Overview

The revolutions sweeping the Middle East provide dramatic evidence of the role that technology plays in mobilizing citizen protest and upending seemingly invulnerable authoritarian regimes. A grainy cell phone video of a Tunisian street vendor's self-immolation helped spark the massive protests that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Egypt's ""Facebook revolution"" forced the ruling regime out of power and into exile. While such ""Liberation Technology"" has been instrumental in freeing Egypt and Tunisia, other cases - such as China and Iran - demonstrate that it can be deployed just as effectively by authoritarian regimes seeking to control the Internet, stifle protest, and target dissenters. This two-sided dynamic has set off an intense technological race between ""netizens"" demanding freedom and authoritarians determined to retain their grip on power. ""Liberation Technology"" brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of ""liberation"" versus ""control"" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia. This book also includes in-depth analysis of specific technologies such as Ushahidi - a platform developed to document human-rights abuses in the wake of Kenya's 2007 elections - and alkasir - a tool that has been used widely throughout the Middle East to circumvent cyber-censorship. ""Liberation Technology"" will prove an essential resource for all students seeking to understand the intersection of information and communications technology and the global struggle for democracy. Contributors: Walid Al-Saqaf, Daniel Calingaert, Ronald Deibert, Larry Diamond, Elham Gheytanchi, Philip N. Howard, Muzammil M. Hussain, Rebecca MacKinnon, Patrick Meier, Evgeny Morozov, Xiao Qiang, Rafal Rohozinski and Mehdi Yahyanejad.

Full Product Details

Author:   Larry Diamond (Director, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University) ,  Marc F. Plattner (Editor, National Endowment for Democracy)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9781421405674

ISBN 10:   1421405679
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   24 September 2012
Recommended Age:   From 13
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Liberation vs. Control in Cyberspace Chapter 1. Liberation Technology Chapter 2. Liberation vs. Control: The Future of Cyberspace Chapter 3. International Mechanisms of Cyberspace Controls Chapter 4. Whither Internet Control? Part II: Liberation Technology in China Chapter 5. The Battle for the Chinese Internet Chapter 6. China's ""Networked Authoritarianism"" Part III: Liberation Technology in the Middle East Chapter 7. Ushahidi as a Liberation Technology Chapter 8. Egypt and Tunisia: The Role of Digital Media Chapter 9. Circumventing Internet Censorship in the Arab World Chapter 10. Social Media, Dissent, and Iran's Green Movement Part IV: Policy Recommendations Chapter 11. Challenges for International Policy Index"

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Author Information

Larry Diamond is senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where he directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Marc F. Plattner is vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. Plattner and Diamond are coeditors of the Journal of Democracy.

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