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Digital Asia: Visions, Transformations, and Engagements

26 April, Nedre Palaestra, Lund

Asia has the largest Internet population in the world in absolute numbers, and it is also at the forefront of digital developments in many fields, including governance, entertainment, and e-commerce. The region however contains a diverse digital landscape that reflects its different political and socio-economic realities. The average percentage of the population that has access to the Internet in Asia is only 41.9 per cent but as high as 91.1 per cent in Japan. Although only 51,7 per cent of the Chinese population has access, at 710 million users China is however the world’s largest Internet nation. In terms of social media use Indonesia occupies a special place as three out of four Indonesians using the Internet also use Facebook, which makes Indonesia (with 78 million Facebook users) the fourth biggest Facebook nation. Myanmar had less than 1 per cent Internet penetration in 2009 but the growth has been spectacular since then, and in 2016 19.3 per cent had access to the Internet.

The presentations examined the socio-political contexts and uses of the Internet in a selected number of Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Myanmar. The speakers addressed both the everyday uses of new communication technologies as well as citizens new opportunities to discuss public affairs and become involved in civic and political mobilization.

9.15-9.30 Welcome

9.30-10.15 The Limits and Prospects of Nerd Politics in Indonesia John Postill, Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne

10.15-10.45 Coffee break

10.45-11.30 SNS and Civil Society Online in Japan Muneo Kaigo University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba

11.30-12.15 Cyber-Urban Space: Digital Media and Protest Movements in Malaysia and Indonesia, Merlyna Lim, Canada Research Chair in Digital Media & Global Network Society, Carleton University

12.15-13.00 The World (Wide Web) through an App: Internet Use in Myanmar, Elisa Oreglia, Centre for Media Studies, SOAS, University of London.

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30 Chinese Digital Visions, Puzzles and Insights: Presentations from a research project at Lund University, Stefan Brehm, Annika Pissin, Barbara Schulte, Tommy Shih

15.30-16.00 Coffee break

16.00-17.00 Localising the Internet: Roundtable Discussion with John Postill, Muneo Kaigo, Merlyna Lim, Elisa Oreglia, Johan Lindquist, Hu Yong, Marina Svensson

 

Please see here for the list of abstracts