Performing (against) the state

ABSTRACT

The reformation of the Arab state in neoliberal times has produced the narratives of the withdrawing versus intervening state. This article complicates these binary notions by taking seriously both top-down and bottom-up state practices in the realm of employment in Tunisia. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of precarious workers’ collective actions, it shows that the precarization of labour relations was structured by state actors’ arbitrary acts for and against a new state image in a neoliberal direction before and after the Uprising. Importantly, bottom-up mobilizations have criticized, challenged and attempted to correct these top-down state practices by performing their image of the state as a coherent entity that is bound by laws and protects the right to decent work.

KEYWORDS:

• Tunisia
• Arab state
• protest
• neoliberalism
• precarization

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on the earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. While not within the scope of this article, existing studies on the state-capitalism nexus have challenged the idea of the retreat of the state in neoliberal contexts and discussed how the state became even more interventionistic by keeping traditional functions and taking new tasks such as indirectly nurturing individuals as self-governable subjects. See, for instance, Rose (1993); Lemke (2001); Odysseos (2010).

2. For instance, the ILO presents the high labour intensive approach as a way to contribute to job creations for poor people in developing countries and to the improvement of basic infrastructure, see https://www.ilo.org/public/french/employment/recon/eiip/invest.htm?fbclid=IwAR04l2bLxW-gEKvRWGdXG6LuLgmVeYZZv1mr94TQ45fey60fkdIKcC5vYWM.

3. Informal conversations with barn workers on the protest sites and the author’s field note, Tunis, 9 December 2020 and 11 March 2021.

4. In-person interview with an ex-barn worker, held on 4 June 2021.

5. In-person interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 16 March 2021.

6. Phone interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 15 December 2020.

7. Field note, Tunis, 11 March 2021.

8. Phone interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 16 January 2021.

9. In-person interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 11 March 2021.

10. In-person interview with a male barn worker living in Sidi Bouzid, held on 11 March 2021.

11. Ibid.

12. In-person interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 17 November 2020.

13. Phone interview with a female barn worker living in Medenine, held on 15 January 2021.

14. Field note, Tunis, 9 December 2020.

15. In-person interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 17 November 2020.

16. Phone interview with a female barn worker living in Medenine, held on 18 December 2020.

17. Field note, Tunis, 9 December 2020 and 11 March 2021.

18. Phone interview with a coordinator of the barn workers’ movements, held on 17 January 2021.

19. Informal conversations with barn workers on the protest site and the author’s field note, Tunis, 17 November 2020.

20. Field note, Tunis, 9 December 2020.

21. Ibid.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by Sookmyung Women’s University Research Grant [Grant number 1-2303-2019].