The proposed panel aims to bring together scholars for the purpose of exploring the social impact of Information communication technologies (ICTs), with a special focus on Internet, mobile and satellite, on post-revolutionary Iranian society.
In this panel, the notion of ICTs identifies a set of communicative practices operated through new forums of communicative technologies that involve a web of emotive, discursive and symbolic meanings, hence creating new understandings of self and reality in the context of public life. Such new communicative forums also include the rise of new set of political and social movements, along with the development of new ideas, discourses and group solidarities through means of information technologies, which produce new social relations in virtual fields of interaction.
In this view, the panel aims to rethink the phenomenon of information technology not merely in terms of disseminating information, but how such means of communication produces new identities and (de) construct social relations through virtual spaces of interaction. The case of post-revolutionary Iran serves as a valuable case study for the development of ICTs, especially in ways they impact politics and social life. How do political institutions and collective processes (social movements) interact through Internet, fax, mobile and satellite? And to what extent have such communicative processes, manifesting new forums of interaction, accommodate, transform, modify or rebuff state power in the context of factional Iranian politics since 1990s, when new ICTS were introduced?
Therefore, the panel proposes to focus upon the varying effects of ICTs on political and social developments since the 1979 revolution. It will also accept proposals that deal with the relationship between political activism and democratic-minded social movements in the post-revolutionary period.
Other aspects of the theme may also include the interrelationship between the formation of cyberpublics and civic activism, and how such online political dynamics could entail meaningful political consequences on the socio-institutional levels.
Participants are also welcome to submit papers on other aspects and concerns related to the relationship between ICTs and societal processes in context of broader Iranian history. (Panel convenor Babak Rahimi)
Chair
Institutional Affiliation :
Academic Bio:
Babak Rahimi, who earned his BA at UCSD, received a Ph.D from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, in October 2004. Rahimi has also studied at the University of Nottingham, where he obtained a M.A. in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, and London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, 2000-2001. Rahimi has written numerous articles on culture, religion and politics and regularly writes on contemporary Iraqi and Iranian politics. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the national endowment for the Humanities and Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute, and was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC, where he conducted research on the institutional contribution of Shi’i political organizations in the creation of a vibrant civil society in post-Baathist Iraq. Rahimi’s current research project is on the religious cultural life of the Iranian port-city of Busher, southern Iran.
CV in PDF Format: http://literature.ucsd.edu/faculty/attachments/brahimi.cv.pdf
Discussant
Institutional Affiliation :
Academic Bio :
Babak Rahimi, who earned his BA at UCSD, received a Ph.D from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, in October 2004. Rahimi has also studied at the University of Nottingham, where he obtained a M.A. in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, and London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, 2000-2001. Rahimi has written numerous articles on culture, religion and politics and regularly writes on contemporary Iraqi and Iranian politics. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the national endowment for the Humanities and Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute, and was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC, where he conducted research on the institutional contribution of Shi’i political organizations in the creation of a vibrant civil society in post-Baathist Iraq. Rahimi’s current research project is on the religious cultural life of the Iranian port-city of Busher, southern Iran.
CV in PDF Format: http://literature.ucsd.edu/faculty/attachments/brahimi.cv.pdf
First Presenter
Institutional Affiliation :
Academic Bio :
Elham Gheytanchi is a sociology instructor at Santa Monica College. She writes on the Iranian Women's Rights Activist Movement in the Huffington post and other major publications.
Concise Paper Title :
ICT and the 2009 Electoral Politics in Iran
Paper Abstract (maximum of 400 words) :
What is the role and impact of new technology on the Iranian presidential election in 2009? What are the effects of social networking sites on mobilization of the general public during the presidential campaigns that are heavily monitored by unelected officials and the Supreme Leader in Iran? How does the state with its censoring wings in national TV, Ministry of Information and Ministry of Islamic Guidance manage to normalize the application of the internet and social networking sites in the presidential race in Iran?
Through textual analysis of sites and interviewing with bloggers, I will try to answer these questions in this proposed study. The aim of this study is to understand the dynamic of censorship of new media in non-democratic societies as a political opportunity structure opens during presidential elections.
Second Presenter
Institutional Affiliation :
Academic Bio :
Mahmood Enayat is a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Mahmood holds a Masters degree in Analysis, Design and Implementation
of Information Systems from the London School of Economics (2006) as
well as a BSc in Computer Science with Management from King's College
London (2005). Mahmood's academic work centers on state censorship and control of the
Internet, online political discourse and collective action in Persian
cyberspace.
Previously Mahmood was working as an online producer with the BBC
World Service (Persian Service). He is now working as a Training
Manager for the Iran Project at the BBC World Service Trust, where he
is responsible for the Trust's journalism training project in Iran.
Concise Paper Title :
Converging or Diverging Weblogistan?
Paper Abstract (maximum of 400 words) :
Throughout history communication and information have been fundamental
sources of power and counter-power, of domination and social change.
Governments have been trying to regulate different aspects of
communication mediums for centuries, and nowadays the focus is
increasingly on the Internet. This desire of governments is closely
intertwined with the political, cultural and social values of their
countries, reflected in their varying degrees of political control.
Iran is one of the countries with a historical tendency to control
different communication mediums, and it currently has one of the
world's most extensive Internet censorship regimes. Yet the central
issue is not the obvious and crude divide between a 'free' and
'closed' Internet in Iran. There are two subtle lines of tension
running through Internet development in the country. The first is the
centralising state's desire to control the online information, both
via censorship and propaganda. The second is the rapid emergence of
various uses of the Internet in Iran, constituting one of the most
dynamic and vibrant 'spaces of freedom', the Persian Blogosphere or
Webogistan. However, Weblogistan defies the conventional belief that
Iranian bloggers are mainly young democrats critical of the regime;
more increasingly it represents a wide range of opinions ranging from
religious conservative points of view to secular and reform-minded
ones, discussing topics ranging from politics and human rights to
poetry, religion, and pop culture.
In order to transcend such dominant dichotomies this research studies
the relationship between blogs and patterns of political discourses in
the Persian Blogosphere by focusing on the key question: What is the
state of deliberation among the different discourses in the Persian
Blogosphere?
In this research we share the result of the first Persian weblog
aggregator, called BlogWatch that automatically collects information
about the social structures of the Persian Blogosphere and their
readership. We use this data to better understand the relationship
between the different political perspectives and their deliberations
in the Persian Blogosphere.
Thid Presenter
Institutional Affiliation :
Head of Design Direction for Servicde and User Interface at Nokia
Academic Bio :
Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Greenfield
Greenfield is Head of Design Direction for Service and User Interface at Nokia, author of "Everyware" and the forthcoming "The City Is Here For You To Use," and co-founder of the Helsinki-based "undisciplinary art and design collective" Do Projects
Concise Paper Title :
Network City and Citizenship in post-revolutionary Tehran
Paper Abstract (maximum of 400 words) :
Investigating the networked city as a platform for new modes of collaboration and citizenship, Greenfield proposes concrete measures to enhance the likelihood that technical interventions will lead to desirable civic outcomes
Fourth Presenter
Academic Bio :
Mehdi Yahyanejad is the founder of Balatarin
Balatarin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Balatarin main page
URL http://balatarin.com
Type of site Social news
Owner The Balatarin
Created by Mehdi Yahyanejad and Aziz Ashofteh
Launched August 16, 2006
Balatarin, which means the highest in Persian (بالاترین), is a community website through which users can post links to the webpages of their interest, with an emphasis on Iranian audience. Although only registered users can post links to Balatarin, registration is free. New links initially go to the "recently posted" page and once they collect enough positive votes, they are moved to the front page, which increases their chance of being viewed. The underlying idea is a mixture of reddit, digg, newsvine, and del.icio.us.
Balatarin was named editors' pick in 1386 (March 2007 to March 2008) in 7 Sang, a Persian Internet magazine, and it was voted the second most popular Persian website in the same year.[1] Balatarin was also voted the best "News Website" in 1385 by readers of the same magazine.[2] As of February 3, 2009, when Balatarin was 'hacked' by unknown assailants, the site has been inactive. The impact and scope of this attack has been wide and far reaching enough to completely disable Balatarin. Balatarin resumed its operation on Sunday, February 22, 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balatarin
Paper Abstract (maximum of 400 words) :
Today, Iran has the highest level of Internet penetration of any Middle
Eastern country. Its combination of a young, educated and wired
population makes creates particularly surprising outcomes in the present
day. Iran has the infamous distinction of being the first country in the
world to both jail a blogger (Sina Motalebi, 2003) and to have a blogger
die while in custody (Omid Reza Mirsayafi, 2009). Iran's most surprising
blogger is President Ahmadinejad himself. Both bloggers and online
activists that have used blogs and other social networks to further
their own reformist agenda. So too have government agents or
sympathizers, who have tried to co-opt Twitter and other sites for their
own purposes. Finally, and most disturbingly, the government has put of
a website, Gerdab.ir, as a way to get members of the Iranian public
online to identify protesters in the aftermath of the 1388/June 2009
presidential election. By compiling extensive primary source material
ranging from media coverage, to interviews with arrested bloggers and to
actual online messages, this presentation is meant to show that the
history and present of the intersection of the Iranian Internet and its
politics are unique, powerful and complicated.
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