Publics, Politics and Participation

(Wang) #1

322 Mediated Publics


struggling to stay in business amidst the rise of mobile telephony, télébou-
tiques were until recently popular sites for people to place private phone
calls outside the home. I offer this bit of information to suggest that over-
laps with adaptive procedures are evident in previous cycles of innovation
in communication technologies.
28.es quartiers populaires L —the popular quarters—is a term applied to the
lower class and impoverished neighborhoods within Moroccan cities.
29.hile the city’s traditional coffeehouses are decidedly not smoke-free envi- W
ronments, some cybercafés have designated smoke-free rooms, and a few
prohibit smoking altogether.



  1. I suggest that this differential is indicative of a complex resituating of time,
    from the “moral time” of the movement of the sun, which signifies the call
    to prayer, to “postindustrial time,” during which minutes are monetarily
    monitored.
    31.t the time of research, these prices were comparable to $0.70–$1. Prices A
    are averages based on observation in Casablancan cafés and reconfirmed by
    statistics in the 2002 ANRT survey.
    32.e notable contrast between the survey results I collected in Casablanca On
    and those gathered by ANRT’s countrywide survey is in terms of Web
    research. In ANRT’s study only 4 percent of end-users used the Internet for
    Web-based research. By contrast over 70 percent of Internet users respond-
    ing to my survey said they engage in Web research or “info surfing” when
    they go online.

  2. ANRT 2002 survey findings.
    34.sapproval of public affection holds generally true across class boundaries, Di
    but there is much greater flexibility among upper class and elite Moroccans
    regarding boundaries of sexuality and sexual expression. The greater lati-
    tude accorded to upper class women among their peers to dress in form-
    fitting clothing or to go out to nightclubs, for example, is condemned by
    middle and lower classes as acting “French” or “European.” What makes
    the cyber a critical site of individual agency is that it provides a public space
    in which lower class women can and do participate in activities normally
    reserved (in the public imaginary) for their upper class counterparts.
    35.y use of the word “tradition” is by no means intended to present M
    Moroccan Islam as a historically closed canon but rather to indicate a prac-
    ticed tradition of gender segregation. To qualify the term I turn to Albert

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