Azadeh Akbari

University of Twente | UT · Department of Public Administration (PA)

Despite the prevalence of smart city discourse across many disciplines, governance systems, and policy-making bodies, its conceptual foundations are based either on semi-/democratic political constellations or deemed apolitical. This research agenda highlights the embeddedness of any smart city agenda within a more extensive political regime. Furth...

ICT for Development (ICT4D) research has evolved significantly in the course of its history. Originally characterized by a technology-transfer vision, positing technology as intrinsically “good” and desirable for development, it subsequently entered a phase of problematization of the very notion of “development”, as well as the ability of ICTs to c...

Akbari, A. (2024). The Birth of Code/Body. In V. Steeves & B. Roessler (eds.). Being Human in A Digital World. Cambridge University Press. (all publication rights remain with the publisher. For a final version with page numbers, please consult the book)

The full-scale invasion and partial occupation of Ukraine by Russian forces in February 2022 onwards is atragedy first and foremost for the people of Ukraine. The invasion illustrates the importance ofintersecting and diverse interdisciplinary perspectives on territory, politics and governance within andbeyond Ukraine and Russia. Our editorial init...

According to the United Nations, schools' closures have impacted up to 99 per cent of the student population in low and lower-middle-income countries. This research-in-progress report introduces a project on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) measures in the ten member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) with a focus on the applicati...

This chapter takes a spatial approach to urban surveillance of women’s clothing in Iran through a historical overview of hijab regulations after the 1979 revolution and the threat of automating such controlling measures. The research defines the forceful implementation of compulsory hijab as a case of spatial injustice, since it regulates, bars, an...

According to the United Nations, schools' closures have impacted up to 99 per cent of the student population in low and lower-middle-income countries. This research-in-progress report introduces a project on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) measures in the ten member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) with a focus on the applicati...

As the world seemed undecided in praising China’s crisis management through what was formerly called networked authoritarianism (MacKinnon 2011), countries such as Iran showed no interest in extending its notorious political surveillance practices into the public health arena. Consequently, this paper asks if the umbrella term “authoritarian survei...

This research starts its journey from a video that failed to be published during the 2009 uprising in Iran. By following data outside the common trajectories of data circulation in the global North, this paper offers new geographical and data imaginations neglected by the universalised understandings of data and its political economy. Consequently,...

Telegram messenger, created by an exiled Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, brands itself as a non-mainstream and non-Western guarantor of privacy in messaging. This paper offers an in-depth analysis of the challenges faced by the platform in Iran, with 59.5% of the population using its services, and in Russia, where Telegram is popular among the ur...

The drug problem has always been granted a national-level priority in Iran since the Islamic Revolution, with the exception of the Iran–Iraq War period. Drug management has been mostly in the hands of officials with security or judicial backgrounds, leading to the dominance of policies with a leaning towards law enforcement. Although those mandated...