A time to pray, a time to play?: Everyday life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between the temporalities of religion, tradition and consumerism

Abstract

Based on empirical research on the emergence of consumerism in Saudi Arabia, this article examines the shifts in the understanding of time that emerge in the competing paradigms of traditional and Islamic time, globalised world time and the individualisation of time in consumer pursuits. While Islamic time still provides the dominant frame for social life in Saudi Arabia, there have been adaptions to global time. While these are relatively unproblematic and technical, both traditional Arab and postmodern consumer times are less compatible, and especially the latter is posing a challenge to both Islamic and traditional timings.