This review article proposes new directions for the field of labor studies in the Middle East and Islamic world. It does so by examining a diverse array of recent works that are not framed as studies of labor and class per se, but that illustrate what this field might look like through their respective concerns with space and materiality. Taking such concerns together unites these otherwise disparate studies of class, oceanic connections, gender, urban transformation, and the environment. We have organized this essay around the themes of space and materiality because of the utility that they hold for the study of labor and class in the Middle East and Islamic world. They enable us to attend to the basic aims of older scholarship on labor and political economy while also internalizing the critiques of that tradition mounted by scholars of race, gender, and colonialism. We moreover suggest that the theoretical developments outlined here can inform scholarship on labor and class across regional divides.

这篇评论文章为中东和伊斯兰世界的劳动研究领域提出了新的方向。它通过研究一系列不同的近期作品来做到这一点，这些作品本身并不是对劳动和阶级的研究，而是通过它们各自对空间和物质性的关注来说明这个领域可能会是什么样子。将这些关注点结合在一起，将这些原本完全不同的关于阶级、海洋联系、性别、城市转型和环境的研究结合起来。我们围绕空间和物质性主题组织了这篇文章，因为它们对研究中东和伊斯兰世界的劳工和阶级具有实用性。它们使我们能够关注关于劳动和政治经济学的较早学术研究的基本目标，同时也内化种族学者对这一传统的批评，性别和殖民主义。此外，我们建议，这里概述的理论发展可以为跨地区鸿沟的劳工和阶级学术研究提供信息。