Nextopia? Beyond Revolution 2.0

Abstract

Research on the impact of the internet in the Middle East has been dominated by a focus on politics and the public sphere, and oscillated between the hope for "revolutionary" change and the admission that regime stability in the region has not easily been unsettled by media revolutions alone. Obsession with the new and with latest technologies has helped to obscure more long-term sociocultural developments. This contribution is a plea for a shift of paradigm: to study more seriously the social and cultural effects of Internet and mobile phone use; to find out what impact the use of these media has on conceptions of the individual and its role in the construction of knowledge and values; and to determine how these dynamics are embedded in more long-term historical developments promoting a greater role for the individual vis-à-vis established authorities. Revolution Through the Ever-Latest Technology? "If you want to liberate a society, just give them the Internet." This is what Wael Ghonim, Google executive and Facebook activist, told CNN on February 11, 2011, the day Hosni Mubarak resigned as President of Egypt. If you want to know "what's next" after the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, "ask Facebook" (Cooper, 2011). Wael Ghonim's statement is illustrative for the great hopes for liberation and democratization that have driven much of what has been published for over a decade now on the impact of the use of the Internet in the Middle East. These hopes for liberation and democratization have often been cast in the mode of "revolution," and a fascination with "revolutions" in technology has facilitated the impetus to discover the "revolutionary" effects that the technology might have on state and society. One of the preeminent journals in the field, Arab Media & Society, was created in 2007 with the proclaimed goal of "Reporting a revolution" (Pintak, 2007). Granted, those who unreservedly believe in the power of 1 This article has its origin in a presentation to the Seventh International Conference on Cultural Attitudes

On content analysis of images of mass protests: a case of data triangulation

“…The involvement of a figure vested in power-an editor, a bureaucrat, or a professional critic-is not a must anymore. As a result, "it is attitude that changes, the attitude of individual toward authority, a disregard for the long chain of authority, for established hierarchies that used to structure decision making" (Hofheinz 2011(Hofheinz , p. 1425.…”

The Global Politics of Science and Technology - Vol. 1

“…Recent political revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East are another example of social networks' impact on citizen mobilization, although as recent discussions have highlighted, it remains unclear to which extend those revolutions were driven or rather supported by ICTs and what this means for their role in the creation of political space and real world action (Hofheinz 2011). Nevertheless, these recent events serve as example for the argument that interconnectivity has reached such levels that almost no country can completely shut down communication between its citizens and the outside world, an interesting indicator for the whole discussion about the ambivalent role of technology in global affairs.…”

The Effects of Cyberdemocracy on the Middle East: Egypt and Iran

“…Although he claimed the usage of the internet did not result in the overthrow of autocratic regimes in 2005, his research uncovered the tools that served as a foundation leading to the Arab Spring (Hofheinz 2007 , p. 56). Hofheinz credits the launching of the widely viewed Arab media station Al -Jazeera in 1996 as the fi rst symbolic step in spreading the "communications revolution" in the Middle East (Hofheinz 2011(Hofheinz , p. 1418. Armando Salvatore, a sociologist at the Oriental Studies University in Naples (L'Orientale), sheds light on the importance of the launching of Al -Jazeera .…”

“…The fi rst Egyptian bloggers began writing about several issues in society that spanned from abuses by state authorities to sexual harassment. These efforts did gain international attention and did see reaction from the state to enact legal action against violators, yet it was not monumental (Hofheinz 2011(Hofheinz , p. 1419. Finding concrete data on the number of Egyptian bloggers is diffi cult to fi nd, but it is clear the blogosphere in Egypt started with a handful of blogs and expanded exponentially.…”

“…Their injection into the Egyptian blogosphere created a divide within the sphere between secular and Islamist bloggers (Salvatore 2011 , p. 7). Hofheinz helps form a conclusion on the impact of the Egyptian blogosphere stating that blogging failed to topple the regime leading to crack downs and leaving the "fatigue [of] Egyptian Blogging" (Hofheinz 2011(Hofheinz , p. 1419.…”