The impact of ICT expansion on promoting democracy and economic freedom in the Middle East (1995-2005)

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.The PhD study has found that ICT expansion has positively influenced democratic freedom, information sharing and dissemination and provides a public sphere for discourse among citizens of the eleven Middle Eastern countries. This thesis also found that ICT expansion positively influences economic freedom in the eleven Middle Eastern countries. However, differences between countries such as the educational attainment of their citizens and institutional resistance to ICT utilization both enhanced and restricted the relationship between ICT and economic freedom in the regio

Structure and Discourse: Mapping the Networked Public Sphere in the Arab Region

In this study, we employ social network mapping techniques to analyze the shape and structure of the networked public sphere in the Arab region. The analysis is based on four distinct views of digitally connected communities: a regional map of the blogosphere and maps of Twitter networks in three countries: Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain. This media ecology mapping across these different platforms and regions offers a detailed view of social, cultural, religious, and political expression through digital media. We observe that the networked public sphere in the Arab region is much different than it was five years ago. With the decline in the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook now host a large portion of the Arab networked public sphere. By all indications, the networked public sphere is more contentious, more highly polarized, and less conducive to broadly inclusive social mobilization. In Egypt, we see polarized debates on Twitter that divide politically active users into three distinct and largely disconnected groups. In Bahrain, the antagonism between the government and opposition is manifest in a bipolar network structure on Twitter, and the debate is framed in sectarian language that appears intent on deepening the political divide. In comparison, the Twitter network in Tunisia appears to be much more integrated and the discourse between political opponents less hostile, despite the political rivalries there. In each of these countries, the networked public sphere continues to offer a venue for civil society and individual voices that is less restrictive than traditional media. While pro-government actors are now more active in digital spaces compared to several years earlier, the discourse in Egypt, Bahrain, and Tunisia is still tilted towards those that support freedom of speech, civil liberties, and political reform

Media and Mapping Practices in the Middle East and North Africa

A few months into the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in 2009/10, the promises of social media, including its ability to influence a participatory governance model, grassroots civic engagement, new social dynamics, inclusive societies and new opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs, became more evident than ever. Simultaneously, cartography received new considerable interest as it merged with social media platforms. In an attempt to rearticulate the relationship between media and mapping practices, whilst also addressing new and social media, this interdisciplinary book abides by one relatively clear point: space is a media product. The overall focus of this book is accordingly not so much on the role of new technologies and social networks as it is on how media and mapping practices expand the very notion of cultural engagement, political activism, popular protest and social participation

The Map and The Territory: Russian Social Media Networks and Society

This dissertation uses Russian social media as a lens for exploring the historically, culturally, socially and politically situated relationship between individuals and online communication technologies. I propose a framework for comparative international analysis that leverages three interconnected elements – history, network structure and media ecology. On the basis of these three elements, this dissertation examines Russia’s social media ecology and its relationship to Russia’s broader socio-political environment, articulating the various factors that have influenced the specific network structure and nature of social media in Russia, its role within the broader online and traditional media ecologies, and its implications for Russian society and politics in general. In the first part, I outline the features of Russia’s distinct social media ecology, and examine the various historic and social factors that have shaped its evolution, highlighting the implications of the intertwined development of the Internet and social media in Russia. In the second section, I present the findings of my case study of the network structure of Russian social media, examining the culture of Russia’s online social networks and providing a detailed analysis of the network structure and patterns of attention in Russian social media between 2009- 2010. In the final section, I consider these findings within the broader context of Russia’s media ecology, highlighting the distinction between “Internet Russia” and “TV Russia” and evaluating the role of Russian social media networks in offline action, particularly the tumultuous events of 2012. Russian social media networks are not a microcosm, reflection or “map” of Russian society. They are created and pursued by an as yet elite, but growing, segment of the population - active and engaged social media users for whom the relatively uncensored Internet serves not only as an independent source of information, but, more significantly, as an avenue for interpersonal connection and communication. Civil participation in Russia, I conclude, has its roots in these interpersonal social networks. My historically, socially and culturally rooted exploration of Russian social media ecology recognizes it as an interpersonal space as well as a public sphere, highlighting the communication and coordination aspect of social media, as much as the informational one. This approach explains the immediate success, “like a fish to water,” of LiveJournal’s social network based blogging platform in Russia, and provides a foundation for understanding the unique structure and nature of Russian social media networks. Finally, it offers context and insight for a more nuanced understanding of the offline social and political ramifications of social media in Russia, as well as a matrix for cross cultural comparison

The Map and The Territory: Russian Social Media Networks and Society

This dissertation uses Russian social media as a lens for exploring the historically, culturally, socially and politically situated relationship between individuals and online communication technologies. I propose a framework for comparative international analysis that leverages three interconnected elements – history, network structure and media ecology. On the basis of these three elements, this dissertation examines Russia’s social media ecology and its relationship to Russia’s broader socio-political environment, articulating the various factors that have influenced the specific network structure and nature of social media in Russia, its role within the broader online and traditional media ecologies, and its implications for Russian society and politics in general. In the first part, I outline the features of Russia’s distinct social media ecology, and examine the various historic and social factors that have shaped its evolution, highlighting the implications of the intertwined development of the Internet and social media in Russia. In the second section, I present the findings of my case study of the network structure of Russian social media, examining the culture of Russia’s online social networks and providing a detailed analysis of the network structure and patterns of attention in Russian social media between 2009- 2010. In the final section, I consider these findings within the broader context of Russia’s media ecology, highlighting the distinction between “Internet Russia” and “TV Russia” and evaluating the role of Russian social media networks in offline action, particularly the tumultuous events of 2012. Russian social media networks are not a microcosm, reflection or “map” of Russian society. They are created and pursued by an as yet elite, but growing, segment of the population - active and engaged social media users for whom the relatively uncensored Internet serves not only as an independent source of information, but, more significantly, as an avenue for interpersonal connection and communication. Civil participation in Russia, I conclude, has its roots in these interpersonal social networks. My historically, socially and culturally rooted exploration of Russian social media ecology recognizes it as an interpersonal space as well as a public sphere, highlighting the communication and coordination aspect of social media, as much as the informational one. This approach explains the immediate success, “like a fish to water,” of LiveJournal’s social network based blogging platform in Russia, and provides a foundation for understanding the unique structure and nature of Russian social media networks. Finally, it offers context and insight for a more nuanced understanding of the offline social and political ramifications of social media in Russia, as well as a matrix for cross cultural comparison

Social Movements in Iran and the Trends of Political Expressionism.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Weaving webs of insecurity: fear, weakness and power in the post-Soviet South Caucasus

This thesis' central aim is the application of a Wendtian-constructivist expansion of Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) on a specific case study: the South Caucasus. To that effect, three concepts of RSCT – amity/enmity, state incoherence, and great power penetration – are expanded and developed within the broader above-mentioned ontological-epistemological framework. Amity-enmity is elaborated into an integrated spectrum founded on varying ideational patterns of securitisation alongside objective characteristics, and encompassing conflict formations, security regimes and security communities. States are conceptualised as ideational-institutional-material "providers of security"; their incoherence is characterised over three tiers and two dimensions, leading to a distinction between vertical and horizontal inherent weakness, ostensible instability and failure. Great power penetration is dissected into its objective, subjective and intersubjective elements, resulting in a 1+3+1 typology of its recurring patterns: unipolar, multipolar-cooperative and multipolar-competitive, bounded by hegemony and disengagement. After the specification of a methodology incorporating both objective macro- and interpretive micro-perspectives, two working hypotheses are specified. Firstly, that state incoherence engenders high levels of regional enmity, and, secondly, that patterns of great power penetration primarily affect transitions of regional amity/enmity between conflict formations and security regimes. The framework is subsequently used to triangulate these hypotheses through an application of the theoretical framework on the post-Soviet Southern Caucasus. An initial macro-overview is subsequently provided of the Southern Caucasus as a regional security complex; the three expanded concepts are consequently investigated, in turn, from the discursive micro-perspective. The South Caucasus is categorised into a "revisionist conflict formation", the nature of its states' incoherence is characterised, and existing patterns of great power penetration are identified as competitive-multipolar. In the final chapter, the hypotheses are largely confirmed, and various scenarios as to the possible emergence of a regional security regime are investigated

DIGITAL ROOMS OF THEIR OWN: WOMEN'S VOICES ONLINE ABOUT THE POLITICS OF WOMEN, FAMILY AND MATERNITY IN FOUR WESTERN DEMOCRACIES

This dissertation examined the experiences of 109 women with varying backgrounds who blog or write online about the politics of women, family and maternity in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland. This dissertation argues that a broader definition of what counts as political needs to be applied to the voices of women online to capture their political expressions in Western democracies. An analysis of in-depth interviews found that 84 percent of interviewees considered their blogging to be political. A statistically significant relationship was found to exist between women bloggers/writers online who identified as feminist and who considered their blogging to be political. Rather than categorizing the personal styles of women who blog/write online (in and outside my sample) as "just" "personal journaling," the fluidity of topics they address needs to be recognized as a feature of fluid public clusters online, which are tied to their lives offline. This dissertation argues that it is necessary to amend the theories of public spheres to capture the political expressions and experiences of women who use social media to write about their concerns publicly. This dissertation suggests a new theory of fluid public clusters. This new theory expands on the idea of a multitude of publics rather than the often-criticized singularity of the original Habermasian public sphere. It emphasizes that publics are messy, overlapping and changing over time. It also highlights that offline social hierarchies of power and identities migrate online. This dissertation concludes that national contexts shape the expressions of women bloggers/writers online and that these were particularly apparent in the fluid public clusters that were salient in each country. One key finding was that Switzerland differed significantly from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. In the latter three countries women - across a wide variety of backgrounds - have (or at least are not denied) ample opportunities to make their voices heard. In Switzerland, women's voices online have been constrained in number and range of perspectives to center around traditional understandings of motherhood while feminist/progressive views remain rare. While 73 percent of interviewees said they had negative experiences due to blogging/writing online, all 109 interviewees said they had at least one positive experience due to blogging/writing online. These included personal, professional and, in some cases, also commercial benefits. Interviewees cherished having a digital room of their own to write what they want in a space for which they set the rules. Interviewees dealt with negative experiences mostly on a personal level, as police, state and lawmakers have been slow in recognizing and prosecuting online discrimination and abuse leveled against women. Positive experiences are nearly guaranteed but negative interactions remain and are more likely to happen to women who identify as feminists and/or say that their writing is political. This dissertation offers insights into the discourse among women about the democratization of democracies via social media. Seventy-two percent of interviewees remained skeptical about the democratic potential of social media. Most interviewees had concerns about internet access, internet literacy, online harassment and which voices get heard or amplified. Yet, interviewees also shared examples of starting or contributing to (national) public debates over issues of their concern. The democratic potential of social remains haphazard. Finally, this dissertation argues that women, who have been under-represented and misrepresented in (news) media content and production, need to keep blogging, tweeting and writing online. By doing so, women will tap into the haphazard democratic potential of social media. This will make Western democracies more democratic. To encourage women to blog, this dissertation offers recommendations to women on managing blogs/sites (safely)