Project description
Tunisian democracy after the Arab Spring
The Arab Spring in 2011 refers to a series of pro-democracy uprisings spread across several largely Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The EU-funded ConflictualDemocracy project will take stock of today’s situation. Focusing on Tunisia, it will study how conflictual democracy is consolidated locally, where the state meets the street, the space of contestation. The project will explore post-revolution Tunisia through urban studies literature on the political, feminist theories of the space, and the political geography literature on scale and topologies of power. The findings will shed light on the decentralisation of reforms and aid in the development of policy briefs and teach-in modules that increase female political participation in local governance.
Objective
The 2011 Arab uprisings were extraordinary events. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has long been understood as the bastion of authoritarianism, stifled markets and Islamic fundamentalism. The protestors who filled streets and city squares in 2011 disrupted these narratives. A decade after the uprisings, I propose to investigate whether politics leads to the weakening of democracy. In a context of deepening socio-economic inequalities, I explore this question from Tunisia, the country celebrated in foreign policy circles as ‘the only hope’ of the Arab revolutions. The hypothesis I aim to test is whether a conflictual democracy is being consolidated at the local level, where ‘the state’, the space of institutionalized politics, meets the street, the space of contestation. Through this fellowship, my research attends to whether and how conflictual democracy in post-revolution Tunisia which manifests at the intersection of municipalities as spaces of encounter, the gendering of these local governments, and the legal battles these decentralized entities have waged against the deconcentrated state. My research engages with three bodies of literature: the urban studies literature on the political, feminist theories of the space, and the political geography literature on scale and topologies of power. The conceptual innovation of this project lies in bridging political theory, urban studies, and feminist studies to theorize the dynamics of an unfolding conflictual democracy while being attentive to questions of gender, the perceived threat of political Islam and the legal aspects of politics. In addition to its theoretical rigor, I aim to build on my professional experience in policy circles and my knowledge of Tunisian politics to develop policy briefs about decentralization reforms, and teach-ins modules aimed at increasing female political participation in local governance.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions islam
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics topology
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
9000 GENT
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.