Building democracies.The Mediterranean in transition across identity, culture and institutions

Alberto Tonini

Forum per i problemi della pace e della guerra (University of Florence)

Research/action and citizenship training course for North African students.

Main objectives of the project:

• To identify the theoretical and practical changes that have affected the category of "citizenship" in the pre and post Arab Spring through the experience and the eyes of women.
• To analyse the role played by women's movements (religious and not) during and after the Arab Springs and, more generally, within the processes of democratisation.
• To implement the understanding of the effects of the democratization processes in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, each differently but widely involved in political upheavals.
• To identify and estimate the specific needs of women and their agenda.
• To offer the tools to contribute to the empowerment of women's networks and groups in civil society by strengthening contacts and exchanges between religious and non-religious women, European and North African, strengthening the transnational dimension.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the support given by the international community (political and financial).
• To analyse the potential of new media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to facilitate women's participation in the democratisation processes and social and political conflict prevention.
• To disseminate the results in the political and academic communities and within the civil society, both in the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean and in Italy.