country, transcends the “economic.” It explores how emotions, bureaucratic complaints, new ideas about productivity and creativity, foreign experts, and local entrepreneurs are reworking the contours of capitalism in Oman, while seeking to transform the state, society, and the individual. This dissertation provides a glimpse into this complex and contradictory reform process and the exigencies of post-oil development under late capitalism.Dissertation not available (per author's request)Originally embargoed upon deposit through 05/19/2028; contacted by Graduate College to apply permanent restriction per author request, 06-July-2021, Kimberl