Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 A Brief History of Internet Diffusion and Impact in the Middle East
- 2 IT 4 Regime Change: Networking around the State in Egypt
- 3 No More Red Lines: Networking around the State in Jordan
- 4 Hurry Up and Wait: Oppositional Compliance and Networking around the State in Kuwait
- 5 The Micro-demise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Working around the State in Comparative Perspective
- 6 Fear the State: Repression and the Risks of Resistance in the Middle East
- Conclusion
- Appendix Internet User Interview Questions
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Hurry Up and Wait: Oppositional Compliance and Networking around the State in Kuwait
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 A Brief History of Internet Diffusion and Impact in the Middle East
- 2 IT 4 Regime Change: Networking around the State in Egypt
- 3 No More Red Lines: Networking around the State in Jordan
- 4 Hurry Up and Wait: Oppositional Compliance and Networking around the State in Kuwait
- 5 The Micro-demise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Working around the State in Comparative Perspective
- 6 Fear the State: Repression and the Risks of Resistance in the Middle East
- Conclusion
- Appendix Internet User Interview Questions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Internet made Arabs more active in reaching to others to find ways to express freedom … It taught Arabs a lot regarding the values of democracy and freedom. (Interviewed July 2009, Kuwait City)
Gulf leaders will have to show their subjects they have some say in their own governance: over time, the monarchs will not be able to avoid accelerating the pace of reforms, and they will have to respond to the pressures exerted from without and within by going beyond merely cosmetic change. (Guzansky, quoted in Kessler 2012)
Kuwait's ruling Al-Sabah family has issued a statement calling for obedience to the emir after rare public criticism of the ruler during opposition rallies. (Hall 2012: 2)
There's a saying in the military that has direct relevance to interpreting change in Kuwait: ‘hurry up and wait’. In a military context, the phrase captures the urgency for readiness constrained by a plodding bureaucracy. In the Kuwaiti context, ‘hurry up and wait’ characterises the urgency and impatience for change (among some citizens) balanced by traditions and fears of disrespect and disruptiveness. Like the phrase, Kuwait is characterised by complex juxtapositions of hurry and wait. From a bird's eye view of the small Arabian Gulf country, we see, for example, rapid changes in styles of dress compete with reinforced tradition in calls to respect the emir. We see globalised culture, in the form of restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and Texas Road House, made local, by the absence of pork products and alcohol; and the latest Hollywood films, severely edited, with any touching between the sexes removed, while, ironically, gore, violence and foul language remain. In terms of politics, we see ‘oppositional compliant’ behaviour in the practice of everyday life, like participating in a youth movement for change while also complying with a parent's wishes on choice of major at university, or career and marriage decisions.
These competing narratives also influence Internet use and impact. For example, stressing the transformative nature of Internet culture in Kuwait, a 2011 study argues that
The technological revolution is changing modes of thinking and behavior, and governments that do not acknowledge and address such changes will be swept away by the waves of resentful citizens empowered by the various tools that the Internet offers. (Alqudsi-ghabra et al. 2011)
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- Digital Resistance in the Middle EastNew Media Activism in Everyday Life, pp. 86 - 114Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2017