Abstract:
The 2011 “Arab Spring” which started in Tunisia and spread to the rest of
North Africa and the Arab Middle East has opened a potentially democratic space,
triggering what this work calls the process of ‘de-marginalisation’. In the wake of the
historic uprisings formerly marginalised groups – unemployed youths, women,
students, workers and Islamists – find themselves negotiating their fate in the new
space which has opened up.
Embarking on a fieldwork research in Tunisia, this thesis employs a nuanced
theory of culture to unpack emerging narratives. It does so by decoding four salient
symbols and metaphors which strike a chord in Tunisians: Habib Bourguiba, the
Constitution, the ‘Sixth Caliphate’ and the Personal Status Code. Through a textual
analysis, this work uncovers how solidarity, exclusion, humanisation, dehumanisation,
tolerance and justice function in Tunisian society. The conflicts
surrounding these symbols articulate citizens’ demands for a profound democratic
sharing of the civil space amid fresh fears about a looming radicalisation of society. By examining how the 2011 events have challenged analytical assumptions
on a “backward” culture in the region this thesis identifies the articulation of such
ideas in European Union policy towards its southern neighbourhood, namely the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Denouncing the EU’s tacit support to the fallen regimes, the ethos of demarginalisation
calls for EU policy which supports political reform through solidarity
and rapprochement. In practice, the democratisation process in Tunisia needs
buttressing through financial aid coupled with conditionality so that Tunisia may
sustain its democratising momentum.
