What can a North African country teach us about democracy in crisis? Taking readers inside a ground-up reading of the Tunisian Revolution, this study reveals how ordinary people reshaped political life and why their experience matters far beyond Tunisia's borders. By looking closely at this understudied case, Charis Boutieri challenges familiar ideas about what revolutions are, how democracy works, and the dynamic relationship between the two. Speaking Freedom offers a vivid and accessible way to rethink political change in our own time, and provides not only a powerful narrative but also a systematic framework for reimagining how to support democratic participation. At a moment when democracy is faltering worldwide, this book argues that the Tunisian experience holds urgent lessons, showing that even in times of crisis, people can reinvent the public sphere and reimagine political possibility.
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A ground-up reading of the Tunisian Revolution that redefines how we understand revolution, democracy, and the relationship between them.
Chapter
1. My Word is Free (kelmti horra);
Chapter
2. The Art of Public
Speaking;
Chapter
3. The Ciné-Club Discussion;
Chapter
4. Scandals of Free
Speech;
Chapter
5. Intimate Publics;
Chapter
6. Strangers in a Changing Place.
Charis Boutieri is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at King's College London, where her research focuses on public life and politics. She is author of Learning in Morocco: Language Politics and the Abandoned Educational Dream (2016) and co-editor of special issues on contemporary North Africa (The Journal of North African Studies, 2018) and Public Reason (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2025).
