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The Function of the Internet in the Moroccan Public Sphere

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The Function of the Internet in the Moroccan Public Sphere The Function of The Internet in The Moroccan Public Sphere Brigt Hope Thesis submitted in partial fulfilement of the requirements for the degree of Cand. Scient. Departement of Social Anthropologi University of Oslo Mars 2007 1 Abstract In this thesis I make an attempt at tracing the development of the internet in Morocco aided by the epistemology of Peirce. In particular the experimental and abductive nature of adoption of technology may be viewed in light of this theoretical framework. Following Peirce; abduction is a process that starts with several creative assumptions as a reaction to newness, followed by investigating the logical consequences of these assumptions, called deduction, ending with experimentally testing the abductive theses. One main suggestion on the basis of an extensive field-work from Morocco suggests that what started out with a situation where the Internet opened up hegemony, too a certain extent closes a new hegemony. The initial ambition of flattening the power structures, as highlighted by the workplace of an Internet-portal provider, did not come in to place. The original idea was to create a space for debate, but eventually difference of opinion was not accepted. Additionally, somewhat contrary to Hofheinz findings, discussion forums on the internet were one disagrees are practically never happening. One common aspect of these failures of creating a new order with the use of the Internet was how postcolonial structures functioned in the performance of mistrust and in this way reproducing centre-periphery relations. Moreover traditional media played a much more important role for debate. The most important role of the Internet is to create new spaces and to change the position of the marginalized, and the Internet became an important catalyst for the development of a multiplicity of civil societies. In particular the Internet created a way of bypassing the elites in the urban centres. The Internet can be said to malfunction as a mediator between the Public and the private interests, and can be seen as a tool for sectarian interests in the Morrocan context. Concluding the thesis, and following the earlier theoretical reflection of the thesis, a prospect for further comparative studies of the Internet (and other technologies) within different ethnographic localities is suggested. 2 Contents INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................6 The postcolonial city in the age of telecommunication ................................................7 The colonial city....................................................................................................................8 THEORY..................................................................................................................12 French and Moroccan postcolonial studies....................................................................13 Technology and colonialism..............................................................................................16 Postcolonial studies: committed and psychological.....................................................16 Peirce: committed and plural ...........................................................................................22 Difference and technology................................................................................................28 Technology, function and semiosis..................................................................................30 The abductive use of technology......................................................................................36 METHOD..................................................................................................................44 Settling in Casablanca and making contacts..................................................................45 Enacting the co-worker role...............................................................................................47 Using biography as a methodological strategy and making use of existing ethnographies on Morocco............................................................................................................49 Duration of the fieldwork as a basis for exploring change and process...................51 INTRODUCTION OF ICT TO CASABLANCA.........................................................53 The end of the hierchical working place........................................................................60 The end of the «feudal economy»....................................................................................62 Breaking up the colonial centre-periphery axe..............................................................64 Breaking the national centre-periphery axe...................................................................67 A new brave journalism.....................................................................................................72 3 A change in the space.........................................................................................................78 WHEN TÉLÉM BOUGHT MACROWEB..................................................................83 The conflict with and control over the web developers...............................................87 The TéléM boss visiting the new crew...........................................................................88 The conflict between Hammouda and the chief editor................................................90 End of the conflict................................................................................................................94 Pierre......................................................................................................................................98 Controlled by a major multinational media company...............................................100 THE PUBLIC SPHERE: TWO CASES..................................................................103 Round up the usual suspects...........................................................................................104 Explaining conspiracies....................................................................................................107 16th of Mai in the Media..................................................................................................111 The paranoid topos...........................................................................................................115 Moudawana (Family Law)...............................................................................................120 Role of the media...............................................................................................................123 Social differences and attitudes to the reform.............................................................127 Representations.................................................................................................................131 Communicative rationality..............................................................................................133 TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE.................................................137 The hegemonic Public Sphere........................................................................................139 The minor public spheres................................................................................................142 Internet adapting to the old street .................................................................................145 Language changes ............................................................................................................148 Tamazight............................................................................................................................153 Nationalism and linguistic culture................................................................................155 4 Changing nationalisms....................................................................................................159 An Islamist proto-Public sphere.....................................................................................162 The vitual umma................................................................................................................167 Educational organization.................................................................................................170 CONCLUSIONS BY INDUCTION, OR THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF THE ABDUCTIONS..................................................................................................................173 The hierarchical work-place............................................................................................175 The “feudal economy”......................................................................................................175 Civility.................................................................................................................................176 Centre-periphery distortions ..........................................................................................178 The effective participation of the periphery................................................................180 Semiosis: putting the pieces together............................................................................182 Experimental method.......................................................................................................184 Semeiotic of high and low precision.............................................................................185
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