Satellite cities turned to ghost towns? On the contradictions of Morocco’s spatial policy

ABSTRACT

A megaproject of new cities was launched in Morocco in 2004. According to public discourses, it was aimed at easing congestion in big cities and address the considerable deficit in social housing. A decade later, the recorded achievements appear much lower compared to the declared ambitions, to the point of provoking strong political and social oppositions. An analysis of the megaprojects’ implementation sheds light on the contradictions in the megaproject's objectives, seen through the example of the new city of Tamesna.

KEYWORDS:

• Satellite cities
• Morocco
• urban governance
• planning
• social mix
• neoliberalism

Acknowledgments

This paper is part of the collective research project Géopolitique de la lutte contre l’étalement urbain, funded by the Agence nationale de la recherché (ANR-16-CE22-0001).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the French National Research Agency under Grant ANR-16-CE22-0001 (project Géopolitique de la Lutte contre l’Étalement Urbain).