Seminar: Salafism and social change

Abstract

This talk draws on ethnographic fieldwork among Salafi milieux in Riyadh during the early years of Vision 2030, the state-led programme to diversify the economy beyond oil and re-engineer social life.

As religious authority is reconfigured and public life rapidly liberalized, through state-promoted entertainment, tourism, women’s participation in the workforce, school curriculum changes, gender mixing, and the curtailment of the “religious police,” this social “opening” has been coupled with intensified repression, surveillance, and control. Many lay, loyalist Salafis no longer consider the state a guardian of public morality. They often describe the city’s moral atmosphere as collapsing, and I trace how they work to “stay virtuous” amid top-down shifting norms, the promotion of nationalist narratives, and state discourses of “moderation” and “tolerance.” In short, rather than seeking to reform public life, many Salafis now increasingly argue for reforming themselves.

This seminar will be a walk-through rather than a formal paper. I will explore how the research was made, how I arrived at the topic, the methods I used, and the practical and ethical challenges of fieldwork under state surveillance and repression.

About the speaker

Philippe Thalmann is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge whose research explores Salafi ethics, space, and moral atmospheres in contemporary Saudi Arabia.

This event is part of the Inter-Religious Research seminar series convened by Professor Esra Özyürek.

Practicalities

Due to works adjacent to the Faculty of Divinity, building access is currently via an uneven footpath. We therefore suggest that non-University visitors consider auditing the seminar series via Zoom rather than joining us on site in Cambridge.

Light refreshments will be available before the seminar.