Rethinking Digital Technologies in the Middle East
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8969145 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Babak Rahimi (0000-0001-6642-2212, University of San Diego, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 362-365 |
| Publication date | 2015-04-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020743815000124 |
| OpenAlex | W2317666792 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
In 2003, while a graduate student working on my dissertation, I wrote an article on the Internet in postrevolutionary Iran that looked at the politics of the emerging technology in a country undergoing major political changes. In the context of political rivalries between reformists and conservatives, the Internet, I argued, “as an advancing means of communication,” played a key role in the struggle for democracy by opening up a virtual space of dissident activism. Euphoric in spirit and utopian in outlook, the article ended with the following quotation from an Iranian dissident: “At night, every light that is on in Tehran shows that somebody is sitting behind a computer, driving through information roads; and that is in fact a storehouse of gunpowder that, if ignited, will start a great firework in the capital of the revolutionary Islam.” These “information roads,” I concluded, could play a significant role in the emergence of a new form of political society in Iran and beyond
Ancient history · Capital (architecture · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Gunpowder · Islam · Media studies · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The Internet · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · History · Law · Political theory and Gramsci · Social Media and Politics
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |