The Digital Double Bind

Reviews / Votes

Essential reading not only for those specializing in the Middle East, but for anyone concerned with the impact of the digital revolution more generally. Never before in history has cutting-edge technology gone straight to all sectors of the world and en masse to the less-privileged as well as the affluent. The consequences in a sub-continent in which tradition and engrained structures of power remain strong are complex indeed, but brilliantly traced out by the authors. * Anthony Giddens, Life Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Member of the House of Lords in the UK * Zayani and Khalil offer a welcome and significant contribution to our critiques of discourses that simplify and essentialize 'digital' and 'Middle East.' This volume deftly moves beyond binaries, creatively proposing a double bind framework that invokes fluid movements of people and technologies. It is a critical reminder that communication needs to be understood in historical and social contexts, as well as global political and economic structures. * Karin Wilkins, author of Prisms of Prejudice * In this skillfully written and thought-provoking book, Zayani and Khalil take readers to a Middle East few Westerners know. Complex, conflicted, and creative, the region, as this important work describes, is accelerating into the information age with big plans and even bigger uncertainties. * Vincent Mosco, author of The Smart City in a Digital World * Zayani and Khalil's comprehensive and conceptually ambitious review of media in the Middle East makes an important and much-needed contribution to debates on technology and regionalization generally. This is a landmark study in the de-westernization of media research. We have needed a book like this for a long time! * Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science * In bringing together so many aspects of the digital turn in the Middle East, this book contributes to our understanding of how various areas of digital engagement-from blogs to esports, from e-government to cybercrime-have developed there, as well as how these disparate areas connect in a broader, but deeply variegated, digital ecosystem. It would be a valuableaddition to courses focused on Middle East politics, economics, society, and religion, in addition to communications-specific courses. * Andrea Stanton, Project Muse * The Digital Double Bind provides a thorough overview of the digital transformation in the Middle East, highlighting the region's unique challenges and opportunities. This book is a must-read for scholars and practitioners interested in the intersection of technology, politics, and culture in the Global South. * William Lafi Youmans, International Journal of Communication * The book presents a well-researched, theoretically rigorous account of digital transformations in the Middle East. The book excels in offering a culture-specific theoretical analysis of digital media transformations, prioritizing 'locally grounded' and 'culturally embedded' tensions and contradictions over external analytical frameworks. * Arash Ghajarjazi, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television * The Digital Double Bind is a notable addition to the growing literature on the Arab world's digital turn because it warns us against simplifying the effects produced by new technologies. This takeaway is an important reminder for scholars studying the relationship between mass communication and social transformations in and beyond the Middle East. The book is rich in scope and innovative in explaining the region's encounter with the digital through the double bind. This bird's-eye-view analysis is a good entry point for those who want to explore the multifaceted technological transformations in the contemporary Arab world. * Egor Korneev, Critical Studies in Media Communication * The Digital Double Bind serves as a timely reminder of the complexities and contradictions that mark technologicalprogress. By situating the digital Middle East within a unique socio-political and cultural context, Zayani and Khalil invite readers to rethink prevailing narratives of technological determinism. Their work is a valuable resource not only for scholars of media and communication, Middle Eastern studies andglobal digital politics, but also for policy-makers and practitioners navigating the challenges of digital governance in the Global South. * Mohammad Ayish, Journal of Digital Media & Policy *