Rogers Brubaker argues that “digital hyperconnectivity has changed just about everything.” He is a distinguished professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles and the author of numerous books, including his latest, “Hyperconnectivity and Its Discontents.” He joined Riada Asimovic Akyol on the Wider Angle podcast for a conversation about the various transformations brought about by this hyperconnectivity. 

For Brubaker, the “hyper” in “hyperconnectivity” means that “everyone and everything is connected to everyone and everything else everywhere and all the time.” While digital connectivity has a much longer history, he argues that hyperconnectivity dates to the end of the last decade, pointing to the start of nearly universal use of smartphones and social media in advanced societies.

Brubaker argues that despite the disappointment with the political and economic consequences of hyperconnectivity, there is still a vibrant enthusiasm about digital culture. But he thinks that we need to look critically at the excitement about the abundance of digital culture, including its democratizing effects on society. 

Listen to the conversation to hear the wider angle of what our digital future might look like, as Brubaker shares his ideas about what a genuine democratization of cultural creativity and politics could look like, how hyperconnectivity has transformed how we learn politically relevant knowledge, and the emergence of a new social infrastructure, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has made these ideas only more important. 

The program is available wherever you listen to podcasts or on New Lines Magazine's YouTube channel.

Wider Angle is produced and hosted by Riada Asimovic Akyol.

While traditional autocrats and their “fear dictatorship” model, prevalent in the 20th century, have not disappeared, some scholars argue that a new type of tyrant arose toward the end of the last millennium. Among them is Daniel Treisman, a political scientist and author of several books, including the latest one “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century,” which he co-authored with Sergei Guriev. Treisman joined Riada Asimovic Akyol in a conversation about this new kind of dictator, who in contrast to ruthlessly repressive tyrants of the 20th century who “boasted about their violence in public,” have evolved. Treisman summarizes their mode of operating: “by manipulating information, by co-opting the media, presenting a distorted version of reality. …  So, instead of terrorizing people into submission, they fool them.”

Treisman and Guriev argue that what holds back the would-be spin dictators, at least in more developed, highly educated societies, is the resistance of the so-called “informed” part of the population. 

“We see a highly educated, internationally connected, sophisticated society as the crucial defense,” Treisman explains in the podcast. “That means journalists, lawyers, civic activists, civil servants, academics and many others who have the skills to communicate and organize to resist the would-be dictator.” Hence, this group of people “with that kind of human capital and resources” represents one of the main challenges for the spin dictators who target “the informed” in order to prevent them from mobilizing the public and the opposition.

There are specific contexts and political conjunctures that can make a spin dictator switch (back) to a fear dictator. Treisman explains Vladimir Putin’s rule in Russia in that context and more specifically how various changes in that regime’s internal composition impacted Putin’s shift to very undisguised repression.

Listen to the conversation to hear the wider angle of new challenges to liberal democracies, the suggested policy approach of “adversarial engagement” toward spin dictators and how to make sure that Western democracies don’t “sink into spin.” It is also available on YouTube.

“When I did become a pilot, I realized that I was having an experience of the cities that was unlike any that I could have ever imagined … it’s a very evocative view of civilization,” says Mark Vanhoenacker, a commercial airline pilot, a writer and the author of three books, including his latest, “Imagine a City.” He joined Riada Asimovic Akyol in a conversation about modern travel and “the kind of unique way a pilot might start to organize the world’s cities when we’ve gone to so many that it can sometimes be hard to keep track.”

More than half of us live in cities, Vanhoenacker explains, and by 2050, two thirds of the world’s population will. He has still been to only around a quarter of the 548 largest cities on the U.N.’s list, but the breadth of such traveling allowed him to notice the enormous changes in various cities throughout his 20 years as a commercial pilot. He cites, for example, the speed of change of the Gulf cities’ skylines and the transformation of accessibility in Delhi thanks to the expansion of the subway network for the city’s metropolitan region. 

Listen to the conversation to hear the wider angle of “connections between different parts of the world,” the nuances of traveling as an ordinary traveler or as a pilot or writer, and the effect such a job has on the perception of home. “Airplanes that actually allow us to physically be somewhere else have really changed our sense of the planet … that can’t be undone, and we should focus on the good things it does for us,” says Vanhoenacker.

 This episode was produced and hosted by Riada Asimovic Akyol.