Political socialisation and intergenerational transmission: life stories of young social movement activists in Morocco

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since the 2011 protests and uprisings, a plethora of studies on young people's political participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been published. Remarkably, the concept of political socialization was hardly used in this research. But for MENA area studies, and for the humanities and social sciences in general, it remains a central question how subjects socialized under authoritarian rule develop democratic orientations and critical political subjectivities, how they are suddenly induced to protest, often even risking their lives. Against this backdrop, the article makes the case for a biographical and generational approach to research the political socialisation of young people in the MENA region. Based on life stories with social movement activists in Morocco, the article looks into processes of intergenerational transmission and intragenerational communication that are relevant for the emergence of political orientations and for the process of becoming an activist. An in-depth analytical contrast of three biographies along the lines of collective memory, gender, formal education, and symbolisation illustrates different dynamics of intergenerational transmission in political socialisation, namely continuity, negotiation, and disparity.