Palestine Online Transnationalism, the Internet and the Construction of Identity

by Aouragh, Miriyam

• ISBN13: 9781780762418
• ISBN10: 1780762410
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-15
• Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary

For Palestine's diaspora and exiled communities, the internet has become an important medium for the formation of Palestinian national and transnational identity. Miriyam Aouragh looks at the internet as both a space and an instrument for linking Palestinian diasporas in Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. She closely examines the uses and limits of internet technology under conditions of war, along with the ways in which virtual participation enables the generation of new ideals for political reconciliation and self-determination. Through the internet, participants reconstruct a virtual 'Palestinian homeland', gain a space for recovering the past, for overcoming issues of mobility, and for generating social change. This book provides a new angle on those affected by the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and furthers understanding about the connection between electronic media, politics and national identity more widely.

Author Biography

Miriyam Aouragh is a Rubicon Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. She holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

"Miriyam Aouragh's book breaks new ground in the study of Palestinian society. Providing us with vital empirical data on how the Palestinians use the internet and other online services to resist and cope with living under Israeli occupation, it is a recommended reading to anyone interested in studying the use of information technology in conflict situations." – Elia Zureik, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario"Fieldwork carried out though curfews, closures, retaliatory attacks and border controls enabled Miriyam Aouragh to show how Internet has reconnected Palestinians inside and outside historic Palestine, offering virtual space to their struggle for place and mobility. Palestine Online will appeal equally to scholars of ICT, transnationalism, identity-formation, and Palestinian statelessness." – Rosemary Sayigh, anthropologist, independent researcher, and author of Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon (1994)"Addressing the social and political role of the Internet in reconfiguring relationships among Palestinians, and shaping how they view their world, Miriyam Aourgah grapples with the more general themes of identity, the diaspora and globalization, that are important well beyond the Palestinian community. Her book makes a strong case for the political and social relevance of the Internet to a community in which the Internet is a new means of communication and not yet widely accessible. It is an original contribution to an important and generally under-researched topic." – William H. Dutton, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute and Professor of Internet Studies, University of Oxford