Youth Activism in Morocco: Exclusion, Agency and the Search for Inclusion

The existing literature on youth participation shows that there is a noticeable tendency of weak participation in formal politics among Moroccan youth. However, it does not tell us much about the alternative modes of youth engagement. During the past two decades, youth have been expressing their positions and views by occupying new spaces outside the formal sphere. They participate in marches, organize sit-ins and post their ideas on blogs. In other words, the youth “do politics in a different way,” not mainly through the formal modes of political participation. This paper will first shed some light on the existing spaces of formal and informal political participation. Then, it will explore how the contextual realities shape the perceptions and meanings of the experience of “being young.” The third section will analyse how the youth engage in politics and the factors that promote or inhibit their participation. Finally, the paper will discuss youth agency and transformative impact on society, specifically in relation to policies that are affecting them directly.