The function of the internet in the Moroccan public sphere

Abstract

Abstract In this thesis I make an attempt at tracing the development of the internet in Morocco aided by the epistemology of Peirce. In particular the experimental and abductive nature of adoption of technology may be viewed in light of this theoretical framework. Following Peirce; abduction is a process that starts with several creative assumptions as a reaction to newness, followed by investigating the logical consequences of these assumptions, called deduction, ending with experimentally testing the abductive theses. One main suggestion on the basis of an extensive field-work from Morocco suggests that what started out with a situation where the Internet opened up hegemony, too a certain extent closes a new hegemony. The initial ambition of flattening the power structures, as highlighted by the workplace of an Internet-portal provider, did not come in to place. The original idea was to create a space for debate, but eventually difference of opinion was not accepted. Additionally, somewhat contrary to Hofheinz findings, discussion forums on the internet were one disagrees are practically never happening. One common aspect of these failures of creating a new order with the use of the Internet was how postcolonial structures functioned in the performance of mistrust and in this way reproducing centre-periphery relations. Moreover traditional media played a much more important role for debate. The most important role of the Internet is to create new spaces and to change the position of the marginalized, and the Internet became an important catalyst for the development of a multiplicity of civil societies. In particular the Internet created a way of bypassing the elites in the urban centres. The Internet can be said to malfunction as a mediator between the Public and the private interests, and can be seen as a tool for sectarian interests in the Morrocan context. Concluding the thesis, and following the earlier theoretical reflection of the thesis, a prospect for further comparative studies of the Internet (and other technologies) within different ethnographic localities is suggested.