Politics and Natural Resources in Eastern Saudi Arabia http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/penziner070611.html

The discontent that was brewed by the insinuation of government into agriculture was not just a result of a single development project. In chapter 5, Jones highlights the history of discontent and political activism that characterized al-Hasa's Shi'a population. From the 1930s, Shi'a writers were articulating their discontent regarding the uneven distribution of government resources and rising political discrimination in newspapers in an attempt to gain recognition from the national government. These policies and the "deplorable social and economic" condition led to violence in November of 1979 in the form of a week of violence and bloodshed (p. 181).

In the final chapter, Jones demonstrates how, following the Shi'a uprising, Saudi government officials modified their allegiance to science, technology, and development. They diversified their programs away from al-Hasa and toward issues of crop diversification, wheat production, food security, and the outsourcing of agriculture. They also replaced the role of science and development with an emphasis on Islam as a way to temper the government's reputation for materialism and excess.