Urban renewal and social development in Morocco in an age of neoliberal government

Abstract

In this article we argue that Morocco has experienced fundamental political change over the past decades. This transition however cannot be understood in terms provided by the mainstream narratives linking economic liberalisation to democratisation. Rather, transition reflects a shift towards authoritarian modalities of neoliberal government. We focus on how political power has been reconfigured into new forms of ‘hybrid’ government where ‘state’, ‘market’ and ‘civil society’ interact in novel ways, by discussing the political dynamics of high-end urban development and the rationales underpinning social development policies to explain how ‘poor people’ are integrated into the realm of the market.

Keywords:

• Morocco
• urban politics
• political change

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all our colleagues at the Middle East and North Africa Research Group (Ghent University) for their many insightful observations, ideas, critiques and comments over the last years. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

This point is also mentioned by Harvey (2006, p. 42). In addition we should observe that Morocco already had some type of market-based economy before the implementation of a Structural Adjustment Program in 1983. So some kind of class formation was already established, especially during the 1970s with the Moroccanisation of the economy.

Telquel, no. 390, 2009. Available from: http://www.telquel-online.com/390/index_390.shtml [Accessed 10 October 2009].

See http://www.tangercitycentre.com/project.html [Accessed 24 September 2010].

Oxford Business Group, 2010. Newsletter on Morocco: tourism on the up [online]. Available from: http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20101010053818 [Accessed 8 October 2010].

For more information, see: www.bouregreg.com.

It is true of course that the urban poor on several occasions joined the rallies of the larger Islamist movements. During the Iranian revolution for example, the poor took to the streets in support of the revolution when it was already in its final phase. The populist rhetoric of the Iranian clergy referring to the mustadha'afin (the downtrodden) is also mainly post-revolutionary (Bayat 2007).

See: http://www.social.gov.ma/fr

Recently, there has been talk about a new deadline (2015) in the Moroccan press as it becomes clear that the previous goals will not be met.

In total, 270,000 households were seen as being in slums, 212,000 of which were in 886 slums scattered over 83 urban zones. Eighteen of these 83 urban zones include 82% of all slum residents. The coastal cities in the triangle between Casablanca, Fez and Tangier have the biggest concentration of urban slums. Out of 886 slums, 509 (58%) have fewer than 100 households, 280 (31%) have 100 to 500 households while 97 (11%) have more than 500 households. Casablanca houses 25% of the slum population (World Bank 2006).

The Fondation Mohammed V pour la solidarité and the Fonds Hassan II pour le développement économique et social were created in 1999 and are active in many development initiatives. In addition to these royal foundations, the Agence de développement social (ADS) was founded in 1999 by the government and plays an active role in engaging slum-dwellers in relocation programmes and mediating between them and technical government institutions and private partners.