Paternal partnerships: how Aramco transformed Saudi environments, bodies, minds, and homes, c. 1930–1970s

Often seen as the ushers of modernization in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. company California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC), which became Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in 1944 used a well-crafted public relations programme to present itself as a 'partner' in Saudi Arabia. Through archival and published material, this paper uses three lenses (environment; minds and bodies; homes) to unpack the different policies implemented by CASOC/Aramco towards its Saudi hosts and employees. First, the active greening of the Saudi desert extended a form of environmental determinism in which the making of a productive landscape at the hands of U.S. experts would create a hospitable environment. This productive landscape would supposedly influence and shape the Saudi man. Secondly, the Saudi man's mind and body were targeted through training programmes which aimed to shape the Saudi employee into an ideal worker. Lastly, the modern Saudi house, funded by Aramco, was crafted as the ultimate symbol of development and progress. Establishing the Home Ownership Program (HOP) in 1951, Aramco sought to use housing as a tool for development in the same manner that it did with the environment. Thus, using these lenses, the narrative below unravels Aramco's carefully curated but fraught narrative of 'partnership'.