Mobilization Without Organization: Grievances and Group Solidarity of the Unemployed in Tunisia*

Abstract

<jats:p>The article investigates the role of social grievances, emotions and group solidarity in the spontaneous mobilization of unemployed university graduates in post-revolutionary Tunisia. Using a mixed method approach, I rely on interviews with political and civil actors conducted during fieldwork in 2018, protest event data from the Armed Conflict and Event Data Project, Facebook posts, and secondary literature including additional media reports. My findings indicate that in January 2016, unemployed citizens organized autonomously in response to perceived social grievances and increasing levels of corruption among established trade unions and unemployed organizations. In the case of Tunisia, shared feelings of relative deprivation, compared to the coastal regions, strengthened in-group solidarity among the unemployed in the interior and south and resulted in their collective mobilization.</jats:p>

Mobilization, Repression and Policy Concessions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Cases of Egypt and Jordan

“…According to Clark (2010: 115) ‘resources, specifically recruits, stand out as the most powerful factor in determining the success or failure of coalition formation’. Similarly, Jöst (2020: 265) demonstrates, how in the case of the January 2016 protest events in Tunisia, trade unions and religious organizations were helpful in becoming ‘mobilizing actors’ (McAdam et al, 1996 in Jöst, 2020). They were able to provide the necessary organizational infrastructure to unite different and fragmented social groups, and were hence able to encourage mobilization.…”