- 29 Apr 2015
Re-reading The Revolutionary Processes in Tunisia: When Marginality Turns Into Opportunity for Resis
Abstract:
The observation and analysis (assessment) of the revolution processes in Tunisia, must take into consideration three principal elements (actors, spaces, chronology), which draw together a dynamic map of the revolution displaying a direct correlations between the processes of spatial (enclosure and distance), economic (investments, infrastructures and development), and social (poverty, unemployment and exclusion) marginalization, and the dynamics and processes of the revolution. One evidences here: the revolution processes went on first in the marginalized and marginal regions (South, Center and West of the country and big cities’ working-class suburbs), and was led, at first, by marginalized and poor population.
The concept of marginalization must be considered here as continuous processes of “accumulation by dispossession” that operate within the framework of the double competition over resources and services between social groups, territories and economic sectors. Thus, one could say that marginalization of several social groups and territories has turned into opportunity for resistances and protests that have been proliferating and accumulating over the years.
Dr Ayeb will deconstruct common discourses about the Tunisian revolution, highlighting the structural and the “longue-durée” elements, which led to the uprising and the revolutionary processes on-going in Tunisia, to illustrate their various interconnected factors and actors and especially to explore the place and role of poor and marginalized populations.
About the Speakers
American University of Cairo and University of Paris 8
Habib Ayeb is a Tunisian geographer, professor and researcher at the University of Paris 8 (France) and the Social Research Center – American University in Cairo (SRC – AUC). His research focuses on the dynamic relationship between natural and material resources rights (including water and agricultural land) and the mechanisms of impoverishment and social marginalization. His research fields are mainly concentrated in Egypt and Tunisia, with some incursions in other areas such as India and Morocco. Among his publications are Ayeb H., & Bush R., 2012, Marginalities and Marginalization In Egypt; Zed Books, London (Arabic version is published by Dar al-Ain, Cairo, 2012) and Ayeb H., Water in the Arab Countries : Global Perceptions and Local Realities (Spanish version is published by Casa Árabe, Madrid, Spain, 2011).
