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Information Communication Technology, Politics, Social Movements and Post-Revolutionary Iran

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
name: 
Babak Rahimi
Institutional Affiliation : 
UC San Diego
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
Name: 
Babak Rahimi
Institutional Affiliation : 
UCSD
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
Name: 
Elham Gheytanchi
Institutional Affiliation : 
Santa Monica College
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
Name: 
Mahmood Enayat
Institutional Affiliation : 
University of Oxford
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
Name: 
Adam Greenfield
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
Name: 
Mehdi Yahyanejad
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
Concise Paper Title : 
Blogging Iran
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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