Liu Research Fellow and Georgetown Professor Mohamed Zayani has recently published a new book titled Digital Middle East: State and Society in the Information Age.
Published by Oxford University Press and Hurst, the book sheds a critical light on ongoing changes that are deeply intertwined with the adoption of information and communication technologies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It offers insights into how these digital transformations are playing out in the social, cultural, political, and economic spheres while also seeking to uncover the various disjunctions and tensions that have marked such digital turn.
Edited by Professor Zayani and featuring rich case studies by a number of scholars and experts from around the world, the book is the result of a multi-year collaborative research initiative by Georgetown University’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS).
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“This book seeks to unravel the multifaceted digital transformations the MENA region has been undergoing and to understand how these unfolding changes are affecting state and society both at the micro and macro levels,” said Professor Zayani at a book launch for Digital Middle East, which was hosted by UBC’s Liu Institute of Global Issues at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. “Mapping out a range of trends and developments from online socialization habits to e-government and from cyber security to smart informationalized cities, this collaborative volume paints a complex picture of a changing Middle East we are only beginning to apprehend.”
Commenting on the interdisciplinary nature of the book, Joe F. Khalil, Professor of Media and Communication at Northwestern University, noted: “This groundbreaking collection is an important contribution not only to Middle East studies, but also to media and communication studies and political science.”
Digital Middle East is the most recent in a series of books Professor Zayani recently published with Oxford University Press on the changing dynamics of the MENA region’s information and communication landscape. It follows from Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings (with Suzi Mirgani) and the award-winning Networked Publics and Digital Contention, which has received multiple accolades including the “Global Communication and Social Change Best Book Award” from the International Communication Association (ICA), the “Communication, Information Technologies and Media Sociology Book Award” from the American Sociological Association (ASA), and the “Sue DeWine Distinguished Award for a Scholarly Book” from the National Communication Association (NCA).
