Abstract
The talk will discuss the impact that recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and other MENA countries has had on the debate about the Internet & democracy in general and on the future of the so-called "Internet freedom agenda" in particular. The talk will also explore the possibility of finding some workable middle ground between cyber-utopianism and cyber-dystopianism, attempt to articulate what a more culturally-sensitive approach to studying Internet & democratization may look like and argue for the growing relevance of such approach, particularly as a way to avoid essentialist attitudes towards technology.
Evgeny Morozov is the author of the Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, published earlier this year and a visiting scholar with the Liberation Technology program at Stanford University. He's also a Schwartz fellow at New America Foundation and a frequent contributor to national and international media on questions of technology and politics.