Région et génération: Le Sud Algérien et les enjeux de la visibilisation du politique [Region and Generation: Making Politics Visible (Southern Algeria)].
Ratiba Hadj-Moussa
Refereed Article, 2019
Hadj-Moussa, R. (2019). Région et génération: Le Sud Algérien et les enjeux de la visibilisation du politique [Region and Generation: Making Politics Visible (Southern Algeria)]. Année du Maghreb (21), 165–179.
Southern regions in Algeria have been “tamed” through the creation of mediating political bodies that are based on cooptation and manipulation. It is only after a governance cycle that has lasted over 50 years that a new generation begins to demand change. What socio-political dynamics have prevailed in the central region of southern Algeria since the early 2000s? How to understand the raising political claims and their acceleration between 2011 and 2018, and what relationships between the political regime and the local population do they highlight? These are some of the questions this article seeks to answer. It emphasizes on the new ways in which the population define territory while calling for the recognition of full citizenship. Although the South is only one example of this profound and slow political transformation, it illustrates the emergence of the idea of “region” not so much as an identity than as a political reality.