Karim Maiche, peace and conflict research
Asymmetric Civic Acts of Autonomous Trade Unions in Algeria
In my doctoral thesis, I examine the contribution of independent labour unions towards
democratic social change in Algeria. The activists of these unions are considered as actors
and their action in the public sphere is understood as civic acts. Therefore, citizenship is not
merely social institution but rather forms through acts of citizenship. This qualitative
doctoral thesis is based on field work combining ethnographic methodology with personal
interviews. Through the interviews I seek to understand the construction of narrative nodal
points as discursive formation of meanings made by individual subjects in larger Algerian
societal structures.