This is a blog by Hani Morsi, a PhD candidate working within the Power and Popular Politics and Digital Development clusters at the Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex, UK.

Bio:

Hani’s research focuses on the implications of emerging Information and Communication Technologies on collective action and political activism in restrictive environments, and how network-mediated communication influences the construction of knowledge and identity in a sociopolitical context marked by continued and often violent political contention beyond an act of popular uprising. In 2012 and 2013, during a time of tumultuous political events, Hani conducted extensive fieldwork in Egypt, where he employed a mix of conventional and new digital methods to study current practices of network-mediated activism, specifically how individuals and movements co-construct political knowledge online, and how ’networked activism’ influences collective action.

Research Interests:

The implications of the Internet and digital social media on contentious politics, democracy and governance
ICTs and participatory culture
Cyber-dissent, technologically-catalysed collective action
Virtual communities
Networked social movements
ICTs for empowerment and accountability
Digital ethnographic methods
Open knowledge and open technologies
Peer-to-peer and collaborative cultures