Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia

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 in the Middle East and North Africa? Networked Publics and Digital Contention narrates the story of the co-evolution of technology and society in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab uprisings. It explores the emergence of a digital culture of contention that helped networked publics negotiate their lived reality, reconfigure power relations, and ultimately redefine the locus of politics. 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 the state-society relationship over time. Based on extensive fieldwork, in-depth interviews with Internet activists, and immersive analyses of online communication, this book draws our attention away from the tools of political communication and refocuses it on the politics of communication. An original contribution to the political sociology of media, Networked Publics and Digital Contention provides a unique perspective on how networked Arab publics reimagine citizenship, reinvent politics, and produce change.

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 :
"[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 clich� 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