The Society of the Digital Swarm

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Daniel Toscano López
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Reality Principle ◽  
The Way

This chapter seeks to show how the society of the digital swarm we live in has changed the way individuals behave to the point that we have become Homo digitalis. These changes occur with information privatization, meaning that not only are we passive consumers, but we are also producers and issuers of digital communication. The overarching argument of this reflection is the disappearance of the “reality principle” in the political, economic, and social spheres. This text highlights that the loss of the reality principle is the effect of microblogging as a digital practice, the uses of which can either impoverish the space of people's experience to undermine the public space or achieve the mobilization of citizens against of the censorship of the traditional means of communication by authoritarian political regimes, such as the case of the Arab Spring in 2011.

The Literary Depiction of the “Public Space”: Chen Zhongshi’s White Deer Plain Revisited

Rural China ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Zhi Gao
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Economic

Chen Zhongshi’s novel, White Deer Plain, is a complex text revealing the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of a community in transformation in which multiple public spaces coexist and struggle to survive. As a reinterpretation of the novel, this article examines three types of public spaces: the popular, the political, and the cultural-educational, respectively. Focusing on the forms of depiction, the inner workings of the public spaces, the overlapping between different spaces and their expansion, this article aims to delineate the trajectories of the rise and fall of such public spaces and explore their entangling and association with modernity.

scholarly journals The Arab Spring Crisis and the Democratic Trend in Jordan

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Fawzi Ahmad Tayem ◽  
Radwan Mahmoud Al-Majali ◽  
Saddah Ahmad Al-Habashnah
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Negative Factor ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Arab Spring

The study aims at pin-pointing the effect of the Arab Spring as one of the external factors, that affected the Jordanian political regime during the period(2011-2017) at the different political, economic, security and social levels and concentrate on its effect on the democratic structure in Jordan , and how to reinforce indicators of democratic trend in Jordan. Where the study refuged to use the method of analyzing systems to test the main hypothesis of study in considering the external factor play an effective role either negative, or positive in enhancing indicators of the state democratic trend.The study deduced a result states that the Arab Spring formed a positive and negative factor in the democratic trend in Jordan, from part of the influence of the political instability in reinforcing the political will for the Jordanian decision-maker in the dedication of reform indicators and democratic trend, and in return the precariousness’s of the Arab Spring formed a negative factor in increasing problems of the political, economic, and social structures, the thing that formed an obstacle in front of reform and democratic trend. Also the study recommended with the necessity of concern about the other indicators and reinforcing the effectiveness of associations of the civil community, and respect of human rights, the economic development, the political and social stability, and culture and democratic practice.

Icons of Revolutionary Upheaval

Martyrdom ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friederike Pannewick
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Major Shift ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Semantic Transformation

Friederike Pannewick examines the public memorialisations of the martyrs of the Arab Spring in Egypt as expressed in graffiti and murals in Cairo. The state tried to censor and destroy them, but the memorial spaces were re-appropriated by the public and functioned as visual narratives of the history of the revolution. This artwork not only aimed at counteracting forgetfulness through public remembrance, but also enshrined the remembrance of more than once unpunished crimes and tragic events. The commemoration of these martyrs oscillates thus between personal efforts to cope with inescapable suffering and political strategy. From the perspective of previous commemorations of martyrs in Arab contexts the remembrance of the Arab Spring martyrs displays a major shift: this time the Arab citizens themselves engaged in self-empowerment and establishing and defending their own national history, instead of the political or religious institutions. In addition, a semantic transformation took place through a reconfiguration of religious ideas in the context of secularised modernity that transcends the particularities of specific groups and simultaneously builds on Muslim and Christian imageries.

The Study of Democratization and the Arab Spring

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amel Ahmed ◽  
Giovanni Capoccia
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Political ◽  
North African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
North African Countries ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Arab Spring

This paper proposes and illustrates a framework for analysis of the recent events in Middle Eastern and North African countries (the so-called Arab Spring) by bringing into dialogue recent theoretical advances in democratization theory with the comparative-historical literature on the political development of the MENA region. We advocate two analytical shifts from conventional approaches in the analysis of the Arab Spring: first, reconsider the temporalities of democratization processes; second, focus on struggles over specific institutional arenas rather than over the regime as a whole. The former recommendation draws attention both to the strategies used by key actors in the political, economic, and civil society spheres, and to the historical legacies that built the influence and resources of these actors over time. The latter allows us to consider the institutional safeguards for old elites that are likely to be included in the post-authoritarian regimes emerging in the region. Even though some of these safeguards are clearly anti-democratic, historical examples show that they do not necessarily preclude democratization. Indeed, in some cases, their introduction might be necessary to achieve democratic openings in other arenas. We illustrate these theoretical points with reference to the case of Egypt.

scholarly journals Socially engaged architecture of the 1950s and its transformations

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (42) ◽  
pp. 194-222
Author(s):  
Jasna Galjer ◽  
Sanja Lončar
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Purpose ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The City

This paper investigates the links between architecture and its social purpose and focuses specifically on the building and institution known today as the Public Open University Zagreb (Pučko otvoreno učilište Zagreb – POUZ), which was previously called Moša Pijade Workers' (and People's) University (Radničko (i narodno) sveučilište "Moša Pijade" – RANS). The paper examines the innovative and experimental nature of the architectural concept of socially engaged architecture as part of the societal modernisation of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as changes to its function up to the present post-socialist condition. The authors discuss the complex relationship between employees, beneficiaries, programmes and the architectural design and the political, economic and social context. The aim is to explore sociocultural categories and how culture, work, education and the city interacted with one another during different time periods. By using theoretical and methodological insights gleaned from cultural anthropological approaches to space and architecture, the paper demonstrates how the identity, significance and values ascribed to the production of public space were shaped, medialized and modified through time.

Cracking national integration after the events (the Arab Spring) and its impact On regional stability

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Muhannad Al Janabi Al Janabi
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Regional Stability ◽  
National Integration ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Political Media ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Arab Spring

Since late 2010 and early 2011, the Arab region has witnessed mass protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain and other countries that have been referred to in the political, media and other literature as the Arab Spring. These movements have had a profound effect on the stability of the regimes Which took place against it, as leaders took off and contributed to radical reforms in party structures and public freedoms and the transfer of power, but it also contributed to the occurrence of many countries in an internal spiral, which led to the erosion of the state from the inside until it became a prominent feature of the Arab) as is the case in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq.

scholarly journals Fatma Aliye Hanım: Gender Debates in Turkey

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 693-716
Author(s):  
Zeynep Direk
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Ottoman Empire ◽  
Republic Of Turkey ◽  
Late Ottoman

Abstract This essay explores the late nineteenth and early twentieth Century gender debates in the late Ottoman Empire, and the early Republic of Turkey with a focus on Fatma Aliye’s presence in the public space, as the first Ottoman woman philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual. I choose to concentrate on her because of the important stakes of the gender debates of that period, and the ways in which they are echoed in the present can be effectively discussed by reflecting on the ways in which Fatma Aliye is read, presented, and received. In the first part of this paper, I talk about Fatma Aliye’s life and experience of her gender as a woman, and point to her key interests as a writer and philosopher. In the second part, I situate her in the political history of feminism during the Rearrangement Period (Tanzimat), the Second Constitutional Era (II. Meşrutiyet), and the institution of the modern Republic of Turkey. Lastly, in the third part, I discuss the diverse ways in which she is interpreted in contemporary Turkey. I explore the political impact of the reception of Fatma Aliye as an intellectual figure on the current gender debates in Turkey.

scholarly journals No news is better than evil news. Clearing up the way to face Alternative Archaeologies

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Jaime Almansa Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Archaeology ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Professional Discipline ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Interpretation ◽  
Better Than ◽  
The Way

While Archaeology started to take form as a professional discipline, Alternative Archaeologies grew in several ways. As the years went by, the image of Archaeology started being corrupted by misconceptions and a lot of imagination, and those professionals that were claiming to be scientists forgot one of their first responsibilities; the public. This lack of interest is one of the reasons why today, a vast majority of society believes in many clichés of the past that alternative archaeologists have used to build a fictitious History that is not innocent at all. From UFOs and the mysteries of great civilizations to the political interpretation of the past, the dangers of Alternative Archaeologies are clear and under our responsibility. This paper analyzes this situation in order to propose a strategy that may make us the main characters of the popular imagery in the mid-term. Since confrontation and communication do not seem to be effective approaches, we need a change in the paradigm based on Public Archaeology and the increase of our presence in everyday life.

scholarly journals GCC Media Roles during the 2011 Arab Spring: An Analytical and Critical Overview

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah K. Al-Kindi
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
The Media ◽  
Contextual Characteristics ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Critical Overview

The central aim of this paper is to critically analyze the role of the media during public protests that occurred in the GCC countries during 2011. These protests were part of what came to be called the “Arab Spring”, which started in late 2010. Particular focus will be on how the Arab Spring resulted in fundamental changes and how various institutions played roles in this. The study draws on Gulf region literature about the Arab Spring in order to offer a critical and informed overview on the topic under discussion. The paper’s main question is: what are the main roles played by the GCC media (old/new) during the public protests of 2011? The paper argues that the role of the media in the 2011 protests, while important, was rather limited and affected by the unique contextual characteristics of the media environment in the GCC countries. 

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