EtnoAntropologia, 9 (1) 2021 - ISSN 2284-0176 Shaping the future(s) Civil society and itineraries of personal commitment in Tunisian democratic transition Giovanni Cordova Abstract. The Arab Spring has forced observers to associate the southern shore of the Mediterranean with social and political dynamism, even though a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the whole area. The present contribution is dedicated to processes of civic and political participation occurring in Tunisia. These processes of political subjectivation present an evident reference to the speculative imagination of the future. By considering the biographies of social actors, I will focus on itineraries of personal commitment, which take shape within the framework of the heterogeneous Tunisian civil society. Keywords: Tunisia, civil society, political subjectivation, future, ethnography. 1. Introduction. The crisis and the future The Arab Spring has forced observers and researchers to associate the southern shores of the Mediterranean with social dynamism and the emergence of original ideas of the future [El Houssi 2013; Haugbølle, Cavatorta 2012], even though a great deal of uncertainty hovers over the whole area. Ten years later, the uprisings that inflamed North Africa and the Middle East, also triggering social movements and political mobilisation around the world [Werbner, Webb, Spellman-Poots 2014], seem not to have brought the desired results. These uprisings have, rather, rarefied into oppressive forms of life marked by persistent political repression and economic slumps, crushed in a present apparently devoid of a prospective outlook on the future. This contribution is based on ethnographic research in post-revolutionary Tunisia. The research took place during my PhD course and involved