Filling the Urban Space after Authoritarianism in Tunisia. The Case of Islamic Activism in Sfax

This chapter aims to reflect on the notion of space and its relationship with power by analyzing how the city contributes to shaping the organization and development of those socio-political forces excluded before the Revolution. Indeed, the liberalization of the public sphere after 2011 allowed for the reactivation of the material and symbolic resources of grassroots Islamic actors, who emerged as a socio-economic and political “counter-power” after the fall of the regime. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the city of Sfax, this chapter scrutinizes the role of space in tracing the dynamics of mobilization of an urban Islamic network rooted in the social fabric and which has undergone a process of transformation in the past 10 years.