‘Nothing will ever be the same again’. Personal commitment and political subjectivation in the 20 February Movement in Morocco

The Ordinariness of Ethics and the Extraordinariness of Revolution

“…They are seen as events existing in time and place that must be understood through experience. Debates around the notion of the moral breakdown as an extraordinary moment of ethical reflection where systems of morality are disrupted (consciously or unconsciously) remain generative, particularly in relation to revolutions (see Cole 2003; Vacchiano and Afailal 2021). Revolutions do not happen every day, even if their causes and the experience of them are necessarily everyday.…”

“…Narratives are shaped by and convey peoples moral and existential predicaments (Cole 2003, 122). For these reasons anthropologists have taken so readily to narratives as a way of apprehending people's sense of the moral and the ethical (Mattingly and Garro 2000; Mattingly 2014; Cole 2003; Kleinman 2006; Zigon 2009, 2010, 2012, 2018; Schielke 2015; Vacchiano and Afailal 2021). Zigon (2012, 205) has suggested that narratives constitute more than acts of meaning‐making per se; they offer a way of expressing “the embodied struggle to be morally with oneself and others in the social world,” and it is to this that I now turn.…”

Disengaging from political activism: A critical review of the literature

“…Commitment is also affected by another factor, which receives less attention in the social movement literature, namely collective action per se. Although collective action may strengthen the activist identity (Nepstad, 2004;Fillieule, 2012;Hirsch, 1990;Drury and Reicher, 2005;Vacchiano and Afailal, 2021), it may also foster disengagement. Failure to advance collective mobilizations' stated goals is often a traumatic experience, leading to feelings of disappointment, hopelessness or even despair (Verstergren et al, 2017;Karmel and Kuburic, 2021).…”

“…However, the global upsurge of mobilizations in late 2010 sparked substantial interest in the fate of the activists who participated in those waves of protest. This led to a proliferation of new studies on political disengagement (Beauchesne and Vairel, 2021;Menshawy and Al-Anani, 2021;Nez, 2021;Prado Galán and Fersch, 2021;Vacchiano and Afailal, 2021). Meanwhile, the literature on extremist organizations and political violence saw numerous new studies exploring activists' pathways to political disengagement (Bjørgo, 2011;Blee, 2016;Bosi, 2019;Della Porta, 2009;Horgan, 2009).…”

Jeunes tunisiens et processus de subjectivation politique

“…Par « subjectivisation politique », j'entends le processus de transformation du Soi porteur d'une perspective d'interprétation de la réalité dont le sujet est partie intégrante, permettant ainsi le « passage au politique » (Bayart, 2008). Tout comme Vacchiano et Afailal (2019), je pense que ce processus de subjectivisation marque le passage ou la transition de la condition d'assujettissement au pouvoir (ou aux pouvoirs) vers la prise de responsabilités personnelles, ainsi que vers l'action au sein de sa propre communauté politique (Fischer, 2007). L'intervention personnelle en politique implique une décision volontariste d'action sur le monde en vue demodifier les rapports de pouvoir ainsi que sa morphologie sociale.…”