Associations and unemployment in Tunisia. Labor policies and integration strategies in the Kasserine’s development arena

Abstract

This article analyses the dynamics of the configuration of an internationalized ‘development arena’ in the city of Kasserine based on citizens’ support
for employment. Notably, it highlights the transformation of such ‘arena’
according to the specific logics linked to the job opportunities opened up
by the associative sector emerged after the fall of the Ben Ali regime. The
issue of employment is not only treated through the study of associations’
projects but also the analysis of the job opportunities offered by the associative
life. First, based on the analysis relational dynamics between associations,
the State, and the international donors, the article outlines the analytical
framework for analysing this development arena. Secondly, it shows how in
the specific context of Kasserine activists’ strategies of insertion in the job
market and their condition of ‘unemployed’, paradoxically divert the State and international actors’ policies for employment as well as the objectives
of the associative projects themselves.