Fannie Agerschou-Madsen defends her PhD thesis
Fannie Agerschou-Madsen defends her PhD thesis "Politics of fun in Saudi Arabia.
The defence is public, and everybody is welcome; the defence is scheduled for a maximum of three hours and will be held in English.
Follow the defense online via Zoom >
Department of Social Sciences and Business will host a small reception afterwards.
Supervisors and assessment
Assessment committee:
- Lars Buur, Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Business, 兴发娱乐官网手机版客户端 University, Denmark (chairperson)
- Tine Gade, Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway
- Samuli Schielke, Dozent Dr., Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany
Supervisors:
- Sune Haugb?lle, Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Business, 兴发娱乐官网手机版客户端 University (Main supervisor)
- Helle Malmvig, Senior 兴发娱乐官网手机版客户端, Danish Institute for International Studies (Co-supervisor)
Leader of defence:
- Lena Brogaard, Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Business, 兴发娱乐官网手机版客户端 University
Abstract
This dissertation examines how and why the Saudi state has mobilized “fun” as a political strategy, and how young urban Saudis, the primary audience of these reforms, engage with, make meaning of and experience the newly liberalized spaces for fun. While public fun and leisure were largely restricted in Saudi Arabia prior to 2016, the launch of Vision 2030 marked a shift in state policy. Initially presented as a strategy to diversify the economy beyond oil dependency, Vision 2030 redefined fun and entertainment as central to both economic, political and social reform, initiating large-scale investments in music festivals, football, cinema and broader cultural production. This dissertation conceptualizes these developments as the Saudi state’s “new politics of fun”.
Theoretically, the dissertation builds on Asef Bayat’s concept of the “politics of fun”, which encapsules how authoritarian and puritanical regimes repress fun due to its subversive and rebellious potential. However, it extends Bayat’s framework by integrating Foucault’s theories of power and governmentality to examine how the state both appropriates fun to construct a new identity and claim political legitimacy, but also mobilizes fun as a new kind of governmentality aiming to shape behavior and norms, and control fun’s potential subversiveness. At the same time, drawing on Turner’s concept of “communitas”, the dissertation explores how fun functions as a deeply emotional and relational experience that fosters social bonding and meaning-making, and enable subtle negotiation of power.
Methodologically, the project combines discourse analysis, particularly of visual material, with ethnographically inspired fieldwork conducted in Saudi Arabia. It draws on interviews, observations, official documents and media content to explore how the state creates specific narratives about the leadership and the future Saudi Arabia, for instance through official nation branding campaigns. It also explores how state-led fun is perceived, experienced and sometimes contested by urban Saudi youth. While many young Saudis embrace the liberalization of public space, the research also unfolds ambivalences, including concerns over social norms, gender roles, and the continued repression of dissent. The research is situated within an interdisciplinary framework that draws on political science, anthropology, political sociology and Middle East studies.
Based on three articles, the dissertation provides a coherent and multi-scalar analysis of the politics of fun by examining top-down strategies, the international embeddedness of the reforms, and everyday lived experiences in Saudi Arabia. The dissertation argues that fun in authoritarian contexts is not merely a distraction or a site of resistance, but a complex, affective field through which governance is enacted, negotiated and sometimes contested. Fun becomes a battleground for legitimacy, identity and relational politics, shaping how youth imagine their lives and their futures.
The project contributes empirically to the understanding of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing transformation, offering original insights into how reforms are experienced by the Saudi urban youth and how public space is being reshaped. Theoretically, it expands the concept of the politics of fun to include not only repression and subversion but also governance, affect and emotional belonging – demonstrating that, in the Saudi context, fun is deeply political, precisely because it is both ordinary and transformative.
The dissertation will be available for reading at the 兴发娱乐官网手机版客户端 University Library before the defence (on-site use). The dissertation will also be available at the defence.