Globalization, Media and Civil Society: The Struggle Over the Islamic Message
GLOBALIZATION, MEDIA AND CIVIL SOCIETY: THE STRUGGLE OVER THE ISLAMIC MESSAGE
Dr. Elisheva Machlis
Overview:
New and old media is shaping the politics, society and culture of a more interconnected Muslim World. From the Twitter Revolution in Iran to the popular revolts in the Arab world, protestors across the Muslim world relied on 21st century technology and social networking in an attempt to shape a more open and globalised Muslim world. This course will explore how non-state actors in this region compete over the political and cultural message, focusing on the Muslim middle class and youth. These trends will help explain how competition is playing out between moderate and more radical visions of Islam, and demonstrate the limits of a civil society operating in the national and trans-national domains.
Requirements:
Attendance in classes is mandatory
Mid-term exam (19%)
Final in-class exam (81%)
Required Reading:
1. Civil Society and the Latest Facebook Revolts?
Idle, Nadia and Nunns, Alex (eds.), Tweets from Tahrir (OR Books, April 2011).
2. Introduction: Theories on New Media
Lev Manovich, The language of New Media (MIT Press, 2001), 34-65.
W Zhang, TJ Johnson, T Seltzer, “The Revolution Will be Networked: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Political Attitudes and Behavior”, Social Science Computer Review 28:1 (February 2010), 75-92.
3. Muslim Networks and Civil Society: A Historical Perspective
Bang, Anne K. Suffis and Scholars of the Sea: Family Networks in East Africa, 1860-1925 (London; New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 1-8, 199-203.
4. Middle East and Technology
Anderson, Jon W. "Producers and Middle East Internet Technology: Getting Beyond "Impacts"", Middle East Journal 54:3 (Summer 2000), 419-431.
5. Media and State in the Muslim World: The Historical Context
Kraidy, Marwan M. Reality Television and Arab Politics: Contention in Public Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 46-65.
6. The Aljazeera Phenomenon
Bahry, Louay Y. "The New Arab Media Phenomenon: Qatar's al-Jazeera", Middle East Policy VIII:2 (June 2001), 88-99.
7. The New Muslim Middle Class
L. Herrera and A. Bayat (eds.). Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 27-47.
8. Islam on-line
Bunt, Gary R. iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 64-76, 177-194.
9. Moderate Muslim Networks
Cooke, Miriam M. and Lawrence, Bruce B. (eds.). Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 262-282.
10. Islamism online
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006), 5-21.
11. Jihadi Networks
Davji, Faisal. Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005), 87-111.
12. Iran and the Virtual Shi‘i Crescent
Mohammadi, Ali (ed.) Iran Encountering Globalization: Problems and Prospects (London: New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 1-23, 217-246.
13. Islamic Economics
Tuğal, Cihan. Passive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009), 1-13, 192-233.
14. Muslim Networks in the West
Shavit, Uriya. The New Imagined Community: Global Media and the Construction of National and Muslim Identities of Migrants (Brighton; Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2009), 44-60.
