LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts LSE Middle East Centre

How did the radio, a major technological development in the history of sound and music, change the social, cultural and political landscape of the region?

In this last episode of the season, we speak to audio curator Hazem Jamjoum, and Elias Anastas and Saeed Abu Jaber, two of the co-founders of the Palestinian radio station Radio Al Hara. We find out more about the history of the radio in the region and also it's present – specifically looking at how this new technology was used by imperialists, technocrats, intellectuals and liberation groups to broadcast and connect groups. Through Radio Al Hara's activity, we learn how radio works in similar ways to this day.

Hazem Jamjoum is an audio curator and researcher with an interest in history of audio and music recording in the Arab world

Elias Anastas is a co-founder of Radio Al Hara. He is an architect based in Bethlehem, Palestine and runs an architectural studio with his brother Yousef called AAU ANASTAS. They also run Wonder Cabinet, a not-for-profit cultural platform.

Saeed Abu Jaber is one of the founders of radio al hara. He is a graphic designer and runs a studio called Turbo in Amman, Jordan.

https://www.radioalhara.net/

As of April 2024, according to UN experts, over 80% of schools have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli assault on Gaza, with 5479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors killed and many thousands injured. Every university in Gaza is partially or wholly destroyed, whether by bombing or demolition. Amidst the systematic destruction of lives, communities and environments what possibility, if any, is left for education? What does learning mean under conditions of 'scholasticide'?

Meet the speakers

Ahmed Abu Shaban is the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Al-Azhar University — Gaza and an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics. Abu Shaban spent two years as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his academic experience, Abu Shaban has conducted several consultancy studies on the socioeconomic assessment of national water and environmental infrastructure programs. He has extensive research and consultancy experience in analysing economic development in the Gaza Strip and designing intervention strategies for humanitarian, early recovery, and development programs.

Esmat Elhalaby is an Assistant Professor of Transnational History at the University of Toronto. He works principally on the intellectual history of West and South Asia, particularly colonial and anti-colonial thought. His writing has appeared in Modern Intellectual History, American Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Boston Review, The Baffler and elsewhere.

This webinar was a launch of 'Industrial Policy in Turkey: Rise, Retreat and Return' by William Hale, Mustafa Kutlay and Mina Toksoz published by Edinburgh University Press.

At a time when many advanced and emerging economies are adopting more active industrial policies, this book provides an in-depth historical–empirical account of industrial policy in Turkey – its rise, retreat and return.

This study adopts a multidisciplinary approach and covers the role of the state in Turkey’s initial industrialisation to the current period of restructuring and potential technological upgrading of its manufacturing base. The analysis traces how industrial policy has been shaped by state capacity, the waves of reforms following economic crises, the dearth of long-term finance for industrialisation and, more recently, the need to address issues such as low-tech industrial structure and pre-mature de-industrialisation.

The book aims to answer questions of what worked and what went wrong with previous policies. It asks how current policies could be shaped to overcome the problems of cronyism and corruption, and also achieve new objectives of technological upgrading and socio-environmental sustainability.

William Hale is an Emeritus Professor at SOAS, having retired as Professor of Politics with Special Reference to Turkey in 2006. His main interests are the modern politics and international relations of Turkey.

Mustafa Kutlay is a senior lecturer in the Department of International Politics at City, University of London. His current research focuses on the comparative politics and political economy of developing countries (with particular reference to Turkey, Turkish politics and foreign policy), institutions and development in the global South, and political risk analysis.

Mina Toksoz is an International Economist having worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit variously as Editorial Director of the Middle East, Europe, and the Country Risk Service.

Arda Bilgen is a Research Officer at the LSE Middle East Centre, where he works on the PeaceRep project ‘Surface Water Changes in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin since 1984 and their Governance Implications for Iraq’, led by Dr Michael Mason. His work mainly focuses on water politics, transboundary water resources management, and hydraulic infrastructure development.

This episode explores the link between technology, warfare and nationalism. Turkey and Israel are two countries in the region who have developed their technological capabilities for both domestic and international conflict. We speak to two researchers who have been tracing the use of military technologies and the effect they have had on a sense of nationalism amongst their populations.

Digdem Solaytin Colella speaks to the regime-boosting effects of drone production in Turkey whilst Sophia Goodfriend provides a more granular analysis of how military technology has transformed a new generation of Israeli soldiers’ views of Palestinians and Israeli occupation.

Digdem is Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen. Her research concentrates on the politics of corruption, mechanisms of state capture and regime survival, autocratic bureaucracies & illiberal governance, and Southeast European and Turkish politics.

Sophia is a PhD candidate at Duke University’s Department of Cultural Anthropology and Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellow. Her academic work examines the ethics and impact of new surveillance technologies in Israel and Palestine.

What does the era of ‘big data’ mean for development technologies in MENA? How can data be used for good, to ensure projects working with vulnerable communities such as informal workers and women are seen and supported? What kind of repercussions does poor data collection have on emerging technologies? How can data-driven research and technology improve prospects for the next generation in the region seeking work, and what does it mean for the future of labour in the region?

These are some of the questions we posed to Nagla Rizk, Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo in episode 8.

Nagla is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the American University in Cairo’s School of Business. Nagla’s area of research, teaching and advocacy is the economics of knowledge, technology and development, with focus on governance of responsible data and Artificial Intelligence, fair work in the platform economy, innovation, gender and inclusion in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Writer and art critic, Rahel Aima, who grew up and currently lives in Dubai, talks to us about living in the Gulf, a region rapidly developing itself as the place to be for smart cities and high-tech living.

Rahel explores a concept she has been thinking about for some time, the Khaleeji Ideology, which meets at the intersection of technology, economy, the environment and nation building, as a way of understanding developments in the contemporary Gulf.

This episode also features comment from Michael Mason, Director of the LSE Middle East Centre and Professor of Environmental Geography at LSE, who explores the rise of “progressive” urban development projects in the Gulf, and whether technology can be the solution to pressing environmental challenges of our time.

Rahel Aima is a writer, critic, and editor from Dubai. She writes about art, technology and the Gulf. Her work has been published in Artforum, Artnews, ArtReview, The Atlantic, Bookforum, frieze, Mousse and Vogue Arabia, amongst others.

Read Rahel’s ‘The Khaleeji Ideology’ here: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/horizons/498319/the-khaleeji-ideology/.