This book provides an accessible and up to date overview of the foundational issues about both emerging constructive understandings of the digital era and still hidden and ignored aspects that could instead be dramatically relevant in the future, in the process of a technological humanism. The book offers relevant scientific and ethical questions bringing together professionals and researchers, from different professional and disciplinary fields, who have a shared interest in investigating operative aspects of technological, digital and cultural transitions of humans and their capacity of building human societies. The challenges are clear but there is a lack of an epistemological, anthropological, economic and social agenda that would enable a drive to such transitions towards a technological humanism. This book provides an ideal platform for professionals and scholars, not only providing tools for problem analysis, but also indicating shared directions, needs and objectives for a common goal; the creation of new scenarios instead of the creation of fears and manipulated social imaginaria.

Why do Islamist groups ally with non-Islamist ruling elites? Islamists, people who want to islamize society by applying Islamic law (sharia) to all spheres of social, political and economic life, are often seen as opponents of existing regimes. They oppose regimes which tend to secularize their societies. However, particularly in transitional societies, Islamist groups have been shown to establish close ties with non-Islamists ruling elites which often take advantage of their support but subsequently suppress them, as soon as they outgrow them and gain a strong-hold on power. Given that Islamists are aware of the likelihood of suppression once they are no longer an asset, why do they accept coalitions with authoritarian governments? Is it for ideology or for personal interests and thirst for power? This work aims to answer these questions by studying and analyzing two cases: the Islamist students in Egypt during the 1970s and the Islah Party in Yemen during the 1990s. This book targets those interested in social movement theory and political Islam, democratization and authoritarianism.