4 Dissertationen und Habilita- tionen / Dissertations and Habilitations

VERANSTALTUNGSBERICHTE RECENT CONFERENCES
diverse, ranging from tuition in oppressed languages,
to a women’s quota in the parliament, to participation
in governmental decision-making or to the radical
reorganization of political power.
The international workshop “New Voices, New
Media, New Agendas? Pluralism and Particularism in
the MENA Region”, hosted at the ZMO in February
2011, brought together researchers dealing with pluralism,
identity politics and the power of the media in
the Middle East and North Africa. The idea was to
focus on voices offering alternatives to the dominating
narratives of the hitherto ruling elites and to take a
closer look at the agendas of these voice and the interests
behind. A central question was how new these
claims and ideas actually are. Pluralism is one of the
keywords frequently used by agents belonging to
marginalized groups. However, does this term in
some cases serve merely as a pretext to enforce particularistic
interests at the expense of others? It can
also be asked to what extent demands for religious
freedom are connected to attempts to maintain structures
of gender-based injustice. Another issue discussed
in the workshop was whether the new media
are by definition a positive development, as so often
claimed.
The workshop started with a public panel discussion
in the café of the Tageszeitung; Zuhair Al-Jezairy
author and chief editor of the news agency Aswat al-
Iraq, Klaas Glenewinkel from Media in Cooperation
and Transition and the Kurdish journalist Siruan H.
Hossein discussed recent developments in Iraqi media
and political change. The speakers highlighted the
impact of ‘Western’ standards of professional journalism
on processes of democratisation in the region.
On February 10 and 11 the discussion continued at
the ZMO. In five panels researchers from the fields of
Islamic studies, political sciences, history, social
anthropology and philosophy investigated the role of
media in political and social transition, focussing on
examples from Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, Turkey,
Podiumsdiskussion zu irakischen Medien im taz Café
Egypt and the Maghreb states. Point of departure for
all presentations was the observation of an increasing
pluralisation of both, the society and the media landscape
in the MENA region. The researchers approached
this issue from various perspectives, be it
the rhizomic approach of Deleuze and Guttari or
Gramsci’s concept of counter hegemony. The variety
of methodological and theoretical angles led to the
discussion to what extent ‘Western’ concepts and
theories are useful to explain processes of social and
political change in the Middle East and North Africa.
The workshop participants intensively discussed
possibilities and limits of new media in times of political
and social change. The different case studies
showed that new media as a tool is used by all agents
in the field: On the one hand by those struggling
against injustice and for equality in political participation,
on the other hand by those in power suppressing
resistance against state authority. The pluralisation of
society and the media landscape is not necessarily an
indicator for political pluralism. The media landscape
in Turkey, for example, experienced a pluralisation
during the last years. Still the media are successfully
controlled and sanctioned by state agencies such as
the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK).
How topical the issue of our workshop was, became
clear in the foreground of the regime change in Tunisia
and Egypt and mass protests in many other Arab
countries. Thus, the academic debate was highly influenced
even by the daily breaking news. Many
participants directly referred to the ruptures in the
MENA region. Ghada Al-Akhdar from Cairo University,
for example, framed her presentation on pro-
Palestinian Facebook activism by reflections on the
Egyptian revolution. Due to the current events she
had to send her contribution via Skype. By ending her
presentation with the call “Long live the Egyptian
revolution!”, Ghada Al-Akhdar reminded us of the
involvement and the social responsibility of academics.
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