This paper is part of a larger research project analyzing the linkages between processes of postcolonial state-building in the Maghreb, land tenure and property regimes, the types of conflict that arise from the tensions between them and the forms of resistance these tensions elicit. More specifically, this paper addresses the changing state-society relations in Tunisia from the perspective of the margins. Since the uprising of the Tunisian people in 2010, there has been a momentous rise of political an social mobilizations that are sustained by marginalized segments of the population. I focus particularly on the rise of mobilizations that are linked to issues of land tenure and property in relation to resource extraction and environmental degradation. By centralizing the mobilization of marginalized people, this paper reconsiders the weight given to urban and middle-class led forms of mobilization. People in impoverished areas – whether in rural or urban contexts – were and are at the forefront of different forms of protest. Hence, the ‘margins’ and the ‘marginalized’ constitute important sites of political change and social transformation. Based on original fieldwork data collected by the team of researchers (comprising two pre-doctoral researchers, two postdocs and two established researchers), this paper reflects on how marginalized communities resist processes of dispossession and challenge the state’s abilities to define property rights.