Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Witnessing Timelessness: Revitalizing Heritage Tourism in The Ruins of Saudi Arabia(Rhode Island University, 2024-06-01) Habis, Reem; Wong, Liliane; Shoaib, Jehanzeb; Khan, Hassan UddinWell-known historic sites in Saudi Arabia, such as Historic Jeddah, are designated as heritage, meaning they are protected from deterioration over time. However, in the Aseer region, there are over 4500 unprotected modest sites that provide an integral sense of identity and authenticity to the culture of not just this region, but the entire Kingdom. The absence of preservation guidelines has left these sites vulnerable to indiscriminate developments attempting revitalization. Undesignated heritage sites must be safeguarded and rehabilitated rather than neglected and left at risk of further decay, especially with the encroachment of tourism. To preserve the sites’ authenticity and existing structures, this thesis proposes a collection of non-invasive physical and digital design strategies that aim to revitalize these unprotected but culturally significant sites with minimally undisruptive interventions. By repurposing these structures to contemporary uses, such as open-air museums, they shall remain active, integral to the community, and seamlessly integrated into the contemporary urban fabric. This thesis uses Watan Emsoudah, an abandoned village on the highest peak of Saudi Arabia, as a prototype to apply these design strategies. A defined walking path will take the visitors in an interactive, immersive, and educational journey through the site; experiencing the past, present and future of what was, what is, and what could be with the use of virtual and augmented reality. A place does not have to be an overwhelming monument to be worthy of preservation and visitor attention. This rehabilitation strategy could be extended to a multitude of underprivileged sites, ensuring their longevity, engagement, and forms of protection. Ultimately, this approach aims to promote heritage tourism, attracting both tourists and locals to learn about the region’s history and cultural heritage.21 0Item Restricted Social media usage and entrepreneurial development amongst 18- to 25-year-olds in Hail, Saudi Arabia.(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-11-14) Alyousef, Hattan; Biressi, Anita; Rixon, Paul; Kolb, AlexandraThe recent transformation endorsed by the Vision 2030 development plan in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has instigated a negotiation of modern values and norms in a youthful conservative nation. The rise of social media usage in Saudi Arabia and specifically in Hail has enabled these negotiations due to considerable technological advancement and its adoption by a youthful nation where almost 72% of the population are below the age of 35. The Saudi social media scene has not only become a recognisable career path, driven by the vast economic and socio-cultural reform, but a space where intersections of a power dynamic is visible and complex. Two main theoretical approaches have been adopted to examine and explore social media usage and entrepreneurial development. The first approach is Bourdieu’s work of field, habitus, and capital (1977, 1984, 1986) and more recent scholarly work on social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capitals. The second approach is informed by scholarship on presentational culture and communication, new media and creative industry, and social media studies. Although both theoretical approaches are from a western viewpoint, the experiences of Saudi youth provide new insight into the contextual negotiations between old values and norms and modernity in an era of development. In this qualitative study, the data will speak for themselves through the experiences and perspectives of social media users and entrepreneurs explored across an open-ended survey, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. While this work is focused on Saudi, it offers lessons and insights for other similar nations, or even for the west. The study raises questions relating to how Hail’s young men and women who maintain old values will utilise social media platforms to navigate and negotiate their online identity into an online entrepreneurial identity. Furthermore, having a diverse sample for each method – for instance, influencers and micro-celebrities from both rural and urban backgrounds – enabled me to capture different dimensions of the same entrepreneurial process. This entrepreneurial process identified different identity constructions and identity performances and crosschecking these practices with Hail’s young men and women demonstrates the complex ways in which the Saudi social media entrepreneur can participate in and contribute to the attention economy in this new Saudi era.26 0