This volume addresses the historical structures and current dynamics of Oman’s regionalization processes and their political, economic and social dimensions. It is based on an interdisciplinary and trans-regional dialogue between scholars from different social sciences and area studies such as political science, economics, management, economic and social geography, history, social anthropology and linguistics as well as Middle East/West Asian, gulf and African studies.

The book develops four major axes of research:
- Oman’s integration into global and regional flows of goods, capital, people and ideas;
- The multi-scaled political negotiation of such integration (or disintegration) processes;
- Consequences of suchlike processes and forms of regionalization for (translocal) actors;
- Ideas and strategic communication of regional belonging and the constitution of regions.

Each chapter deals with one or more of these issues.
Part I deals with concepts of regionalisation and region-building and presents different approaches that accentuate certain dimensions of these processes and come from different disciplinary backgrounds.
Part II focuses on the translocal, transnational and (trans)regional movement of people, their practices and imaginations, be they contemporary labour in- and out-migrants, returnees from Eastern Africa or nomadic tribal members.
Part III takes a closer look particularly at economic issues and regionalisation processes that are mainly based on multiple trade links, regional development policies or politics of regionalism.
Part IV analyses political and socio-cultural issues in regional and global perspectives.

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 "Regionalizing Oman": A New Interest of Research on Oman and Its Spatial Dimensions
Pad I: Concepts of Regionalisation and Region-Building
2 Conceptual Considerations of'Space" and "Region": Political, Economic and Social Dynamics of Region-Building
3 Theorizing Regionalism(s): When "Regions" Emerge and Interact
4 Working with "Translocality": Conceptual Implications and Analytical Consequences
Part II: The Translocal, Transnational and Transregional Movement of People
5 "We Are Part of Zanzibar" - Translocal Practices and Imaginative Geographies in Contemporary Oman-Zanzibar Relations
6 Of Red Cells, Translocality and Origins: Inherited Blood Disorders in Oman
7 Oman-lndia Relations: Exploring the Long- Term Migration Dynamics
8 Negotiating Authenticity and Translocality in Oman: The "Desertscapes" of the Harasiis Tribe
Part III: Micro and Macro Regionalisation Through Economic Practices
9 Re-reading the Role of Oman Within Its International Trade Relations: From the Sixteenth Through to the Nineteenth Centuries
10 Oman and the Indian Ocean Rim - Economic Integration Across Conventional Meta-Regions
11 Oman Caught Between the GCC Customs Union and Bilateral Free Trade with the US: Is It Worth Breaking the Rules'?
12 Musandam and Its Trade with Iran. Regional Linkages Across the Strait of Hormuz
13 Is Littoralization Reconfiguring the Omani Territory?
Part IV: State and Society in Regional and Global Perspectives
15P rivate Documents as a Source for Regional History: The Archive of the ‘Abnymof Al-Hamra’
16 Domesticating Local Elites. Sheikhs, Walis and State-Building Under Sultan Qaboos
17 Musandam: Creating a New Region Across the Water
18 The Political Economy of Internationalization and Privatization of Higher Educationin the Sultanate of Oman
19 Bringing the Global and the Local Together Through English in Oman
Part V: Conclusion
20 Concluding Remarks: Regionalizing Oman Beyond Conventional Metageographies
Author Bios
Index

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