This book would not have been possible without the support of many people, to whom I would like to express my thanks and appreciation.
First of all, I would like to thank my first supervisor, Prof. Dr Jörg Gertel, who introduced me to geographical and sociological research on North African societies during my studies and encouraged me time and again to complete this project. He was always approachable and available for questions and discussions. I would also like to thank my second supervisor, Prof. Dr Rachid Ouaissa, who, as a proven Maghreb expert, agreed to be the second supervisor.
I would like to thank the staff of the organization “Enda inter-arabe” for their support in carrying out qualitative research in Tunisia. I would particularly like to thank Houda Laroussi, Ridha Ben Amor and Abdelwahab Benhafaïedh for providing me with contacts and important tips on the research project. I would also like to express my gratitude to all the people in Tunisia who were available for interviews and discussions. Finally, I would like to thank the staff of the irmc (L’Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain), whose extensive library I was able to use for my literature research at any time during my research visits.
I would like to thank the Middle East and North Africa department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the scientific advisory board of the study “Youth in the Middle East and North Africa” for the insights into the research process that I was able to gain as a member of this project and, of course, for the authorization to analyze the Tunisian data set.
I would like to thank the following people for their support in analyzing the data and useful advice on the first draft: David Kreuer, Hamdi Echkaou, Micha Fiedlschuster, Anselm Schelcher, and Kaïs Tahar. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support and patience and my friends for their interest and critical feedback.