Supervisors: Professor Emma C. Murphy and Dr Peter Stirk
My doctoral research applies Critical Theory to the concept of the Arab public sphere as used by scholars analysing the recent explosion of media formats in the Middle East. The public sphere concept was originally outlined by Habermas in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and has played an extensive role in providing a framework from which to critically analyse modern social phenomena. Despite the extensive body of pre-existing literature, scarce insight is provided as to processes that actually formed this so-called Arab public sphere. Habermas’ public sphere inheres many assumptions about the formation, structure and reflexivity of a society in a given case study. Considering that the original case studies were Great Britain, France and Germany, with all three cases being individually detailed, current speculation into the possibility of a transnational Arab public sphere lacks a clear theoretical outline of the transition from a single unit model to a regional one.
Drawing on alternative theories of public space and publicity (Arendt, Schmitt, Fraser) my research seeks to examine the role of satellite television in the state/society relationship and to what extent it contributes to the creation, maintenance and destruction of the public’s space for debate in the Middle East.
Available for collaboration/comment on political theory, authoritarianism, ICTs in the Middle East and IR theory, the spectacularization of society and Arabic pop music. |
