The transformation of youth cultural norms and values: a gendered analysis

The chapter reflects on the changes and continuities in the cultural norms and values related to gender roles, gender relations and the family, as expressed and lived by young men and women in five countries: Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia and Egypt. In doing so, the chapter focusses on the processes and practices of cultural innovation emerging among young Arab Mediterranean generations after the 2011 uprisings. The empirical analysis presented in the chapter relies on qualitative and quantitative data collected through an international youth survey and a multisite ethnographic fieldwork (SAHWA Youth Survey & Ethnographic Fieldwork 2016). Young people emerge as social actors able to cope with structural limitations and mechanisms of exclusion. At the same time, the analysis shows the different way of inhabiting the ambivalent condition of “waithood” by young women and young men in the region.