Mobilization for Change

“Mobilization for Change” is a series of reports examining the role of the networked public sphere in advancing civic participation and collective action in the Arab region. The online space in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain reflects a growingly polarized and contentious offline political environment, with less consensus than existed five years ago. Fieldwork corroborates insights from social network mapping in this regard and confirms the continued importance of traditional political powerhouses as well as offline networks in mobilization. Yet digital media still offer a comparatively open venue for competing perspectives, providing more freedom for individual expression than traditional media in these countries.

• “Structure and Discourse: Mapping the Networked Public Sphere in the Arab Region,” authored by Robert Faris, John Kelly, Helmi Noman, and Dalia Othman
• “The Networked Public Sphere and Civic Engagement in Post-2011 Egypt: A Local Perspective,” authored by Nagla Rizk with Lina Attalah and Nadine Weheba
• “An Accelerated Story of the Emergence and Transformation of the Networked Public Sphere: The Case of Tunisia,” authored by Escander Nagazi, Jazem Halioui, and Fares Mabrouk

Download Papers

The papers, along with two additional reports examining the project's methods and summarizing the results, are available at arabnps.org.

About Mobilization for Change

Mobilization for Change seeks to understand the complex relationship between the networked public sphere and collective action in the region, with case studies from Egypt and Tunisia. Mobilization for Change is a joint project of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the School of Business at the American University in Cairo and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The project is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).