[Commlist] CFP: “Digital Inequalities in the Middle East and North Africa” (Convergence)

*CFP: “Digital Inequalities in the Middle East and North Africa”*

Special Issue of /Convergence: The International Journal of Research 
into New Media Technologies/

**

Guest Editors: Dr. Glenn W. Muschert, Professor of Sociology, Khalifa 
University, UAE, and**

Dr. Massimo Ragnedda, Associate Professor of Mass Communications, 
Northumbria University, UK

*Deadline for abstracts: 19. June 2022 / Expected date of publication: 
August 2023*

Little research has focused on digital inequalities in the Middle East 
and North Africa (MENA) region. Despite the noted migration of social 
life into the digital sphere, the cultures and societies of the MENA 
region remain under-studied. This special issue intends to shed 
much-needed light on this topic: namely, how digital media forms, 
digital inequalities, and ICT use are changing social life in the MENA 
region. The special editors invite proposals for articles about digital 
inequalities in MENA.

As a whole, the special collection welcomes analysis of digital divides 
and changing social relations. There are few empirical studies on this 
topic from the MENA region, and the issue will be the first to examine 
the changes brought by new technologies in the lives of those living in 
the region. The special editors welcome contributions that clarify hopes 
and impediments to digital society in MENA. Articles should advance 
scholarly knowledge concerning the effect of digital technologies on the 
region’s broader social contexts. Welcome topics include digital effects 
on economic dynamics, technical issues, cultural aspects, historical 
legacies, embedded conflicts, digital literacy and skills, governance of 
digital life, social well-being, and development trajectories.

The special issue will focus on social issues or perspectives on digital 
inequalities in the MENA region. Each article should examine a specific 
social issue or perspective related to the digital divides in the MENA 
region and related social issues. The primary criterion for acceptance 
will be the scholarly promise and relevance of the topic.  Each 
contribution must include empirical analysis and be linked theoretically 
to broader debates current in sociology or related social science 
fields. Contributors are encouraged to offer forward-looking 
perspectives in suggestions for social challenges, including how the 
study of MENA social issues or regional perspectives can help inform 
research on digital inequalities worldwide.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

-Can the MENA region’s economic and social development leapfrog by 
adopting mobile technologies?

-What possibilities exist to drive digital inclusion in MENA while 
reducing aspects of digital inequalities?

-What are the implications of social media and other forms of digital 
participation for social life in MENA?

-How demographic, cultural, and socio-economic factors influence digital 
divides in MENA, including:

oAccess to ICTs (first level of digital divide)

oEffective use of ICTs (second level of digital divide), and

oThe benefits of ICT use (third level of digital divide)?

-Assess the role of digital media in transforming health care practices 
and outcomes in the MENA region.

-Identify the innovative digital methods used in the region to provide 
access, information, and utility.

-Exploring how COVID-19 may have exacerbated digital inequalities in the 
MENA region

-Are digital use patterns related to social well-being in the MENA region?

-Explore how users, organizations, and societies are affected by 
regulatory frameworks.

Submit 500-word abstract & 100-word bioby*19. June 2022 *to:

(glenn.muschert /at/ ku.ac.ae) <mailto:(glenn.muschert /at/ ku.ac.ae)>& 
(massimo.ragnedda /at/ northumbria.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(massimo.ragnedda /at/ northumbria.ac.uk)>

There are not APCs.

*Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 30. June 2022 to 
submit full articles by 15.**September 2022*


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