This paper proposes a first analysis of an oral history survey conducted between 2009 and 2011 in the frame of the research program " Cooperation time in Maghreb ". The survey mainly consisted in about sixty filmed interviews, conducted with men and women trained in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences, former cooperants in higher education in the postcolonial Maghreb. The analysis aims at understanding how young intellectuals have combined scientific and activist commitments while confronting postcolonial transitions. At a more global level, it also allows to observe how the social sciences, at a time of intense intellectual ferment, have found their way into these transition process.
