Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia(Oxford Studies in Digital Politics)

How is the adoption of digital media in the Arab world affecting the relationship between the state and its subjects? What new forms of online engagement and strategies of resistance have emerged from the aspirations of digitally empowered citizens? Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia tells the compelling story of the concurrent evolution of technology and society in the Middle East. It brings into focus the intricate relationship between Internet development, youth activism, cyber resistance, and political participation. Taking Tunisia - the birthplace of the Arab uprisings - as a case study, it offers an ethnographically nuanced and theoretically grounded analysis of the digital culture of contention that developed in an authoritarian context. It broadens the focus from narrow debates about the role that social media played in the Arab uprisings toward a fresh understanding of how changes in media affect existing power relations. Based on extensive fieldwork, in-depth interviews with Internet activists, and immersive analyses of online communication, this book redirects our attention from institutional politics to the informal politics of everyday life. An original contribution to the political sociology of Arab media, Networked Publics and Digital Contention provides a unique perspective on how networked Arab publics negotiate agency, reconfigure political action, and reimagine citizenship.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by John H. Downing Acknowledgements I. Introduction: On Digital Contention and Everyday Life II. The Mirage of Progress: A Nation's Unfulfilled Promise III. A Crisis of Authority: Offline Activism and Simmering Discontent IV. Cyber Activism Comes of Age: Activists, Diasporas and Networks V. The Politicization of the Blogosphere: When Diarists Become Activists VI. The Battle over Internet Control: From the Web to the Street VII. Mediatizing the Revolution: The Appeal of Social Networks VIII. Post-Revolutionary Dynamics: Changes and Challenges Appendix Notes References Index

About the Author :
Mohamed Zayani is Associate Professor of Critical Theory at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar and Director of the Media and Politics Program. His works include The Al Jazeera Phenomenon: Critical Perspectives on New Arab Media and The Culture of Al Jazeera: Inside an Arab Media Giant.

Review :
"Zayani has assembled an impressive array of data by interviewing a great number of Tunisian activists and analysing many internet pages as well as a whole range of digital information. It is a powerful reminder of how important the digital media and cyber activist were for the contentious politics of the Middle East." --Stefan Berger, Moving the Social "[T]he events surrounding the Arab Spring has spurred a debate about the significance of the Internet, and more precisely social and interactive media. Mohamed Zayani makes a major contribution to this debate...Zayani's discussion about cyber-activism is timely and insightful...Zayani's book is presumably the most complete and well-researched account on Internet activism and its political implications in Tunisia to date. By providing a detailed chronology of the evolution of online activism embedded in a critical examination of the dynamic relationship between the state and its citizens the analysis successfully demonstrates that the 2011 Tunisian uprisings did not occur in a vacuum...[T]he book fills a gap in academic research in several respects and should therefore appeal to students of and specialists on media studies and politics alike, especially those interested in the Middle East."--Middle East Journal "Zayani's book is one of the best analyses of the social movements that led to the transformation of the Arab world, and a major contribution to the understanding of social movements of the digital age." --Manuel Castells, Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California "The rise of digital media has animated new forms of public participation, but translating these into stable expansion of democracy has been a challenge. The case of Tunisia is of global interest - as well as crucial to understanding the Middle East - and Zayani's Networked Publics and Digital Contention offers a superb analysis." --Craig Calhoun, Director, London School of Economics and Political Science "Finally, a book on the Arab uprisings that is driven by grounded research and a desire to understand the complexity of producing change in the region through in-depth examination of the communicative and political practices in Tunisia. Put aside the cliché and the hype and read this fascinating examination of the dynamics of struggle." --Annabelle Sreberny, Professor of Global Media and Communications at SOAS, University of London, and author of Blogistan "Zayani generates a rigorous and convincing narrative... It offers a highly suggestive model for a multilevel approach to the complex dynamics of social movements over time... I confidently expect readers to benefit considerably from this study. There is much here to plumb and to spark further reflection." --John D.H. Downing, Editor of Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media "Compelling and authoritative. By focusing on subtle innovations in media use, Zayani shows the power of media practices often so taken for granted that they go unnoticed. Networked Publics is essential reading not only for those who follow events in North Africa, but also for asking better questions of media and politics elsewhere." --Dale F. Eickelman, Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations, Dartmouth College "Zayani's marvelous book traces the backstory of cyberactivism in Tunisia...and the ways in which online spaces came to redefine the scope of politics itself." --Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Far from presenting a utopia, Zayani succeeds in recording the Tunisian case as both documentation and inspiration for other possible realities." -- LSE Review of Books "Networked Publics and Digital Contention is a comprehensive sociological, historical, and political probe of Tunisia's contemporary history in the Digital Age. It also offers a substantial contribution to the study of the region and its rapidly evolving definition of political processes, agency, and democratic culture in the age of global networks. Considering the ephemeral nature of online communication, the book not only preserves Internet history but also provides a much-needed theorization of citizenship and sociopolitical experiences in twenty-first-century MENA." --Mona Kasra, University of Virginia, Review of Middle Eastern Studies