Events

In the 2010s, we witness a surge of protests and mass movements across the globe. All of these insurgencies have two elements in common. One is that they are intricately connected and facilitated by the Internet. The other is that occupying politically potent spaces in the city is crucial in gaining political leverage for pursuing reform. Connecting these two elements remains inadequately studied, however. The many conferences aimed at understanding the role of new and social media as tools of protest tend to remain in networks of cyberspace, and urban studies have also lagged in linking urban space with cyberspace.

As individuals continue to live in a networked society, with one foot in the virtual and the other in the material world, the more coherent understanding of the changes and transformations in society should include an interrogation of the interdependencies between online and offline domains.How does cyber-activism translate into the production of urban spaces, and, conversely, how does access or lack of access to urban spaces reflect back to online mobilizations?

This multidisciplinary conference aims to bring together young scholars and leading experts and theorists to better understand and re-theorize the ‘cyber-urban’ connections in urban Asia and the Middle East that affect people, networks, and social and built environments. We hope to address the reflexivity of cyber and urban spaces, both empirically and theoretically, in different national contexts, pertaining to social change in Asia and the Middle East. Central questions include, but are not limited to:

• How do cyber-urban connections materialize in the city?
• How can we better understand the interplay between online mobilizations and the production or occupation of urban spaces?
• How do emerging alternative or subaltern cyber-urban spaces inform urban theory?
• How do spaces (online and offline) contribute to insurgent activities and social movements?
• To what extent do modern political movements need both cyberspace and physical space to be successful?
• How do socially marginalized people engage in online-offline forms of mobilization to gain political leverage or pursue their own projects?
• How do comparative contexts in Asia and the Middle East differ in any substantial ways in their cyber-urban connections and experiences?

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. Kindly register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would gratefully request that you RSVP to Valerie Yeo at valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg indicating your name, email, designation, organization and contact number.

CONTACT DETAILS

Convenors

Dr Asha RATHINA PANDI (ariarp@nus.edu.sg)
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Dr Peter MAROLT (marolt@nus.edu.sg)
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore