Going Online: Saudi Female Intellectual Preachers in the New Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-131
Author(s):  
Laila Makboul
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Public Criticism

This chapter examines the phenomenon of female intellectual preachers (dāʿiyāt muthaqqafāt) in Saudi Arabia, their engagement in the new media and by extension their participation in the public sphere. Having their public participation conditioned on preserving strict physical gender segregation, this chapter argues that the new media have facilitated the engagement and presence of the dāʿiyāt muthaqqafāt in the wider public on an unprecedented level. However, new challenges in terms of transgressions of constructed gender norms and exposure to increased public criticism and political vulnerability have also followed their presence in the new media. Consequently, this chapter contends that although the new media has been utilized to permeate the public sphere and, in many ways, has revolutionized their public participation, it has also altered the engagement of dāʿiyāt muthaqqafāt in profound ways and ultimately exposed them to greater social and political vulnerability.

scholarly journals AUTORITA’ AND AUTOREVOLEZZA: EXPLAINING CONTESTATIONS BETWEEN POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN THE AGE OF THE NEW MEDIA

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-38
Author(s):  
Walter C. Ihejirika
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Connection ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

In many African countries, since the nineties, there is a subtle contest going on between religious and political leaders. At the heart of this contest is what Rosalind Hackett described as the redefinition of the categories of power and status, which cease to be primarily tied to material wealth or political connection, but rather to spiritual authority and revelation. This is a struggle for the hegemonic control of the society in the Gramscian sense of the term. While political leaders may use the coercive arms of the state – military might as well as their control of the financial resources of the state to impose their authority, religious leaders on the other hand assume the posture of moral icons, personalities endowed with superior knowledge based on divine revelation. As these contestations are played out in the public sphere, the way the leaders are able to portray themselves to their public will determine their followership. This explains the importance of mediation in the process of politico-religious contestations. In the eyes of the public, political leaders have the physical or raw power - the Italian concept of autorita; while the religious leaders have the moral power - autorevolezza. This paper uses these concepts as metaphors to present a general explanation of how the contestation between religious and political leaders plays out in the public sphere of the new media

scholarly journals Rethinking science communication in a changing landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. E
Author(s):  
Frank Kupper ◽  
Carolina Moreno-Castro ◽  
Alessandra Fornetti
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Selection Of

Science communication continues to grow, develop and change, as a practice and field of research. The boundaries between science and the rest of society are blurring. Digitalization transforms the public sphere. This JCOM special issue aims to rethink science communication in light of the changing science communication landscape. How to characterize the emerging science communication ecosystem in relation to the introduction of new media and actors involved? What new practices are emerging? How is the quality of science communication maintained or improved? We present a selection of papers that provide different perspectives on these questions and challenges.

Issues of Digital Disempowerment and New Media Networking (NMN) in Relation to E-Government

2011 ◽  
pp. 92-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Hacker ◽  
Eric L. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Dialogue ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Emerging Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

Emerging media technologies are increasingly reconfiguring the public sphere by creating new spaces for political dialogue. E-democracy (digital democracy) and e-government can be usefully served by these emerging technologies; however, their existence does not automatically equate to increased political participation. There is still a need to develop specific and theoretically-oriented approaches to a newly reconfigured public sphere. Employing a structurational perspective, this essay addresses the relationship between political participation, emerging media, new media networking, and e-democracy. While new media networking increases the potential for political participation, depending on various factors such as access, usage and skills, the potential exists for increasing disempowerment as well. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the use of new media networking in ways that enhance e-democracy.

scholarly journals Withdrawing from politics? Gender, agency and women ex-fighters in Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 519-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Ketola
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Liberal Peace ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Experiences Of Women

Conceptualizations of post-conflict agency have been widely debated in feminist security studies and critical international relations studies. This article distinguishes between three feminist approaches to post-conflict agency: narrative of return, representations of agency and local agency. It argues that all these approaches in distinct ways emphasize a modality of agency as resistance. To offer a more encompassing account of post-conflict agency the article engages Saba Mahmood’s (2012) critique of the modality of agency in feminist theory and her decoupling of agency from resistance. The article explores experiences of women who fought in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Nepal. It focuses on ‘withdrawing from politics’, a dynamic whereby women ex-fighters move away from party activities and the public sphere, and rearticulates this withdrawing as a location of political agency. The article argues that being an ‘ex-PLA’ emerges as a form of subjectivity that is crafted through experiencing war and encountering peacebuilding, enabling a production of heterogeneous modalities of agency in the post-conflict context. By examining these modalities, the article challenges us to rethink post-conflict agency beyond the capacity to subvert regulatory gender norms and/or discourses of liberal peace.

scholarly journals Starving at the Laid Table? Journalism, Digitalization and Corporate Capitalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Schnell
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Professional Authority ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Severe Shortage

Professional journalism fulfills an important role in modern democracies, while always standing with one leg in the public sphere and the other in the private media economy. Within the era of digitalization, the limits of a market-driven professionalism become apparent. Since information appears to be easily accessible due to new media, journalism lost its role as a gatekeeper for “what the world needs to know”. But dropping an anachronistic idea of professional authority—as reform projects within the journalistic profession demanded for decades—does not necessarily lead to a more open and participatory public sphere. On the contrary, the chance for reliable news seems to shrink in the everyday flood of information. Facing a severe shortage of professionalism against the background of an oversupply in the field of journalism might indicate a general paradox of contemporary societies.  

Hall of Mirrors: Media, Democratization, and the Public Sphere in Maranhão, Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julián Durazo Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Strong Interference ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere

Freedom of expression and access to diverse sources of information are seen as critical elements of democracy, although their concretization on the ground is subject to strong interference. Recent regime change in Maranhão, one of Brazil’s poorest states, has led to the emergence of new media and some expansion of the public sphere. The traditional oligarchy continues to dominate the media, however, and the opposition media replicate its exclusion of nonelite actors. The Maranhão experience confirms that normative approaches to the media either as automatic contributors to democracy or as instruments of elite manipulation have little value for understanding media dynamics. Liberdade de expressão, bem como o acesso a diversas fontes de informação, são considerados elementos críticos da democracia, ainda que a concretização desses fatores esteja sujeita a forte interferência. A recente troca de regime no Maranhão, um dos estados mais pobres do Brasil, tem levado ao surgimento de uma nova mídia e a uma certa expansão da esfera pública. Contudo, a oligarquia continua dominando a mídia tradicional e a mídia alternativa imita a prática de exclusão de atores não pertencentes à elite. A experiência do Maranhão confirma que tratamentos normativos que veem a mídia como contribuinte automática do processo democrático, ou como instrumento de manipulação da elite, teem pouco valor para se entender a dinâmica da mídia.

scholarly journals Beyond Preaching Women: Saudi Dāʿiyāt and Their Engagement in the Public Sphere

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 303-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Makboul
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
The Public ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Religious Concept ◽  
Anthropological Fieldwork ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Gender Specific

A prevalent notion among researchers working on gender politics in Saudi Arabia is that women’s engagement in the public sphere is restricted by the official interpretation of Islam, which only allows women to engage in issues presumed to be “feminine.” Based on an anthropological fieldwork exploration of al-dāʿiyāt al-muthaqqafāt (traditional female preachers belonging to the intellectual sphere in Riyadh), this article challenges this common assumption. It seeks to understand in what ways these women are a part of the public sphere and how this came about. One key factor is how the religious concept of “commanding right and forbidding wrong” has been expanded to adapt to changing circumstances, circumstances that have necessitated women’s presence in the public sphere. Examples from prominent intellectual female preachers such as Nawāl al-ʿĪd and Ruqayya al-Muḥārib demonstrate how leading dāʿiyāt in Riyadh engage in issues affecting Saudi society beyond gender-specific issues and encourage women to take a greater part in the public sphere.


Modernizing authoritarian rule in Saudi Arabia

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madawi Al-Rasheed
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

In the post-9/11 period, the Saudi state faced mounting pressure to appropriate the rhetoric of reform and introduce a series of reformist measures and promises, although none posed a serious challenge to the rule of the Āl Saʿūd. This involved the opening of the public sphere to quasi-independent civil society associations, limited municipal elections, and a relatively free press. Reform of the royal house, aimed at dealing with possible future problematic succession to the throne, was also part of a general trend. This article deals with state-initiated reforms the objective of which was to modernize authoritarian rule without risking the loss of too much power to the constituency.

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