SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN ALGERIAN YOUTH. ARTICULATION OF RESISTANCE AND POLITICAL REPRESENTATIONS

This paper will focus in urban youth's strategies of political identification and participation in Algeria. It will analyze Algerian Youth's participation in debates on national identity and their use, modification and transformation of political representations in the last decade (after Civil War) as well as the current context of popular pro-democracy movements of Arab Spring. It will be composed of two sections: 1)Algerian youth's adoption and transformation of socio-historical representations (arguably Arabist vis à vis colonized and Islamist vis à vis occidentalized francisé) and debates on national identities. How do Algerian Youth respond to sociopolitical representations? How do they transform them? 2)Tensions of new social and political representations. This section will examine Algerian youth's participation in current popular movements for democratic change. What are the messages articulated by Algerian youth in the current demonstrations - since January 2011? Do youth's vindications coincide with other social movements' (as Syndicate and political parties) or can be distinguished as 'youth specific'? Can we distinguish between articulated messages by youth students and non-students' demonstrations? Are there different kind of messages of resistance or diverse politicall representations in youh movements?