First Int’l Summit of Health and Lifestyle: Culture and Cyberspace held at University of Tehran

‌ The First International Summit of Health and Lifestyle: Culture and Cyberspace was held on Wednesday, 20 January 2016 at the Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, with participation of scholars from all over the world, particularly Islamic countries, and with Dr. Mahmoud Vaezi, the honorable Minister of Information and Communication Technologies of the Islamic Republic of Iran as guest of honor.

The summit themed Culture and Cyberspace as one of the three academic events on Health and Lifestyle was mainly sponsored by the Secretariat for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Islamic World (SASTIW), affiliated to the University of Tehran and UNESCO chair on Cyberspace and Culture: Dual Spacization of the World. The themes of the two upcoming summits are Water, Sustainable Development and Healthy Life, and Soil Global Threats.

The first keynote speaker of the summit, Professor Moosavi-Movahedi began his lecture by noting that human achievements are not synchronous with sustainable developments and can have damaging consequences for environment and society. He referred to the cyberspace as a key solution for solving the problems of the contemporary world. In addition, he referred to the role of culture as a structure and infrastructure for people’s behavior and action in society. He added that cyberspace is a border-less and time-less sphere where the spiritual culture of Iranians can be presented. At the end of his lecture, Dr. Moosavi-Movahedi acknowledged that the summit can provide a guideline for international organizations such as United Nations and UNESCO.

Professor Saied Reza Ameli, the chairman and scientific director of the summit was the second keynote speaker who gave a brief review about Dual (Physical-Virtual) Spacization of Capacities and Lifestyle and the Emergence of New Cultural Issues. Prof. Ameli initiated his lecture by explaining “the dual specialization of human lifestyle and the simultaneity of the virtual space with the old traditional way of life that results in translocalization of Communication” and provided some remarks about new capacities and issues which have come to forth as a result of the dual spacization of culture.

The tenets of his speech were as follows: Development and internationalization of social relations as an opportunity for the Islamic Ummah; connection among cultural experiences; homogenous elements as a network-creator capacity of culture for populism and elitism and the formation of new cultural adaptations to oppose “corruption on earth”; interaction, co-existence and the growth of multiculturalism were among the capacities of dual spacization of culture, while local, national and global issues related to the phenomenonincluded the multiplicity and variety of cultural resources; distance between the real and the recreated worlds: representing the culture; decline of natural cultural sentiment; individual-only leisure-time and hobbies-tendency toward loneliness rather than socializing; disintegration of ethical and moral values as well as social and individual boredom; superficial virtual relationships; distance from genuine cultural space; impact upon work and profession relations and the disconnection from social environment; online betrayals; impact of virtual space upon individual’s introvert behavior.

Finally, Prof. Ameli emphasized on the importance of knowledge and literacy and the increasing rationality as the key and efficient points in encountering the issues arising from dual spacization of culture.

Third keynote speaker, Dr. Abolhassan Firoozabadi, the head of the National Centre for Cyberspace, described cyberspace as a virtual environment characterized by a process beginning with connections that via interactions leads to the emotional and mental coordination and assimilation of the individuals. Indeed, he remarked, cyberspace is a virtual sphere that is considered as a means for exercising power. By recognition of the capacities of cyberspace, he suggested that efficient policy making in the Internet requires an ability called virtual rationality.

Professor Andrew Feenberg from Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication in Simon Fraser University was the last keynote speaker who gave an exhaustive lecture on Online Community and Democracy. Focusing on the positive aspects of Internet, Prof. Feenberg introduced three models including information, consumption and community models for describing the process of formation and functions of the internet. The information model presided over the origins of the internet and similar systems such as the Minitel network in France. It aims at improving the distinction of information, a function that the Internet fulfills and will undoubtedly continue to fulfill so long as it exists. However, this model has little chance to prevail as an overall interpretation of the meaning of Internet.

The consumption model argues that Internet-based markets are a factor in the prosperity of nations. This market links up people and goods over a global territory. The enormous potential of the model for growth can lead to the “network neutrality” under which all types of communication are treated equally. The triumph of the consumption model can transform the interpretation of the system and its technology. The community model resembles the Internet as we know it today meaning that free communication prevails in cyberspace. Communities form around these spaces of virtual social interaction. He believes that the Internet is a terrain of struggle between the consumer and the community models. He also holds that the critique of the Internet should focus on this struggle. Prof. Feenberg concluded his lecture by a discussion about the critiques and alternative models to his argument.

After the lectures of keynote speakers, three discussion sessions were held, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. The main speaker of the morning session was Professor Jon Anderson from the Catholic University of America. Lecture of Prof. Anderson focused on the issue of Culture, Lifestyle and the Information Revolution in the Islamic Countries. He centered his remarks on the sociologies of reference group and network theory, on science-technology-society studies, and sociolinguistics to come up with a more unified theory of the play of information in culture and lifestyle on the Internet. Indeed, Prof. Anderson suggested that a more normal sociology of the Internet can be captured through three concepts; as “reference groups”, whose practical sites are “communities of practice” that frame “entextualization” of local and specific into more portable and shared information.

In the second session chaired by Dr. Sahar Khamis, four scholars presented their lectures. First lecturer, Dr. el-Nawawy, professor of International Communication and Middle Eastern Studies at Queens University of Charlotte, provided a brief review about Islamic Cyberspace between Collective and Divergent Identities: Platform for Faith-Diplomacy. By introducing faith-based diplomacy, he pointed to the growing role of religion in politics and the increasing attention dedicated to the potential impact of religion on conflict resolutions and reconciliation among various parties involved in state and non-state clashes. He focused on Islamic diplomacy as it relates to the virtual Ummah and provided a textual analysis of three websites which were www. islamonline. net, www. islamway. com and www. amrkhaled. net.

The second speaker was Dr. Amir Mansur Yadegari, Faculty Member at Research Institute of Communication and Information Technology, who presented a lecture on The Role of Government in Providing a Clean and Healthy Lifestyle among Cyberspace Users. He gave a brief introduction about the process of social identity formation in cyberspace which is mainly based on consumption behavior. He argued that cyberspace provides users with the options and choices and added that the concept of Clean Life (Hayyat-e Tayyaba) highlighted in the speeches of Ayotallah Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, can be considered as a valuable guideline for choosing the best lifestyle. Dr. Yadegari concluded this is a point that can be taken into account by the government.

Dr. Masoud Kowsari, Associate Professor at the Social Communications Department of the University of Tehran, opened his discussion with explanation of the history of the emergence of cyberspace and stated that better understanding of the interaction of real and virtual space requires a new concept called the third space. He concluded that the redefinition of society and social interactions are necessary for the management of this space.

Dr. Salman Sayyid, Faculty Member of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds (UK), gave a lecture entitled Islomophobia in Cyberia: A Critical Muslim Studies Approach. Cyberia as the World’s first café in London was the beginning point of his lecture to explain how Islamophobia as a virtual concept is proliferating on the cyberspace. Dr. Sayyid asserted that it is possible to be islamohobic when there are no Muslims around since the lack of Muslims is filled by the surplus Islamophobic representations.

Dr. Khamis, the Egyptian scholar from the University of Maryland (US), delivered her lecture on Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Prospects. Dr. Khamis pointed to September 11 as a turning point for studying Islam and Muslims in the Western world. She described the shifting socio-political landscape of the world characterized by growing population of young people in Muslim societies; growing “diasporic” Muslim communities in many parts of the world, and growing wave of political revolt and upheaval in some parts of the Muslim world. She noted that after 1990, the new communication revolution gradually started to find its way in many Muslim societies. Dr. Khamis explained the opportunities and challenges of cyberspace to conclude that it would be wise to adopt a realistic approach in assessing the future role of the internet and its impact on the process of socio-political transformation in Muslim societies which can be called “cyberrealism”.

Third session chaired by Dr. el-Nawawy, included three lectures by Dr. Mostafa Taqavi, Dr. Mehdi Mohsenian-Rad and Dr. Younes Shokrkhah, respectively. Dr. Taqavi, Professor at the Department of the Philosophy of Science, Sharif University of Technology, provided A Reflection on the Relation of Religion and Cyberspace. He pointed out the ideas of Prof. Feenberg on alternative-thinking technology to argue that in spite of his critical thinking, Feenberg has failed to clarify the ambiguity of democratic values. Adopting “concretization process” coined by Simond on Dr. Taqavi added that the elegant cyberspace in Islamic societies must be the consequence of concretizing based upon the Islamic values. However, he argued that the desert and metaphor show that criticizing cyberspace may be possible, but its Islamization is not as easy as expected.

Second speaker, Mohsenian-Rad, Professor of Communication at the School of Culture and Communication of Imam Sadeq University, explained The Outcomes of World Inequality in Dual-Spacization. Based on the World Dual Spacization paradigm theorized by Prof. Amel, Prof. Mohsenian-Rad introduced three generations of communication in the countries all over the world. The statistical indexes used to support the argument presented an infographic model for describing the outcomes of the world inequalities in the dual spacization. This problem requires solutions in terms of the national and individual facilities and willingness.

Dr. Younes Shokrkhah, the last lecturer, founder and board member of Iranian Association of Information Society Studies, discussed the effects of cyberspace on culture as a triangle of culture, cyberspace and information society. Dr. Shokrkhah initially named five groups of countries classified based on the indicator presented by the International Data Corporation and the World Times Inc.: Skaters, Striders, Sprinters, Strollers, and Starters. Then he provided a concise review on the impacts of cyberspace and information society on culture and concluded his remarks by focusing on the action line (C8) of information society regarding cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content.

Every lecture and session was followed by a question and answer discussion.

At the closing session of the summit, Prof. Ameli emphasized on the determinant role of factors like encouraging innovation in content production in cyberspace, globalizing the cultural messages and improving internet literacy, on promoting a healthy lifestyle.

The closing speech was provided by Dr. Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies of Islamic Republic of Iran. Dr. Vaezi emphasized the free access to information and availability of cyberspace for all individuals and asserted that “People do not need to be monitored and controlled in the cyberspace however the elites and media should provide them with the required knowledge regarding the usages of this space”. The minister of ICT highlighted the significance of content production in contemporary world and said “Content production cannot be assigned to a certain organization and all bodies and institutions of the government have to do their best for domestic content production and propagation of necessary information for public use on cyberspace”.

Pointing to the valuable content production, Dr. Vaezi underscored that “there is a lot of precious information within the country that can be delivered to the people via content production and, if necessary, such information should be translated and transferred to the outside societies through cyberspace”.

The foreign speakers of the summit and a selected group of Iranian speakers as well as PhD students from the Faculty of World Studies discussed the main points raised in the summit on Thursday. They also exchanged ideas on the newly-launched UNESCO chair on Cyberspace and Culture: Dual Spacization of the World and finally approved the report of the summit read out at the meeting by acclamation.