Hybrid Spaces and Cultural Production among 'Young Activists' in Moroccan Academic Milieu

Based on an ethnographic fieldwork of spaces, practices and discourses of "young activist" in Moroccan academic milieu (University of Meknes), I propose to show how the University campus ¿ place both public and intimate allows the implementation of cultural and artistic practices questioning the way young people are preparing their "future" (mustaqbal), and therefore contributing to call into question the paradigm of "youthhood" as a generation of waiting (Honwana, 2014). Easier to access and more sheltered than other places of everyday life (coffee shops, family homes, the street), University campus becomes a privileged field for young people who make it a hybrid and heterogeneous use. Among covered corridors and small gardens next to the classrooms public debates are held around halqa ("circle", a form of popular theatre staged in the squares of the medinas), political imageries from the past (Abdessalam Yassine, spiritual leader of the Islamist movement Al Adl Wal Ishane) or from other contexts (Evo Morales, current president of Bolivia) are displayed, events otherwise forbidden elsewhere (the "cultural days", ayyam taqafiyya) are organized, finally various dress codes (the door of dreadlocks or niqab) are experimented. Having a concrete impact on the morphology of the University space, these cultural practices question us about the relationship that young people have with their daily environment, and, more generally, about the changes of imaginaries related to the Arab-Muslim city. In a country where challenging normative structures is illegal, the spatial conformation of the campus gives to the actors margins of autonomy allowing them to perform other lifestyles, while remaining in compliance with social norms. Finally, this paper underlines the importance of the perspective analysis of political activism and cultural heritage in the larger Mediterranean geopolitical context where takes place the encounter of not only different migration flows but also diverse cultural and social productions.Peer reviewe