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This paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of online activism. The example used to illustrate the above point provides some evidence that, on some occasions, civil society maybe mobilized through the use of the internet and the online public sphere, to organize more coherent and practical political demands. At the same time, it is also shown that the capacity of individuals to fully participate depends on previous offline experiences as well as a relatively higher degree of technical competence.

For a number of years, western states and international institutions provided financial assistance to the developing countries and promoted solutions to political inequality based on two main principles. The first was related to the notion of economic liberalization, which would unfold the potentials of the market and minimize the role of the state in the economic sphere. The second was that western support to the embryonic civil societies of the developing world would give voice to the populations of these countries and would change the nature of authoritative political regimes. These ideas continue to inform the debate about the development of north African countries. This paper presents and analyzes two nations in north Africa, Egypt and Morocco, in terms of how they exploited the global economic situation and whether they benefited from the openness of the markets. Reference is made to the fact that some political freedoms were initiated in those countries, but they were not democratized. Therefore, the paper critically examines and distinguishes the notion of economic liberalization from the idea of democratization by exploring the ways regimes handled fundamental notions of political equality.

Both notions elaborated in this article, exclusion and the border, are cultural constructs which can take on different meanings in different milieux. In order to understand socio‐cultural exclusion in the context of EU integration and new centralities created by globalization, the project presented here addressed social, cultural and spatial exclusion in peripheral EU border cities and islands. This article focuses on how borderland residents experience socio‐cultural exclusion of ‘others’ and of themselves, and forge their spatialities and mappings. It makes distinctions on several levels: geographically, between external and internal EU borders, between ‘transborder’ and ‘bounded’ field sites and between variations of spatialities and mappings; culturally, between boundary gateways and walls, and between socio‐cultural and spatial exclusion, isolation and insularity; anthropologically, between social and cultural markers dividing the subject and the ‘other’. Local experiences and spatialities along the border were found to be complex and often in conflict with dominant definitions and preconceptions. This, along with the multiple levels of exclusion and difference found on the EU border, has implications for research priorities and policy restructuring. Les deux notions détaillées dans cet article, exclusion et frontière, sont des concepts culturels qui peuvent prendre un sens différent en fonction du milieu. Afin d’appréhender l’exclusion socioculturelle dans le cadre de l’intégration européenne et des nouvelles centralités créées par la mondialisation, le projet traite l’exclusion sociale, culturelle et spatiale dans les villes et îles situées à la périphérie de l’UE. Il s’attache à la façon dont les résidents frontaliers vivent une exclusion socioculturelle des ‘autres’ et d’eux‐mêmes, tout en établissant leurs spatialités et leurs cartographies. Plusieurs plans sont identifiés: un plan géographique, entre frontières internes et externes de l’UE, entre sites ‘transfrontaliers’ et territoires ‘délimités’, et entre divergences de spatialités et de cartographies; un plan culturel, entre accès et remparts frontaliers, et entre insularité, isolement et exclusion socioculturels et spatiaux; un plan anthropologique, entre les repères sociaux et culturels qui séparent le sujet de ‘l’autre’. Le long de la frontière, spatialités et expériences locales se sont révélées complexes et souvent en opposition avec les définitions et a priori dominants. Cet aspect, allié aux multiples niveaux d’exclusion et de différence découverts sur la frontière européenne, influence les priorités de recherches et la restructuration des politiques.