Agency and Space: the political impact of information technologies in the Gulf Arab states

Murphy, Emma C.

doi:10.1080/01436590600850376

Cited by 24 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…The development of media and telecommunications regulations and laws comes under scrutiny as evidence of the state's fighting back (Murphy 2011), as do the less formalized regime attacks on bloggers and online activists across the region.…”

Section: The Emancipatory Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

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Framing new communicative technologies in the Arab world

Daoudi

Murphy

2011

Journal of Arab &Amp; Muslim Media Research

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This article explores how the academic discourses that have arisen out of research into the political and sociocultural impacts of contemporary information and communications technologies in the Arab world both mirror and diverge from similar discourses arising out of language and linguistics research. The authors suggest that there are five central understandings of this impact: discourses of development, emancipation, subordination, adaptation and resistance. Whilst political research focuses mostly on the first three, cultural and linguistic research emphasizes the latter two. The authors argue that the evidence presented here supports a case for a concerted inter-disciplinary approach to the study of ICTs in the region, on the grounds that it offers the best chance to capture the multiple textures and layers of the regional experience.

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Section: The Emancipatory Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, before embarking on discussing ICT and its impact on Arab societies, our point of departure is our belief that the ICT (the Internet in particular) is in itself neither an emancipator nor a liberator (Murphy 2006). It is certainly a medium that can be utilized towards liberation and/or emancipation.…”

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confidence: 99%

Framing new communicative technologies in the Arab world

Daoudi

Murphy

2011

Journal of Arab &Amp; Muslim Media Research

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“…3 For example, estranged Palestinian women and local youth may use the cyber world as a medium for political activism and as 'a tool of eresistance', 4 thus enabling people to relocate their participation away from the dominated public sphere, yet still function as participants in political debate. 5 In Kuwait, more than half of internet use takes place when young people surf the net and, contrary to established mores, chat with friends and the opposite sex on all topics. 6 On the internet, 'political debate is promoted, class, gender and national boundary lines are regularly and openly breached'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Sartre and Cyber-Dissidence: The Groupe en Fusion and the Putative We-Subject

Wilson¹

2014

Sartre Studies International

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Recently, social-media tools have been widely credited with igniting pervasive social upheavals in the Middle East, some of which brought down governments. This article explores the putative structure of such gatherings and considers new developments in what such collectives might be from a Sartrean perspective, in particular as mediated by the arrival of social media. A Sartrean perspective on the still indefinite composition of media collectives is offered under Sartre's concept of the groupe en fusion, yet still open to discussion under his concept of individual free choice. Throughout, the chimerical presence of the We-subject, as an ontologically suspect entity arises, in particular when reification is attempted by socialmedia users living under illiberal political regimes. The situation of dissident women in the Middle East is often referred to.

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“…Yet, many commentators predicted significant political shifts in the Arab region due to ICTs (e.g., Etling et al, 2010;Khamis & Šisler, 2010;Murphy, 2006), and others have since suggested that new media made a decisive difference in enabling the genesis and flowering of the Arab Spring (Bartholet, 2011). As Howard and Hussain (2011) …”

Section: The Geography Of the 2011 Arab Springmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Map is Not Which Territory?: Speculating on the Geo-Spatial Diffusion of Ideas in the Arab Spring of 2011

Spitzberg

Tsou

Gupta

et al. 2013

Studies in Media and Communication

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The process by which social movements move through time and space can be understood as a process of innovation diffusion of memes or ideas. This process of diffusion may be traceable through computational linguistics and map geocoding of the linguistic memes employed by such movements. A Visualizing Information Space In Ontological Networks (VISION) method is described and illustrated with web-based search results of keywords relevant to Arab Spring. Using map algebra, and with the potential for using computational linguistics, the intent is to demonstrate the feasibility of both the theoretical model of diffusion, as well as the relevance of the geospatial dimension in understanding another dimension of diffusion-the meaning space of ideas as they spread through new media. Such methodology holds substantial promise for understanding the communicative dynamics of social movements and social influence. Keywords: social movement, innovation diffusion, meme, geocoding, geolocationIf the traditional notion of space is three-dimensional, with time as a fourth dimension, then meaning-space presumably exists within this matrix of dimensions. The information content of cyberspace may consist of 1s and 0s, yet this information possesses potential for eliciting meaning in real space and real places. Theories such as diffusion of innovations represent a particular type of dimension in this meaning-space, a dimension of adoption of, or influence by, a given idea, often in the form of a social movement. The spread of an idea, such as the possibility of a more democratic life in a traditionally autocratic region or regime, can be understood as a vector over time, space, and meaning. Technologies are now available that are providing tools for visualizing such diffusion, and new methodologies and theories are needed to begin integrating our ideas with our investigative innovations. Some of the prospects of this integration are explored methodologically, with emphasis on the geo-spatial mapping and analysis of idea diffusion in web-based semantic contents, and conceptually, through an integration of diffusion of innovations theory. These ideas are illustrated in a case study of the geolocation of semantic concept diffusion in the Middle East during the early stages of the -Arab Spring‖ of 2011. Social Movements as Diffusion of Innovations-Social movements are variously defined, often hard to categorize, and -as a result of their ‗unconstitutional' qualities-resistant to rigid theorizing‖ (Downing, 2008, p. 43). Social movements are -networks of informal relationships between a multiplicity of individuals and organizations, who share a distinctive collective identity, and mobilize resources on conflictual issues‖ (Diani, 2000, p. 387). Such mobilization may, but does not necessarily, take the form of protest events, and such protest events do not necessarily consist exclusively of members of a social movement. Protests are symbolic efforts to gain attention or change by engaging in deviant, disruptive, or highly noticeabl...

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Agency and Space: the political impact of information technologies in the Gulf Arab states

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Framing new communicative technologies in the Arab world

Framing new communicative technologies in the Arab world

Sartre and Cyber-Dissidence: The Groupe en Fusion and the Putative We-Subject

The Map is Not Which Territory?: Speculating on the Geo-Spatial Diffusion of Ideas in the Arab Spring of 2011

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