Home Institution
Washington University in St. Louis
Publication Date
Spring 2016
Abstract
The frequent metaphor of Tunisia as an island requires reevaluation. An island demands continuity unto itself, a feature that Tunisia distinctly lacks. Despite higher than usual levels of ethnic and religious homogeneity, Tunisia has historically maintained low levels of local-national interaction and accommodation. This analysis examines how the post-independence government of Habib Bourguiba sought to coax rural and agrarian communities into participation in the national identity and thereby promote continuity throughout the country via disruptive, large-scale government projects as part of the “modernity drive.” Specific attention is given to agricultural cooperatives and land collectivization in the 1960s. This analysis is further built on a case study of the application and lingering effects of such land policy in the village of Chebika – a rural mountain oasis of the Tunisian south representative of the closed off, subsistence based lifestyle common at independence.
Disciplines
Demography, Population, and Ecology | Near and Middle Eastern Studies | Place and Environment | Politics and Social Change | Public Policy | Regional Sociology
Recommended Citation
Sciford, Isaiah, "Life in the Collective Era: How Land Cooperatives Tried (and Failed) to Promote Local-National Integration in Tunisia" (2016). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 2377.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/2377
Included in
Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Public Policy Commons, Regional Sociology Commons
Program Name
Tunisia: Emerging Identities in North Africa