Miriyam Aouragh

Social Media, Mediation and the Arab Revolutions

This article discusses the socio-political implications of user-generated applications and platforms through the prism of the Arab revolutions. Popular postmodern conceptualisations such as (post-nation state) network societies, (postclass) immaterial economies and (horizontal) political resistance through multitudes requires rigorous reassessment in the aftermath of the events in the MENA. Although the revolutions have led to a resurgence of debates about the power of new media, such arguments (or rather assertions) are echoes of earlier suggestions related to peculiar fetishisations of ICT in general and social media in particular. The point of my critique is not to deny the social and political usefulness of new media but to examine the pros and cons of the internet. I tackle the juxtaposition of the internet and political activism through the Marxist concept Mediation and investigate how the social, political and cultural realms of capitalism (superstructure) are both conditioned by and react upon the political-economic base. This helps us to understand structural factors such as ICT ownership (political-economic decision making of social media); while deconstructing the effect of cultural hegemony disseminated through mass media. It also overcomes an unfortunate weakness of some “academic Marxism” (an overwhelming focus on theory) by anchoring the theoretical arguments in an anthropological approach

Infrastructures of empire: towards a critical geopolitics of media and information studies

The Arab Uprisings of 2011 can be seen as a turning point for media and information studies scholars, many of whom newly discovered the region as a site for theories of digital media and social transformation. This work has argued that digital media technologies fuel or transform political change through new networked publics, new forms of connective action cultivating liberal democratic values. These works have, surprisingly, little to say about the United States and other Western colonial powers’ legacy of occupation, ongoing violence and strategic interests in the region. It is as if the Arab Spring was a vindication for the universal appeal of Western liberal democracy delivered through the gift of the Internet, social media as manifestation of the ‘technologies of freedom’ long promised by Cold War. We propose an alternate trajectory in terms of reorienting discussions of media and information infrastructures as embedded within the resurgence of idealized liberal democratic norms in the wake of the end of the Cold War. We look at the demise of the media and empire debates and ‘the rise of the BRICS’ (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as modes of intra-imperial competition that complicate earlier Eurocentric narratives media and empire. We then outline the individual contributions for the special collection of essays.

Confined Offline, Traversing Online Palestinian Mobility through the Prism of the Internet

Abstract The massive Palestinian exodus of the 1948 Nakba left a deep imprint in the Palestinian soul. These forced traversals – as well as the recurring flights in 1956, 1967, 1982 and more – transformed the meaning of ‘mobility’ in Palestinian discourse. Mobility is naturally adjoined to immobility. The emergence of Palestinian internet helped to overcome immobility and isolation. The remote and fragmented Palestinian nation started to reunite through websites, chatting and emailing. Cyberspace and online networks suggest new conceptual interpretations—Virtual Mobility. The internet presents a platform for the belated memoirs to be told. This article analyses the Palestinian internet production and consumption and illustrates how virtual mobility is a particular phenomenon for displaced communities. Applying a simultaneous offline and online methodology this article is based on research data based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

Hasbara 2.0: Israel’s Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age

Abstract The Internet has been a counter-public space for Palestinian liberation politics for over a decade, and digital technologies have become an increasingly important tool for solidarity groups across the world. However, the Israeli state and Zionist supporters worldwide are harnessing the same technologies and platforms to mobilize technology primarily to increase pro-Israel sentiments. The aims of this article are to examine hasbara [Israeli public diplomacy] through an exploration of similar diplomacy programmes; to illustrate how social media have affected the basic algorithms of hasbara; and to probe the assertions of hasbara in the light of pro-Palestinian solidarity. Through a study of public diplomacy, this article critically analyzes hasbara as a site of contestation and a method that is hampered by contradictions. On the one hand, there has been a massive growth in hasbara in recent years—indicated by the increase in funding for it and by its professionalized and centralized character; and on the other hand, hasbara has attracted sharp critiques in Israel for its reputed failures. To understand this contradiction, hasbara must be placed within the context of Israel’s settler-colonialism, which sets the state apart from other ‘post-conflict’ states. This article reviews the methods utilized in hasbara, as well as their readjustment in the context of recent wars. Events in 2014 illustrate that hasbara actually destabilizes Israel’s diplomacy. Online journalism and the suppression of solidarity for Palestine together stimulate more criticism and, in turn, help to shift public opinion. Paradoxically, therefore, adjustments (‘hasbara 2.0’) have underlined the image of Israel as a colonial power engaged in violent occupation.

Online politics and grassroots activism in Lebanon: negotiating sectarian gloom and revolutionary hope

This article describes the confluence of online activism and street protests in Lebanon. While Arab protesters have systematically been portrayed as young, urban and wired since the 2011 uprisings, Lebanese activists are also often regarded as trapped between war and sectarianism. This article challenges both frameworks and looks closer at the ways pre-existing waves of discontent crystallised into the mobilisation of thousands of Lebanese onto the streets of Beirut in 2010 and 2011. To achieve this, the article critiques the over-emphasis on network politics that accompanies internet-related hypotheses. The fashioning of a new kind of politics outside the dominant political factions (‘8–14 March’ blocs) was crucial for activists in Lebanon. New independent initiatives that locate feminist and queer politics within an overall analysis of imperialism and capitalism, as well as experimentation with digital technologies, helped forge a unique and non-sectarian camaraderie. By conveying the circumstances that have shaped political involvement, this article avoids the projection of non-ideological/networked politics that dominate concepts of online activism. The internet played a dual role in Lebanese grassroots politics, as illustrated through the experiences of the feminist collective Nasawiya.

L-Makhzan al-’Akbari: Resistance, Remembrance and Remediation in Morocco

Abstract Morocco was prompted by the sense of making and witnessing history that began as the backdrop to the mass uprisings across the region in 2011 and continued well into 2012. At several moments the country at large burst into a mosaic of rebellion. As expected, the state intervened with media propaganda, smear campaigns and intimidation to pre-empt the growing impact of the activists and as such to erase this revolutionary episode effectively from Morocco’s collective memory. This article examines the practices and implications of the remediation of past experiences of struggles and brings the memories of past resistance together with experiences of present struggles. This article takes particular interest in the intersection between 20Feb activists’ political projects and the growing array of digital politics and allows us to understand better the impact of digital media in times of revolution.

Oxford University should stop investing in arms companies

It will surprise nobody to learn that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—so deadly to those who have suff ered in them—have reaped enormous profi ts for arms companies. What may come as a surprise is that many of the UK’s most respected universities—including ours, Oxford—have also cashed in on these wars, by investing (either directly or indirectly) large amounts of their endowment capital in shares in major global arms companies. Oxford University provides a revealing—but by no means unique—example: requests under the Freedom of Information Act made by Campaign Against the Arms Trade and our student group have revealed that, between 2008 and 2010, Oxford’s endowment and capital funds were investing on average £4·5 million of their assets (through third-party funds) in BAE Systems, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and other UK and US arms manufacturers. For Oxford, as for other universities, the lure of large returns appears to have been too lucrative to resist. Yet at a time when there is an increasing public awareness about the conduct of these and other wars, helped in large part by the WikiLeaks release last year of thousands of US military fi les, with their evidence of what many would consider to be promiscuous rules of engagement and indiscriminate killings, universities like Oxford can no longer ignore the ethical implications of their investments. Take Oxford’s holding in Lockheed Martin. In April, 2010, the University held £1·4 million worth of shares in this US-based company that makes the Hellfi re missile. The WikiLeaks release records the killing of an Iraqi boy by a Hellfi re missile fi red at him by a US helicopter while he was collecting fi rewood. A Hellfi re missile is also seen killing a passer-by as it is launched at a civilian structure at the end of the infamous Collateral murder video released by WikiLeaks, which shows footage from a US helicopter cockpit of innocent civilians gunned down in Baghdad, accompanied by the crew’s mocking commentary: “Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards. Nice.” In both cases the helicopters were Apaches, manufactured by Boeing, another company 2 Brazil. Federative republic of Brazil: 1998 Constitution with 1996 reforms. November, 2008. http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Brazil/ english96.html (accessed March 15, 2011). 3 Victora CG, Aquino EML, do Carmo Leal M, Monteiro CA, Barros FC, Szwarcwald CL. Maternal and child health in Brazil: progress and challenges. Lancet 2011; published online May 9. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60138-4. 4 Barreto ML, Teixeira MG, Bastos FI, Ximenes RAA, Barata RB, Rodrigues LC. Successes and failures in the control of infectious diseases in Brazil: social and environmental context, policies, interventions, and research needs. Lancet 2011; published online May 9. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60202-X. 5 Brasilia: Ministério da Educação/Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira. 2009 higher education census. http://www. inep.gov.br/superior/censosuperior/default.asp (accessed March 15, 2011) (in Portuguese). 6 Brasília: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografi a e Estatística. 2010 population census. http://www.censo2010.ibge.gov.br (accessed March 15, 2011) (in Portuguese). 7 Ministério de Saúde. DataSUS. http://tabnet.datasus.gov.br/cgi/tabcgi. exe?cnes/cnv/prid02br.def (accessed Jan 7, 2011) (in Portuguese). 8 Morita MC, Haddad AE, de Araújo ME. Current profi le and trends of the Brazilian dentist-surgeon. Maringá: Dental Press International, 2010. http://cfo.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/PERFIL_CD_BR_web.pdf (accessed Jan 10, 2011) (in Portuguese). 9 Spink MJP, Bernardes JdS, Menegon VSM, Santos L, Gamba AC. The engagement of psychologists in SUS-related health services: subsidies to understand dilemmas of the practice and the challenges of professional education. In: Spink MJP, eds. Psychology in dialogue with the SUS: professional practice and academic production. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2007: 53–80. http://www.abepsi.org.br/web/Relatorio_ pesquisa_ABEP.pdf (accessed March 15, 2011) (in Portuguese). 10 Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. http://portal.saude. gov.br/portal/saude/Gestor/area.cfm?id_area=1529 (accessed Jan 8, 2011) (in Portuguese). 11 Santos BdS, Almeida-Filho N. The university of the 21st century: towards a new university. Coimbra: Almedina Press, 2008. http://www.boaventura desousasantos.pt/media/A%20Universidade%20no%20Seculo%20XXI.pdf (accessed March 15, 2011) (in Portuguese). 12 Ministério da Saúde, Ministério da Educação. National programme for reorientation of professional formation in health. 2007. http://prosaude. org/rel/pro_saude1.pdf (accessed Jan 11, 2011) (in Portuguese).

The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam, by Philip N. Howard

By empirically tracing the common denominator of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for achieving democracy, Philip Howard produces a long-awaited inquiry into the politics of the Internet. The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy outlines how new information technologies contribute to democracy in Muslim countries. The recent media obsession with Internet revolutions in relation to the Arab-Muslim world is intriguing and palpable at the same time. Given the fashionable yet suffocating fetish with Internet revolutions, some fresh air is badly needed. Howard claims that the Internet has played a key role in nearly all democratic transitions in the last 15 years. But he first outlines a crucial distinction of democracy: as transition and as entrenchment. Thereafter he tests the potential causes both on their own and in combination. His analyses rely on a set of causal relations rather than correlational treatment, and by employing a rigorous approach to deconstruct these relations, he produces an original as well as sustained inquiry. This book is an important contribution in tracing the role of ICTs in the quest for democracy. Howard identifies several recipes (and combinations) of ingredients when contemplating the effect on democratization. He illustrates how technology diffusion led to hybridization (“regime change”) of governments. In preparation of his main arguments, Howard identifies the infrastructural conditions (telecommunications policy reform, infrastructure investment, user base) and contextual conditions (wealth distribution, fuel dependency, size of population and Muslim community, level of education) and then uses both to deconstruct the political outcomes: new systems of communication for states, political parties, journalists, civic groups, and elites. From these outcomes Howard finally distills the institutional consequences that form the heart of the argument—democratic entrenchment, democratic transitions, or a combination. Howard reminds us that technology is “modernizing” society in the sense that it is essential for economic growth—there cannot be economic benefits, let alone survival, in a global capitalist economy without the Internet. “Muslim” and “Islam” function as categories to investigate particular movements (political Islam) and general communities