AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Activism and a global public sphere: Some examples from the Arab Spring Thomas Olesen Department of Political Science Aarhus University Talk at seminar arranged by AU IDEAS Pilot Centre The Democratic Public Sphere, 8 March

AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Plan and idea ›A global perspective on the public sphere concept ›The contribution of activism to a global public sphere ›My approach: The cultural-political dimension, i.e. the role of symbols ›Actors in the global public sphere ”use” and ”produce” shared symbols ›The Arab Spring, and Iran 2009 ›Conclusion: some theoretical and conceptual considerations 2

AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Mohamed Bouazizi and Tunisia I ›Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, sets himself on fire on 17 December to protest authority harassment ›His act is followed by local protests: During December protests gradually acquire a national dimension ›Information about Bouazizi and protests spreads via Facebook and Youtube; an alternative information flow ›Bouazizi dies from his burn wounds on 4 January ›His death coincides with growing protest and cements his position as a central injustice symbol in the Tunisian protests 3

AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Mohamed Bouazizi and Tunisia II ›Relevance for the discussion of a global public sphere: ›Global media accounts centered on the role of Bouazizi in inspiring protests in Tunisia and other Arab countries (”How one man ignited the Arab Spring”, etc.) ›Global media ”constructed” the Bouazizi symbol to be a carrier of global aspirations for freedom and democracy ›Bouazizi is globally institutionalized by receiving several human rights and democracy prices and awards (e.g. EU’s Sakharov Price) ›Bouazizi as a cultural-political outcome of global public sphere activities ›Bouazizi as part of global memories about the Tunisian protests and the Arab Spring (YouTube as a global memory archive): A shared symbolic vocabulary 4

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AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Khaled Said and Egypt I ›Khaled Said, age 28, was dragged from an Internet café and beaten to death by police in his home town of Alexandria on 6 June 2010 ›Police violence is common in Egypt, but the case is different because Saids family takes a cell-phone photograph at the morgue and uploads it to the Internet ›Google executive Wael Ghonim sets up a Facebook page called ”We Are All Khaled Said” based on the photo and transforms Said into a key visual injustice symbol for protests against the Mubarak regime ›The page soon acquired tens of thousands of followers and became central to the organization of protest during the Egyptian Revolution ›A parallel page in English is set up to allow non-Egyptians to follow events 6

AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Khaled Said and Egypt II ›Relevance for the discussion of a global public sphere: ›Media technologies such as Facebook makes national boundaries informationally porous and creates a citizen generated global information flow (the power of citizen journalism) ›The page received numerous expressions of sympathy and solidarity from non- Egyptians and became a central informational ressource for non-Egyptian activists wishing to solidarize and/or take inspiration from Egypt ›As in the case of Bouazizi, Khaled Said is constructed by global media to acquire meanings associated with freedom, democracy, and injustice (see, for example, the Danish radio documentary, Facebook martyren) ›Khaled Said and the globalization of national public spaces (a related example from the Bouazizi case: Place Mohamed Bouazizi in Paris) 7

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AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Neda and Iran ›Neda Agha Soltan, aged 26, is shot and killed during protests in Iran against the 2009 presidential election ›Bystanders record amateur videos of Neda as she lies dying on the ground ›Later the same day, 20 June, the videos have gone globally viral via YouTube and other media and made it into mainstream media such as CNN ›In contrast to Bouazizi and Said, Neda bypassed the local and national level to instantly become a global symbol ›Today YouTube contains several commemorative videos and songs; Neda merchandise and artwork is available outside of Iran 9

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AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Media technology and citizen journalism ›The story of Bouazizi’s death is nationalized and globalized through amateur videos of the protests following his self-immolation; these are made publicly available through YouTube (from where it was picked up by al-Jazeera) ›Khaled Said becomes a symbol on the basis of a cell-phone photograph taken by his family; his story is made globally visible through Facebook pages ›Neda’s death is recorded by bystanders and passed on to YouTube; the story is spread via Twitter and Facebook; ends up in mainstream media ›YouTube as a global memory archive and public sphere ›The interaction between new and old media ›The special power of photography in activating a global public sphere 11

AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Concluding remarks ›Conceptual and theoretical challenges: ›Global public sphere ›Global civil society ›Global society ›Beyond the Arab Spring and Iran: ›Joyti Singh (India) ›Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan) ›The Abu Ghraib photos ›And further back in time: Sharpville, Soweto… 12