Existential Mobility Through Cohabitation: Students and Young Professionals Creating and Crossing (Normative) Space in Post-Uprising Tunis

Abstract

Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork in Tunis (2015–2020), this article explores how cohabitation temporarily enhances the existential mobility of a self-proclaimed minority of Tunisian students and young professionals in post-uprising Tunis. It demonstrates how cohabitation, as long as it aligns with their romantic and professional desires and aspirations, gives these men and women the feeling of “going somewhere” in life, helping them avoid its opposite—a sense of existential immobility. Cohabitation underpins their liberal secular sense of personhood and serves as a crucial avenue for carving out (normative) space for a lifestyle that most Tunisians consider immoral and to create a “home away from home” where they feel they can be themselves, develop their relationships, and live their (love) lives more freely. This space not only increases their sense of belonging but also reinforces their belief that a better future is attainable without leaving the country. However, when their desires and aspirations shift along their life trajectories, marriage often emerges as a strategy to regain their sense of movement towards a better life and a place to feel more “at home”—either within or outside of Tunisia’s borders.