Response to Begüm Adalet’s review of Bedouins into Bourgeois: Remaking Citizens for Globalization

[...]I wanted to study these more directly through ethnographic data collection in palace contexts. Complementing a palace-based ethnographic approach with more detailed ethnographic evidence on everyday citizen perspectives, beyond the focus groups and surveys I conducted, would add further richness to our understanding of social engineering and its implications in the UAE. [...]as I point out, my findings with respect to social engineering outcomes do not align well with theories of the rentier state.