“The Berkman Center is pleased to announce the publication of Mobilization for Change, a new series of reports examining the role of the networked public sphere in advancing civic participation and collective action in the Arab region. The online space in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain reflects a growingly polarized and contentious offline political environment, with less consensus than existed five years ago. Fieldwork corroborates insights from social network mapping in this regard and confirms the continued importance of traditional political powerhouses as well as offline networks in mobilization. Yet digital media still offer a comparatively open venue for competing perspectives, providing more freedom for individual expression than traditional media in these countries.

The series includes three papers:

• “Structure and Discourse: Mapping the Networked Public Sphere in the Arab Region,” authored by Robert Faris, John Kelly, Helmi Noman, and Dalia Othman
• “The Networked Public Sphere and Civic Engagement in Post-2011 Egypt: A Local Perspective,” authored by Nagla Rizk with Lina Attalah and Nadine Weheba
• “An Accelerated Story of the Emergence and Transformation of the Networked Public Sphere: The Case of Tunisia,” authored by Escander Nagazi, Jazem Halioui, and Fares Mabrouk

The papers combine social network mapping techniques with fieldwork conducted in Egypt and Tunisia to analyze the shape and structure of the networked public sphere in the Arab region. The papers also examine the dynamics between the online and offline spheres and their relative impact on mobilization. The social network analysis is based on a regional map of the blogosphere; maps of Twitter networks in three countries: Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain; and a map of the Tunisian Facebook network. The fieldwork is based on in-depth interviews and focus groups with active members of the Egyptian and Tunisian networked public sphere in addition to nationally representative surveys. This mixed methods approach across these different platforms and regions offers a detailed view of social, cultural, religious, and political expression through digital media… The papers, along with two additional reports examining the project’s methods and summarizing the results, are available at arabnps.org.”