The battles for a democratic Egypt are being waged on many fronts, including on social media. This talk questions if youth in Egypt and the wider Middle East region, armed with an ever-advancing arsenal of high tech tools and technologies, are growing as a counterpower? Or are these tools and technologies reinforcing a highly unequal form of power that favors entrenched and new power elites like the Muslim Brotherhood? How are power and counterpower operating in the age of social media?
Linda Herrera is a social anthropologist with regional specialization in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She works in the fields of global studies in education, international development, and youth studies. Her work examines youth and power at the local to global levels. She has undertaken critical ethnographic studies of Egyptian schools, biographical research of Muslim youth, and critical analysis of the Arabic web. More recently Herrera has turned her attention to Arab youth, revolution, and citizenship in the information age.