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ABSTRACT
Tunisian youths form a significant constituent of Tunisian society demographically, politically, and socio-culturally. The hardship imposed on Tunisia by the neoliberal model in the 1980s, corruption and the government’s lack of economic vision has undermined the country’s economic status in recent years. However, youth’s role as drivers of change in political and socio-cultural terms has received little attention. Based on a fieldwork study in 2014 and a 2020 online survey, this paper analyses the Tunisian youth’s constituency and the extent of their political engagement and active citizenship and discusses their role in changing Tunisia’s socio-cultural landscape through their acquisition of a ‘glocal’ culture. Methodologically, the findings of the paper are drawn from primary data represented in the fieldwork research trips of 2014, and from various sources such as the World Bank and the Tunisian Electoral Commission. The research questions of this paper are threefold: first, how have Tunisian youths reacted to the Arab Spring? Second, what socio-political and economic factors have contributed to the marginalization of youth in Tunisia? Third, how can the political disengagement of youth inform an understanding of their character and Tunisia’s future direction?
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
2 Gérard Mauger, ‘La jeunesse n’est qu’un mot: A propos d’un entretien avec Pierre Bourdieu [Youth is only a Word: An Interview with Pierre Bourdieu],’ in Agora débats/jeunesses, 26 (2001): 137–142. https://www.persee.fr/doc/agora_1268-5666_2001_num_26_1_1924
3 UNWomen. ‘Historic leap in Tunisia: Women make up 47% of local government.’ 27 August 2018. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/8/feature-tunisian-women-in-local-elections
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Frances Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (New York: Ferrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2018), 10.
7 Ibid., 11.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., 13
10 Ibid., 5.
11 Ibid., 11.
12 Ruth Hanau Santinti, Limited Statehood in Postrevolutionary Tunisia Citizenship, Economy and Security (Palgrave: Macmillan, 2018), 48.
13 Hamid Dabashi, The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism (New York: Zed Books, 2012), 228.
14 Charis Boutieri, ‘Jihadists and activists: Tunisian youth five years later,’ OpenDemocracy, 29 July 2015. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/jihadists-and-activists-tunisian-youth-five-years-later/, para.12.
15 Ibid., para. 29.
16 Abdullah Aydogan and A.Kadir Yildirim, ‘The Economic and Political Dissatisfaction behind Tunisia’s Protests,’ 23 January 2018. https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/75334
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid
19 Ibid., para. 39.
20 Kathryn Woodward, Identity and Difference (London: Sage, 1997).
21 Johann Gottfried Herder, Herder on Social and Political Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969)
22 Ross Poole, Nation and Identity (London: Routledge, 1999).
23 Matt Kennard, ‘Neoliberals, not Islamists, are the real Threat to Tunisia,’ The Guardian, 1 April 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/31/neoliberal-islamist-tunisia-economy
24 Abdeljelil Temimi, ‘Symposium on Youth.’Trans. R. A. Judy, Boundary 2 39, no. 1 (2012): 114–35; Fadhel Kaboub, ‘The End of Neoliberalism?’ Journal of Economic Issues 47 (2): 533–544; Elif Kalaycioglu, Emel Akcali and Halit Mustafa Tagma, ‘“Taming” Arab Social Movements. Exporting Neoliberal Governmentality,’ Security Dialogue, special issue, The New Middle East: A Critical Appraisal 44, no. 5–6 (2013): 375–92; Gilbert Achcar, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of The Arab Uprising, trans. G.M. Goshgarian (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013); Beste Işleyen, The European Union and Neoliberal Governmentality: Twinning in Tunisia and Egypt,’ European Journal of International Relations 21, no. 3 (2015): 672–90, 674; Zouhir Gabsi. 'Tunisia’s Youth: Awakened Identity and Challenges post-Arab Spring', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 46, 1(2019):68–87, https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2017.1371000
25 Alcinda Honwana, Youth And Revolution in Tunisia (London: Zed Books Ltd, 2013. eBook Collection EBSCOhost (accessed 6 October 2016), 32.
26 Ben Hafaiedh Abdelwahab and I. William Zartman, ‘Tunisia; Beyond the Ideological Cleavage: Something Else,’ in Arab Spring: Negotiating in the Shadow of the Intifadat, ed., I. William Zartman (Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 2015), 51–79.
27 Mongi Boughzala, ‘Youth Employment and Economic Transition in Tunisia,’ Global Working Papers 51, no. 79 (2013), http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/01/youth-employment-tunisia-boughzala.
28 Bertelsmann Stiftung, ‘Tunisia Country Report’, http://www.btiproject.de/uploads/tx_itao_download/BTI_2014_Tunisia.pdf.
29 Gilbert Achcar, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of The Arab Uprising, trans. G.M. Goshgarian (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013).
30 European Commission, ‘Youth Social Exclusion and Lessons from Youth Work: Evidence from Literature and Surveys,’ https://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/youth/library/reports/eurydice-study-social-exclusion-2013.pdf, 14.
31 Carolina Viviana Zuccotti, Andrew Geddes, Alessia Bacchi, Michele Nori, and Robert Stojanov, Rural Migration in Tunisia: Drivers and Patterns of Rural Youth Migration and its Impact on Food Security and Rural Livelihoods in Tunisia (Rome: Food and Culture Organization of the United Nations, 2018); Lorenzo Kamel and Asli Selin Okyay, eds., Realizing Youth Potential in the Mediterranean Unlocking Opportunities (Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2018).
32 Işleyen, ‘The European Union and Neoliberal Governmentality: Twinning in Tunisia and Egypt,’ 674.
33 Michael Robbins, ‘Tunisia Five Years after the Revolution. Findings from the Arab Barometer,’ in Arab Barometer Country Wave IV Reports, 15 May 2016, http://www.arabbarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/Tunisia_Public_Opinion_Survey_2016_Democracy.pdf, 8.
34 Abderrahim, Tasnim, ‘Democracy in the Making: Youth and Local Governance in Tunisia, in Realizing Youth Potential in the Mediterranean: Unlocking Opportunities, Overcoming Challenges, eds., Lorenzo kamel and Asli Selin Okyay (Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2018), 47–68, 58.
35 Ibid., 60.
36 Frida Dahmani, ‘Tunisie: corruption et népotisme à tous les étages,’ Jeune Afrique, 5 April 2016. http://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/315318/politique/tunisie-corruption-nepotisme-a-etages/
37 According to Samir Annabi, a lawyer and a former president of the national anti-corruption body (as cited in Dahmani, ‘Tunisie: corruption et népotisme à tous les étages.’
38 Dahmani, ‘Tunisie: corruption et népotisme à tous les étages.’
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Zouhir Gabsi, 'Tunisian Youth as Drivers of Socio-Cultural and Political Changes: Glocality and Effacement of Cultural Memory? British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2020.1820856
42 Ibid.
43 Alasuutari, Social Theory & Human Reality, 123.
44 Stuart Hall, Who Needs Identity?’, in Questions of Cultural Identity, eds., Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay (London: Sage Publications, 1996); Richard D. Ashmore and Lee Jussim, eds., Self and Identity: Fundamental Issues (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke, ‘Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory,’ Social Psychology Quarterly 63, no. 3 (2000): 224–37, and Pertti Alasuutari, Social Theory & Human Reality (London: Sage Publications ltd, 2004).
45 Burke and Stryker, ‘Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory.’
46 Charles S. Maier, ‘Being there’: Place, Territory, and Identity,” in Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances, eds., Seyla Benhabib, Ian Shapiro, and Danilo Petranovic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
47 Maier, ‘Being there’: Place, Territory, and Identity.’
48 Ibid.
49 Thoits, Peggy A. and Lauren K. Virshup, ‘Me’s and We’s: Forms and Functions of Social Identities.” In Self and Identity: Fundamental Issues, eds., Richard D. Ashmore and Lee Jussim (New York: Oxford University Press), 106–133, 107.
50 Sheldon Stryker, Symbolic Interactionism: A Social Structural Version (Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings, 1980).
51 Stets and Burke, ‘Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory,’ 226.
52 Ibid.
53 Alasuutari, Social Theory & Human Reality, 122.
54 Ernesto Laclau, New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (London: Verso, 1990).
55 Susan Harter, ‘The Personal Self in Social Context: Barriers to Authenticity,’ in Self and Identity: Fundamental Issues, eds., Richard D. Ashmore and Lee Jussim (New York: Oxford University Press), 81–105.
56 Alasuutari, Social Theory & Human Reality, 122.
57 Ibid., 123.
58 Alasuutari, Social Theory & Human Reality, 23.
59 Joshua Meyrowitz and John Maguire, ‘Media, Place, and Multiculturalism,’ Society 30, no. 5 (1993): 41–48, 48.
60 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity (Oxford: Polity, 1991), 5.
61 Stuart Hall, ‘Cultural Identity, and Cinematic Representation.’ Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 36 (1989): 68–81, 68.
62 Michael Bruter, Citizens of Europe: The Emergence of Mass European Identity (London: Palgrave, 2004).
63 Rogers M. Smith, ‘Identities, interests, and the future of political science.’
Perspectives on Politics 2, no. 2 (2004): 301–312.
64 William James cited in Thoits and Virshup 1997, 107.
65 See Gabsi (2020).
66 Ibid.
72 See Carolina Viviana Zuccotti et al, ‘Rural Migration In Tunisia Drivers And Patterns Of Rural Youth Migration And Its Impact On Food Security And Rural Livelihoods In Tunisia’, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FOA), 2018.
73 Anecdotal evidence suggests that Tunisian women experience more sexual harassment and violence in post-Arab Spring Tunisia. However, such claims need to be confirmed with more rigorous and urgent studies.
74 Zouhir Gabsi, 'Tunisian Youth as Drivers of Socio-cultural and Political changes: glocality and effacement of cultural memory?' British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies:1–22, https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2020.1820856
75 Ibid., 14.
76 Ibid., 14.
77 Ibid., 15.
78 Zouhir Gabsi, ‘The Language of Hip Hop and Rap in Tunisia: Socio-Cultural Mirror, Authenticity Tool, and Herald of Change. The Journal of North African Studies 25, 4(2020): 545-571. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629387.2019.1634557
79 In my fieldwork visits to the southern region, especially the remote Berber towns of Chninni and Douiret, many of the young women in the late 30s and early 40s have expressed their desire to get married and have a family, but opportunities in finding prospective partners are rare due to the migration of men to the major cities.
80 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Washington, 2014), 10. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/753151468312307987/pdf/892330WP0REVIS0Box385377B000PUBLIC0.pdf.
81 Ibid., 11.
82 Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS), Youth Participation in Elections in Africa: An Eight-Country Study, December 2016, http://minds-africa.org/Downloads/MINDS%202016%20Youth%20Program%20Research%20Publication.pdf.
83 Ibid.
84 Marks, ‘Youth Politics and Tunisian Salafism: Understanding the Jihadi Current,’ 111.
85 Monica Marks, ‘Youth Politics and Tunisian Salafism: Understanding the Jihadi Current,’ Mediterranean Politics 18:1(2013), 104–111, 107, doi: 10.1080/13629395.2013.764657
86 Ibid., 108.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid., 109.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid., 110.
92 Marks, ‘Youth Politics and Tunisian Salafism: Understanding the Jihadi Current,’ 111.
93 Ibid., 111.
94 Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century (London: Penguin Books, 2006), 478.
95 Joshua Meyrowitz, No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaviour (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 15.
96 Ibid., 15.
97 Hasan Kosebalaban, ‘The Impact of Globalization on Islamic Political Identity: The Case of Turkey,’ World Affairs 168, No. 1 (Summer 2005): 27–37, 28.
98 Ibid., 28.
99 Jan Aart Scholte, ‘Global Capitalism and the State,’ International Affairs 73, 3 (I997): 427–452, 431.
100 Ibid, 431.
101 Kosebalaban, ‘The Impact of Globalization on Islamic Political Identity,’ 28.
102 Ibid., 28.
103 Ibid., 28.
104 W. Lance Bennett, Chris Wells, and Allison Rank, ‘Young Citizens and Civic Learning: Two Paradigms
of Citizenship in the Digital Age,’ Citizenship Studies 13, no. 2 (2009): 105–20, doi. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621020902731116; Ariadne Vromen, ‘Constructing Australian Youth Online,’ Information, Communication & Society 14, no. 7(2011): 959–80; Mark Chou, ‘Democracy’s Not for Me: The Lowy Institute Polls on Gen Y and Democracy,’ Australian Journal of Political Science 48, no. 4(2013): 485–94, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2013.841844; Philippa Collin, Young Citizens and Political Participation in a Digital Society: Addressing the Democratic Disconnect (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox, Running from Office: Why Young Americans Are Turned Off to Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015); Mats Ekström, ‘Young People’s Everyday Political Talk: A Social Achievement of Democratic Engagement,’ Journal of Youth Studies 19, no. 1(2016): 1–19; Lesley Pruitt, ‘Youth, Politics, Participation in a Changing World,’ Journal of Sociology 53, 2(2017): 507–513.
105 Pruitt, ‘Youth, Politics, Participation in a Changing World,’ 508.
106 Dan Woodman and Johanna Wyn, Youth and Generation: Rethinking Change and Inequality in the Lives of Young People (London: Sage, 2015).
107 See Pruitt, ‘Youth, Politics, Participation in a Changing World,’ and Gabsi (2019).
108 Ariadne Vromen, Michael A. Xenos, and Brian Loader, ‘Young People, Social Media and Connective Action: From Organisational Maintenance to Everyday Political Talk,’ Journal of Youth
Studies 18, no. 1(2015: 80–100.
109 Philippa Collin, Young Citizens and Political Participation in a Digital Society: Addressing the Democratic Disconnect (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 4.
110 ; Lawless and Fox, Running from Office: Why Young Americans Are Turned Off to Politics.
111 Pruitt, ‘Youth, Politics, Participation in a Changing World,’ 511.
112 Alex Oliver, ‘Lowy Poll on Gen Y and Democracy: What’s Going On?,’ The Interpreter 26 June 2013. Available at: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2013/06/26/Gen-Y-and-democracywhats-going-on.aspx (accessed June 2020).
113 Mats Ekstrom, ‘Young People’s Everyday Political Talk: A Social Achievement of Democratic Engagement,’ and Lawless and Fox, Running from Office: Why Young Americans Are Turned Off to Politics.
114 Johanna Bell, Ariadne Vromen, and Philippa Collin, ‘Rewriting the Rules for Youth Participation: Inclusion and Diversity in Government and community Decision Making,’ National Affairs Research Scheme, 2008, https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/rewriting_the_rules_for_youth_participation.pdf, 17.
115 Ibid., 58.
116 Ekström, ‘Young People’s Everyday Political Talk: A Social Achievement of Democratic Engagement, 1.
117 Ibid., 2.
118 Ibid., 3.
119 Ibid.
120 Ibid.
121 Ibid.
122 Ibid.
123 Pruitt, ‘Youth, Politics, Participation in a Changing World,’ 512.
124 Ibid., 511.
125 Chāb Tūnsi yasnaʿ sayyārah..Wa wizarat al-naql tujībuhu “Laysa min haqqina Tasnīʿ [A Young Tunisian Man Builds a Car … And the Ministry of Transport Answers “We Have no Rights to Manufacture,’ al-Hasad News, 12 August 2018, https://www.elhassade.tn/web/?p=17121.