Fighting against the wall: social media use by political activists in a Palestinian village

Authors:
Volker Wulf;Konstantin Aal;Ibrahim Abu Kteish;Meryem Atam;Kai Schubert;Markus Rohde;George P. Yerousis;David Randall
Affiliations:
University of Siegen, Siegen, NRW, Germany;University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany;Birzeit University, Birzeit, Israel;University of Siegen, Siegen, NRW, Germany;University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany;University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany;Birzeit University, Birzeit, Israel;University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany
Venue:
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Year:
2013

Citing 8
Cited 0

Implications for design

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Expanding a country's borders during war: the internet war diary

Proceedings of the 2009 international workshop on Intercultural collaboration
Creating a context of trust with ICTs: restoring a sense of normalcy in the environment

Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Analyzing Political Activists' Organization Practices: Findings from a Long Term Case Study of the European Social Forum

Computer Supported Cooperative Work
(How) will the revolution be retweeted?: information diffusion and the 2011 Egyptian uprising

Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
The Egyptian blogosphere: a counter-narrative of the revolution

Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Blogs as a collective war diary

Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
'On the ground' in Sidi Bouzid: investigating social media use during the tunisian revolution

Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.01

Visualization

Abstract

We analyze practices of political activists in a Palestinian village located in the West Bank. Activists organize weekly demonstrations against Israel's settlement policy and the separation wall. Over a period of 28 months, we conducted a field study consisting of eight days 'on the ground' observation and interviewing, and extensive monitoring of Internet communication. We describe the activists' background and their efforts to organize these demonstrations under conditions of military occupation. Over time, we observe the role both digital and material factors play in the organization of protest. Specifically, we analyze how Email and Facebook were appropriated to facilitate interaction 'on the ground'.