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ID:
163458
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper examines Tunisian youths’ sense of identity and how it is influenced by the economic malaise that the country has experienced since the revolution; this is despite the relative success of the Arab Spring at inciting the country’s political transition to democracy. Although young people appreciate new-found freedoms of expression and association in post-Arab Spring Tunisia, the economy, acquiescent to the neoliberal model and weighed down with corruption and political marginalization, has deprived many of a dignified existence. The research reported in this paper surveys over 100 youth chosen from northern, coastal, central and southern parts of Tunisia. It examines how Tunisian youth view the Arab Spring in the context of unstable socio-economic and political environments. To most surveyed youths, the Arab Spring is a failure in socio-economic terms, but it is also an occasion to reassert their Tunisian identity.
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| 2 |
ID:
187002
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| Summary/Abstract |
The prediction that the nation of Tunisia would initiate a walk towards democracy was not on anyone’s mind. In the context of two draconian regimes and a colonial past, the 2010 Arab Spring brought significant changes to Tunisia, observable mainly in freedom of expression and association. This helped to create and shape a space wherein Tunisians’ daily lives reflect the cultural juxtaposition of an Islamic heritage with a secular propensity. This paper examines the content of Tunisian cultural memory from youths’ perspectives on the past, cultural icons, and nostalgia. It argues that Tunisian youths’ disenchantment with the socio-political life in Tunisia and its impact on their feeling of belonging hinges on a sense of fracture or discontinuity in the nation’s cultural memory, considered the blueprint of Tunisianité or national identity. The paper demonstrates that despite youths’ hybrid culture, influenced by ‘globalization’ and ‘glocalization,’ the majority of surveyed youth value, inter alia, family life, and identify with the Islamic culture and religion. Tunisia’s youth may know little of their pre-colonial and post-colonial history, but Tunisians should reengage with their young constituency through education and a cultural memory that binds generations. This will ensure that the Tunisian culture does not absorb western values and ideals in the name of progress.
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