This article considers the development and impact of the Internet in Kuwait. It argues that even though important cultural filters shape Internet use, experimentation with new social relationships in cyberspace occur. This is true especially among youths. It performs three kinds of analyses to make its main point. First, it performs a content analysis of the major Kuwaiti daily newspapers in both Arabic and English to illustrate the emergence of a public consciousness of the Internet. Second, it uses survey data to describe the scope and character of the Kuwaiti Internet community in relation to the general population of Kuwait, and in relation to regional Internet access/use patterns. Third, it examines the emerging impacts of Internet use in Kuwait. It concludes that the most significant possibilities for change stem from student use of the Internet to transgress gender boundaries, and to protest the state's new gender law.
Al-Khulaifi, Muhammad S. (1998) `Tathir al-Internet fi Mujtama' Min Wajha Nathar Tulab al-Marhalah al-Jama'iyyah fi al-Mamluka al-Arabiyya al-Saudia: Dirassah Midaniyya' (The Social Influence of the Internet on University Students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A National Study), unpublished manuscript.
2.
Al-Mazeedi, Moosa L. and Ibrahim A. Ismail (1998) `The Educational and Social Effects of the Internet on Kuwait University Students', paper presented at the Conference on the Information Superhighway, Safat, Kuwait, 3 March.
3.
Al-Rai al-A'am (1997) `Kuwaitiun wa al-Kitab!' (Kuwaitis and Books!), 30 August: 13.
4.
Alterman, John (1999) New Media, New Politics? From Satellite Television to the Internet in the Arab World. Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
5.
Anderson, Jon (1995) ` “Cybarites”, Knowledge Workers and New Creoles on the Superhighway', Anthropology Today11(4): 13-15.
6.
Anderson, Jon (1998) Arabizing the Internet. Abu Dhabi: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies.
7.
Anderson, Jon and Dale Eickelman (1999) `Convergence of New Media Technologies in the Middle East', Middle East InsightMarch-April: 59-62.
8.
Arab Times (1997a) `50 Firms Submit Bids to Provide Internet Service', 2 September: 2.
9.
Arab Times (1997b) `Alcohol Aims at Internet', 8 March: 1.
10.
Arab Times (1997c) `Businessman Pursues Open University', 30 March: 1.
11.
Arab Times (1997d) `Terrorists on Line', 26 January: 1.
12.
Cukier, Kenneth Neil (1999) `Internet Governance and the Ancien Regime', Swiss Political Science Review5(1): 132-157.
13.
Deibert, R.J. (1997) Parchment, Printing and Hypertext Media. New York: Columbia University Press.
14.
Eickelman, Dale and Jon Anderson (eds) (1999) New Media in the Muslim World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
15.
Ess, Charles (1998) `Cosmopolitanism or Cybercentrism: A Critical Examination of the Underlying Assumptions of the “Electronic Global Village”; available at: www.drury.edu/faculty/ess/papers/cybercentrism.html
16.
Gabbard, Brian C. and George S. Park (1996) The Information Revolution in the Arab World: Commercial, Cultural and Political Dimensions - Middle East Meets the Internet. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
17.
Goodman, Syet al. (1994) `The Global Diffusion of the Internet: Patterns and Problems', Communications of the ACM37(8): 27-31.
18.
Kuwait Times (1997) `Focus Shifts from Publication to Electronic Medium... Denies Pleasures of Reading to Kids', 19 January: 4.
19.
Lawrence, Bruce (1999) `From Civil Society to Info Society: Will Muslim Immigrants to North America and Western Europe be Empowered or Further Marginalized from the Cyber Century?', paper presented at the Bustani Seminar, MIT, 13 April.
20.
Loader, Brian T. (ed.) (1997) The Governance of Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
21.
Longva, Anh Nga (1997) Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Society in Kuwait. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
22.
McDonald, Fiona (1997) `In for a Cuppa... Dot Com', Arab Times20 March: 1, 8.
23.
O'Barr, William , David H. Spain and Mark A. Tessler (eds) (1973) Survey Research in Africa: Its Application and Limits. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
24.
PC Middle East (1999a) `Survey'; available at: www.ditnet.co.ae/itnews/newsaug99/newsaug5.html
25.
PC Middle East (1999b) available at: www.ditnet.co.ae/itnews/newsaug99/newsaug5_tables.html
26.
Talero, Eduard and Phillip Gaudette (1997) `Harnessing Information for Development: A Proposal for a World Bank Group Strategy' (March); available at: www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/harnessing
27.
Wheeler, Deborah L. (1996) `In Praise of the Virtual Life? New Communications Technologies, Human Rights, International Development and the Protection of Middle Eastern Cultural Space', Monitors: A Journal of Technology and Human Rights1(1); available at: www.cwrl.texas.edu/~monitors
28.
Wheeler, Deborah L. (1998a) `Global Culture or Culture Clash? New Communications Technologies and the Islamic World - A View from Kuwait', Communication Research25(4): 359-376.
29.
Wheeler, Deborah L. (1998b) `The Social Impact of the Internet in Kuwait', paper presented at the Conference on the Information Superhighway, Safat, Kuwait, 3 March.
30.
Wheeler, Deborah L. (2000) `New Media, Globalization and Kuwaiti National Identity', Middle East Journal54(3): 432-444.
31.
Wheeler, Deborah L. (2001) `Old Culture, New Technologies: A Look at Women, Gender and the Internet in Kuwait', in Charles Ess and Fay Sudweeks (eds) Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village. Albany: State University of New York Press.
