"Youthquake". The Genesis and Implications of Demographic Transition in the Middle East and North Africa

Edouard Conte (Ifpo)

Lundi 13 juin 2011, 18h

Amman, British Institute (CBRL)
102 Uhod str. Tla' al-Ali

The demographic transition underway in regions of the globe where Islam plays a major role raises complex issues as regards the interrelationships between fertility patterns, marriage practices, and civilizational change. Whereas societies in this vast territory until recently all presented total fertility rates above the world average, many have seen sharp falls in birth rates over the last generation, associated with rapid increases in the age at first marriage and the emergence of a significant nevermarried population. Still, the average age of populations may continue to decrease for years to come. In the Middle East and North Africa, as opposed to other parts of the world, these factors are, furthermore, accompanied by the persistence of high rates of consanguinity. The tensions thus generated are poised to have durable effects on gender relations, rules of descent, relations of hierarchy, and, overall, the definitions and processes of citizenship. They will thus bear decisively on sociopolitical organisation , even as they come to affect the symbolic orders of the societies considered.