Call for Papers: Youth and Citizenship in a Digital Era (Workshop 1 of MRM 2012)

New Article Submission

Thank you for your interest in Jadaliyya. We welcome all submissions. The most significant requirement is for Jadaliyya submissions to be analytically compelling and offer a perspective or argument that has not been covered at length either on Jadaliyya or elsewhere. Because of the volume of submissions, well-written pieces are prioritized. Length is flexible, 1000 to 2500 words is the average range. However, we will accept longer pieces. Once submitted, several members of the editorial committee will review your piece and one of them will inform you of the decision.
Author Details
Article Details
Select Countries
Select Keywords
Select Topics
Only RTF, Word, and Pages documents accepted.

Recommended image size: 762x800 px

Location of each image should be indicated in the text of the article via a square bracket caption that includes: (1) a description of the image; (2) the photographer/designer and source of the image. Please note we only use images you as the author have the right to use, which usually means those of your own creation or those published under Creative Commons. Alternatively, you need specific permission from the copyright holder.
Please read the Release Form and provide an electronic signature [your full name] below to confirm that you accept its terms
Required
Hyperlink words in your article if they refer to links on the internet. We encourage more, rather than less, links (try to avoid footnotes—embed them as hyperlinks if possible)

Article added successfully.

Pages Menu BETA
Jul 12, 2011 Region
[Imager from dubaichronicle.com] [Imager from dubaichronicle.com]

Call for Papers: Youth and Citizenship in a Digital Era (Workshop 1 of MRM 2012)

By : Jadaliyya Reports

Workshop Directors

Linda Herrera
University of Illinois, USA
lherrera@illinois.edu

Peter Mayo
University of Malta, Malta
peter.mayo@um.edu.mt

Abstract

This workshop will tackle challenging questions about changing relationships between education, youth cultural politics, and citizenship in a digital era. There is a growing rift between the citizenship education young people learn in schools versus those they learn in youth driven communication spaces. In authoritarian states and unsteady democracies in the Middle East, North Africa and southern Europe the differences are especially acute. Education systems tend to perpetuate notions of citizenship that are highly formalistic and based on acceptance of a political culture that is hierarchical, paternalistic, and risk averse. Aided by tools of new media and digital communication technologies, youth cultures are developing alternative notions and practices of citizenship. They are becoming more active and involved citizens, rejecting the status quo, and more oriented towards rights, equity, and collective action. Recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have shown that the internet generation will not accommodate the perennial political system of autocratic government. They have been demanding the ousting of despotic leaders and corrupt political systems and institutions. Their action could easily have the desired domino effect in the region and governments are trying to pre-empt such action in their homeland by making ‘democratic’ concessions. As youth experience new forms of learning, sociability, civic and political engagement, they embark on new changing ways of “learning citizenship” and “doing politics”. This workshop will review how the largest and most schooled cohort of young people (12-24) in the history of the region are learning and propagating citizenship dispositions inside and outside educational institutions and in so doing changing the cultural and political landscape of their societies.

Description

Ever since 2008 when two 20-somethings Egyptian college students used the social networking site to coordinate mass support for the 6 of April 2008 strike of textile workers in Al Mahalla al-Kubra, and more recently with the actual revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, there has been little doubt that young people in the region are engaging in political and social behavior very different from previous generations. It is also evident that they are learning about how to be active citizens in youth communication spaces. Youth in the region, whether in Tunisia, Iran, Palestine, Egypt have led the way globally in how to utilize communication tools and social networking sites for citizen journalism, political agitation, social movements, and revolution. It is no coincidence that these youth have come of age in authoritarian political systems marked by high degrees of corruption, lack of accountability, disrespect of civil liberties and an economic regime of neoliberalism. They have witnessed the dismantling of welfare states, job insecurity, growing social disparities, and highly uncertain futures.

Youth are simultaneously the amateur producers, consumers, and transmitters of information of a public and personal nature on a large and growing scale. In some ways they share many attributes with their global generational contemporaries and can be called the “E”[electronic] generation, the “i” [internet or i-pod] generation, Generation txt, “Facebook and Twitter Generation,” the Google Generation, the “We Generation.” All these terms point to ways this global generation is functioning in a more collective, non-hierarchical, collaborative, interactive, and transparent ways. Since technology remains unevenly distributed and there remain digital inequalities, new social cleavages are emerging around access to ICT. But even in contexts where high portions of youth do not have access to digital media, the ones who do influence and drive generational change in the realms of citizenship and politics with far reaching pedagogic and political consequences.

Among the issues to be explored are the following:

  • What is the role of Facebook and other social networking sites on youth civic and political engagement?
  • Does on-line behavior translate to “on the street” movements, and if so, how? In what ways, if any, is the political culture of schools changing in response to the communications revolution?
  • Is non-formal education playing an important part in the education of youths in the region?


A subset of questions in this context would include:

  • Is digitally mediated non-formal education playing a part here?
  • What effect is cyber-education having on gender relations among youth?
  • Is this serving as a means of liberating women or domesticating them by encouraging them to study inside their homes rather than in the more public educational spaces?
  • With migration being a big issue in this region, how are digital connections being forged among Arab youth in the country of origin and the country of settlement and what effect is this having on their social and political agency ?
  • What type of repositioning of youth is occurring in both contexts?


The foregoing discussion for the most part centres on the struggle of youth for greater social and political rights. This is interesting and most of the western media coverage foregrounds this aspect of the revolutions taking place. Unfortunately western concepts of democracy are brought to bear on the discussions regarding the future of Arab countries and most specifically Egypt and Tunisia, What other forms of democracy are Arab youths clamoring for? Do alternative forms of democracy, including ‘direct’ as opposed to ‘representative’ democracy, make their presence felt in the digitally mediated technologies of learning in which Arab youths are engaged on both sides of the Mediterranean divide?

Economic Considerations – Schooling, Employment and Distribution

Public discontent with the education system may be at an all time high and stem from many factors but one main issue can be highlighted. Global educational reforms since the 1990s have been oriented towards a human capital model of schooling which more directly connects learning with the demands of a global job market and economic growth. Education policies are thus tailored to prepare youth for the “knowledge economy.” Despite these market oriented changes, youth unemployment and underemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are among the highest in the world, only Sub-Saharan Africa has higher rates. Among youth who find employment, the overwhelming majority of them labor in insecure circumstances with no formal contract or in temporary jobs not related to their desired careers. Unemployment rates are highest among educated youth. This situation stands as an indictment that the education system which is not upholding the implicit social contract that participation in formal schooling—with all the sacrifices, investments, and commitment it entails—will lead to employment, a livelihood, and full membership to societies.

Both countries in which the revolutions seem to be taking place are characterised by huge disparities in wealth and unemployment. Issues concerning economic engagement and distribution are at the heart of the struggles involved. It remains to be seen whether the democratic changes that are being promised will be deep rooted or simply serve as a cosmetic exercise with other members of the ruling oligarchy simply replacing the man (they rulers have invariably been men) at the helm. One wonders whether the aspiration is for a radical change which provides for an expanding economy that incorporates large amounts of youth in meaningful employment and which provides greater and meaningful educational expansion at all levels - the kind of economy complemented by a greater democratic politics of redistribution that is believed to be capable of addressing the deep rooted social and economic inequalities in the countries concerned. Or is this simply a digitally mediated revolution intended to allow a greater middle class sector, extending beyond the confines of the present oligarchy, to gain a greater share of the cake? As for the Northern Mediterranean, home to a number of migrants from the South, is there a call for an economic system that does not segregate the labour market on ethnic lines? These economic and social considerations raise a set of important questions:
 

  • How is digital technology enabling youths to acquire skills for greater participation in a broader and more meaningful labour market?
  • What alternative economic policies are necessary to accommodate these skills?
  • What alternative proposals are being put forward for a different economic approach that counters the situation of mass unemployment among youth in the area?
  • What role does digital technology play in this regard?
  • Is the increase in use of digital technology contributing to a further brain drain among youth?
  • On the contrary, would a greater democratic liberalization of the country lead to a re-draining of digitally savvy Arab youth who can now work from the comfort of their home in Egypt and eschew the kind of post-9/11 anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments prevailing in the countries to which they emigrated?
  • Could the democratization of Arab states lead to more digitally mediated cross-border economic ventures involving youths of different Arab countries?
  • How does one bridge the digital divide with these economic considerations in mind?

These are among the questions to be tackled in the proposed workshop and related activities that can take a variety of forms such as online discussions including webcasts and podcasts, publications and follow up seminars.

Application

The application deadline is July 15, 2011

Click here to access the online application form. Be sure to selection Workshop #1 to submit a proposal to this particular workshop.

Click here to access the general call for papers and see a list of all conference workshops.
Tags

  • ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

    • Connections Episode 104: War on Iran with Sina Toossi (1 July)

      Connections Episode 104: War on Iran with Sina Toossi (1 July)

      Join us on Tuesday, 1 July for a conversation with Sina Toossi about the war on Iran. This episode of Connections will examine the background, impact, and consequences of the war, and assess the durability of the ceasefire. 

    • Lies, Deceit, and Criminality: Israel & the United States Attack Iran (Part II)

      Lies, Deceit, and Criminality: Israel & the United States Attack Iran (Part II)

      Join us for Part II of our series on the US-Israeli attack on Iran as we discuss the US' recent bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities as well as their national and regional implications.

    • Long Form Podcast Episode 9: Islamophobia, the West, and Genocide with Hatem Bazian

      Long Form Podcast Episode 9: Islamophobia, the West, and Genocide with Hatem Bazian

      Hatem Bazian addresses the historical trajectory of Islamophobia and its significance in understanding geopolitical transformation in the post-Cold War world. As Western ideologues shifted from their focus on the Soviet Union after the Cold War, and increasingly adopted the Clash of Civilizations paradigm to undergird their maintenance of global hegemony, Islam and Muslims replaced communism as the chief bogeyman. Bazian explains how and why this came about, and the centrality Palestine played in its development and operation, both in the West and for Israel. He also addresses US government disciplining of universities and particularly student activists.
Feb 16, 2011 Lebanon
Jadaliyya Reports By :
Jadaliyya Reports

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 

[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412