Introduction : societies, identities and global issues / Paul Dresch -- Channels of interaction : the role of Gulf-owned media firms in globalisation / Naomi Sakr -- Dialect and national identity : the cultural politics of self-representation in Bahraini Musalsalāt / Clive Holes -- Cultural construction, the Gulf and Arab London / Christa Salamandra -- Transnational connections and national identity : Zanzibari Omanis in Muscat / Madawi Al-Rasheed -- Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy : citizens, expatriates and the socio-political system in Kuwait / Anh Nga Longva -- Debates on marriage and nationality in the United Arab Emirates / Paul Dresch -- Public order and authority : policing Kuwait / Jill Crystal -- Gender, religious knowledge and education in Oman / Mandana E. Limbert -- Political actors without the franchise : women and politics in Kuwait / Haya al-Mughni, Mary Ann Tétreault -- Managing God's guests : the pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia and the politics of legitimacy / James Piscatori.