Remixing the Spring! Connective Leadership and Read-Write Practices in the 2011 Arab Uprisings

Abstract

This chapter2 examines and discusses the connections between the unfolding of the Arab uprisings and the ‘culture of the net’ (Castells, 1996). The role of the internet and social networks in the events that, starting from December 2010, shook and reshaped the Arab region has been extensively debated in articles, conferences and public meetings. Mainstream media have largely recurred to the ‘Facebook and Twitter revolutions’ narrative to describe the grassroots process which led to the overthrown of Ben Ali and Mubarak’s regimes in Tunisia and Egypt in the first months of 2011. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the role played by social networks in organizing and mobilizing the masses. It has even been questioned whether the Arab awakening could ever have taken place without the internet and social networks.