Mapping the Digital Middle East

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication

Over the past decade or so, the digital landscape in the Middle East has changed dramatically. Technological adoption, advanced IT infrastructures, communication changes and enhanced connectivity have slowly but surely impacted the region. While much has been written about the role digital media played since the 2011 Arab uprisings, less attention has been paid to the larger digital transformations the MENA region has been experiencing and the implications of these technology-enabled transformations. This chapter focuses on the broader nature of these information and communication changes. It offers critical reflection on how the evolving communication environment and fast changing digital technologies are affecting the region and transforming practices, paying particular attention to the cultural, economic, and political implications of these ongoing changes. The chapter pays particular attention to both the opportunities and challenges the adoption of digital technologies holds for a Middle East that is aspiring to transition toward a knowledge-based economy. It shed light on significant developments and evolving dynamics that characterize the digital Middle East, but also reveals disjunctions and maps out discordances that are inherent to this emerging digital culture.

Digital Middle East

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
New Media ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
New Information ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Information And Communication

In recent years, the Middle East’s information and communications landscape has changed dramatically. Increasingly, states, businesses, and citizens are capitalizing on the opportunities offered by new information technologies, the fast pace of digital transformations, and enhanced connectivity. These changes are far from turning Middle Eastern nations into network societies, but their impact is significant. The growing adoption of a wide variety of information technologies and new media platforms in everyday life has given rise to complex dynamics that beg for a better understanding. Digital Middle East sheds a critical light on continuing changes that are closely intertwined with the adoption of information and communication technologies in the MENA region. Drawing on case studies from throughout the Middle East, the contributors explore how these digital transformations are playing out in the social, cultural, political, and economic spheres, exposing the various disjunctions and discordances that have marked the advent of the digital Middle East.

scholarly journals The sustainable development of the knowledge based economy in Lithuania

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 775-783
Author(s):  
Aurelija Čižauskaitė-Butkaliuk
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Environmental Innovation ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Effective Development

In this century the management of the country is in a dynamic, multiplicity and controversial environment. For their competitiveness is necessary to look for the interaction between the knowledgebased economy and the sustainable development. A strong correlation between those objects.forces scientists to analyze, create new evaluation methodologies. The aim of this study – to examine the role of importance between knowledge–based economy and sustainable development, create and calculate an integrated sustainable knowledge–based economy index of Lithuania and according to the results or research, make proposes for more effective development of Lithuania’s sustainable knowledge–based economy. The index consists of Socio-economic, environmental, innovation, human resources and information and communications technology sub–indices..The calculation showed that the development of a knowledge–based economy is not sustainable, because not all the development of sub–indices.is the same. The biggest positive changes taking place in information and communication technology, and negative – socio-economic areas. The sustainable development of the knowledge–based economy in Lithuania since 2010 is growing up.

The Role of E-Government in Rebuilding Bosnia-Herzegovina

2011 ◽  
pp. 1206-1212
Author(s):  
Meliha Handzic
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication

The world is currently experiencing a period of major change. The emerging new world is variously referred to as the third wave, the information age, the information society, or the knowledge-based economy. Regardless of the terminology used, what matters is that the new social, political, and economic world is globalized, based on the production, distribution, and use of knowledge, and is heavily reliant on information and communication technology (Handzic, 2004a). It is also characterized by increased complexity, uncertainty, and surprises. Some analysts like Raich (2000) think of it as a period of living in the centre of the “Bermuda Triangle” where individuals, organizations, and societies have to deal with the increasing turbulence and speed of change in order to progress. The rise of the information society has brought major changes in citizen and business expectations, as well as organizational structures, cultures, and work processes. To remain responsive to the changing needs of their constituents, governments increasingly have to adopt information society tools and working practices. Essentially, they have to use information and communication technology (ICT) as tools in private and public sector renewal, develop information industry, maintain high level of professional expertise in ICT, provide opportunities to use information society services and have information infrastructure capable of providing such services. The purpose of this article is to explore how these processes are helping in rebuilding Bosnia-Herzegovina.

scholarly journals Digital use and mistrust in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: beyond narratives of liberation and disillusionment

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1125-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Moreno-Almeida ◽  
Shakuntala Banaji
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Young People ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Arab Spring

Through the prism of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2010–2011, new media has been presented as diametrically opposed to the top-down and mistrusted. Asking the question, ‘In what ways do trust, privacy and surveillance concerns intersect and inflect the individual and collective practices of young people in networks of participation, and their sense of civic connection through old and new media?’, this article presents a nuanced understanding of the relationship between digital media and mistrust. Through the study of original case studies in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and the UAE, we examine attitudes towards and usage of digital media in creating and maintaining political, civic, cultural and artistic networks among communities. We analyse our abundant qualitative interviews, observations and ethnographic data collected to reveal the continuity of media mistrust as people move into the digital arena. As new tools continue to be launched many young people in the region remain alert to the ways in which these tools can serve or hinder individual and group aims. Beyond narratives of liberation, disillusionment or democratisation, ‘new’ media poses both mundane and surprising challenges in encouraging and engaging networks of participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

scholarly journals Knowledge Economy and Turkey In Terms Of Innovation and Education

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burcu Sakız ◽  
Semih Sakız
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

Communication and information technologies have started to emerge since the 40s resulting major changes in the way business has been conducted and effected global economy. Transitions to knowledge-intensive business models become popular since late 1950s. Additionally intellectual capabilities become more important than physical inputs. Having sufficient national production and technology to create a welfare society similar to developed countries is crucial for any modern nation. One of the main developmental leverages for the globalization becomes the knowledge based economic approach. Developed by World Bank “Knowledge Assessment Methodology” is very important methodology in order to measure the progress of countries towards having a knowledge based economy. World Bank's four Knowledge Economy pillars: economic and institutional regime, education, innovation, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) developed for countries to make basic assessment of countries’ readiness for the knowledge economy and help them the transition to a Knowledge Economy. In this study, knowledge economy concept and its properties are presented. Furthermore this paper introduces the analysis of knowledge economy from Turkey’s perspective especially for the role of innovation and education pillars in the development of Turkey.

scholarly journals Youth Labour Market in Romania’s Development Regions in the Framework of Sustainable Development and of a Knowledge-based Economy

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Mariana Bălan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Youth Labour Market ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Information And Communication

Abstract Even if the issue of youths’ inclusion in the labour market was always an important item on political agendas, during the last two decades this issue had particular relevance. In the last years, unemployment for this age group had unprecedented amplitude, reaching 20.6% in Romania in 2016. Modern societies provide for youths opportunities, still they are faced with major challenges related to the education and training and access to the labour force market. During the last decades, the world economy shifted in a continuous process from development based on traditional factors to the knowledge-based economy. The development of the knowledge-based economy leads to changes in labour force demand also: new skills and competences are required. As new technologies are implemented, the demand for high-skilled workers increases, especially for high-skilled ones in the field of Information and Communication (IC), and the demand for low-skilled workers decreases. The paper presents a brief characterisation of the labour force market at the level of Romania‘s regions of development and an analysis of the particularities of the youths’ labour market in the context of sustainable development and of the new economy as well as some advantages of using young labour force for sustainable development.

Studying Networked Communication in the Middle East

2018 ◽  
pp. 415-436
Author(s):  
Javier Borge-Holthoefer ◽  
Muzammil M. Hussain ◽  
Ingmar Weber
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Computational Social Science ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
The Social

Digital infrastructure has been rapidly embraced in the Arab Middle East and North Africa in the last decade, opening a unique window for computational social science and network data science scholars. However, there are currently two coexisting social and economic realities in the region, which result in very different usages and dynamics of networked communication: countries with chronic civil unrest in which digital media have largely served as mobilization tools (e.g., Tunisia, Egypt), and relatively stable and wealthy societies that face social change and economic hyper-development (e.g., Qatar, Kuwait). Given such diversity across the region, how and why should social scientists study digital networks in the Middle East? What can digital networks teach us about the social and political aspects of the modern Middle East? In sum, while claims about digital technologies’ impacts across the region have been critiqued for being speculative and overblown, we suggest that digital technologies have instead broadened our ability to understand ongoing transformations among Arab states and societies.

scholarly journals Digital Media and the Public Information Environment: A Retrospective Assessment

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Myles Ruggles
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Retrospective Assessment ◽  
Early Results ◽  
Economic Methods ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Media

Abstract: Ten years after the emergence of the World Wide Web, the implications of new digital technologies for the news and public information function of the media are still a topic of vigorous debate. This paper, which is merely a preliminary report on an unfinished review of the literature pre-dating that event, revisits some of the critical analyses that had been articulated about the new digital media when the Web emerged. The intent of this larger, not-yet-completed project is to evaluate some major tendencies, already mapped a decade ago by research in the political economy of telecommunication, against the actual outcomes of the intervening decade of development and use of the new digital technologies of information and communication. Where the early predictions are confirmed, this re-evaluation may provide a simple means to distinguish persistent structural distortions in the public information environment from transitory or local effects, superficial influences, and alarmist predictions. Where the early results are refuted or less clearly confirmed, it may provide insight into the limits of political-economic methods of analysis.

ICT as an Example of Industrial Policy in EU

2011 ◽  
pp. 1683-1689
Author(s):  
Morten Falch ◽  
Anders Henten
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Policy ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Productivity Gains ◽  
The Eu

A substantial part of the economic growth that has taken place within the past 2 decades is related to information and communication technology (ICT). First, the ICT sector itself has achieved very high growth rates. Second, productivity gains in other sectors have been achieved, to a large extent, through implementation of ICT-related innovations. It is, therefore, no surprise that ICT plays an important role in virtually all industrial policy programs. Policies stimulating e-government are one of the ingredients in such programs. In 2000, the leaders of the European Union (EU) adopted the Lisbon strategy to make the EU the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world (CEC, 2000). ICT was seen as a key component in achieving these goals1, and a special program—eEurope—has been designed to realize the Lisbon goals in the ICT area. This program is, however, also a continuation of a wide range of ICT initiatives taken by the EU Commission since 1984.

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