Protest Campaigns in Tunisia during the First Democratic Legislature (2014-19): A Cultural Turn and the Limitations of a New Generation of Activists

This communication analyses the cultural turn in youth activism in Tunisia, expressed in a series of protest campaigns during the first legislature of the post revolution democratic parliamentary experiment (2014-2021). Based in interviews, we first present the specificity of campaigns as a repertoire for protest actions. Secondly, we describe how a new generation of young activists challenged government decisions. Thirdly, we show that these mobilizations are mostly ad hoc and driven by micro-networks of left-wing activists who champion a new protest culture based internally on the horizontality of participation and decision-making; and externally on the use of innovative performances within a classical repertoire of action