Informality and state-society relations in post-2011 Tunisia

The 2010–2011 uprisings in Tunisia exemplify the mutually reinforcing discourses on redistribution—the expansion of socio-economic rights—and recognition, with claims of personal dignity and social esteem. In 2010–2011, these narratives have been framed together and have generated significant mobilizations, something which in successive waves of protests has failed to materialize to the same extent. This chapter looks at how struggles for redistribution are locked into struggles for recognition by examining the politics of informality in marginal areas of the country. In those areas, standard social injustice claims are coupled with frustration over a lack of recognition and, in particular, of alternative visions of the state and state-society relations. The chapter also claims that the post-2011 political system has failed to accommodate injustice in a transformative way, that is, modifying the modes of production and eradicating the origins of the distributive injustice. While the state has been limiting its action to providing some form of affirmative remedies that do not impact upon the underlying conditions these inequalities stem from, social unrests continue to occur.