Genealogies of Infrastructure And

ANTI/THESIS 22 Spectacular urban futures are being con- structed at astounding and unprece- ANTI-THESIS A Tramway Called dented rates in Morocco. In recent years, Atonement: the North African Kingdom has embarked on a series of ambitious billion-euro proj- Genealogies of ects to overhaul the country’s infrastructure on a large scale, from the building of Infrastructure a high-speed train line linking Casablanca and Tangiers (LGV), to plans for the estab- and Emerging lishment of special economic zones such as Casablanca Finance City. These devel- Political opments are part of a larger vision of development – the Politique de Grands Imaginaries in Chantiers – initiated upon his ascent to the throne in 1999 by the current King Contemporary Mohammed VI, whose aim is to place the Casablanca country as the emerging economic and political powerhouse of the northwest Africa region. One such project – albeit much smaller in scale – inaugurated in December 2012, is the Casablanca tram- Cristiana Strava way. Futuristic-looking, glossy red tram- cars now slither silently through the city’s This article explores the role of infrastruc- is to contribute a brief account of the his- once loud and polluted boulevards, link- ture in the production of post-colonial torical genealogies behind such projects ing some of its most destitute neighbor- political imaginaries linked to mobility and argue for an understanding of infra- hoods in the east to the lush, exclusive and expectations of social justice. I focus structure as a site for the production of areas hugging the city’s beaches to the on how the building of the Casablanca future aspirations and political engage- west. As such, the new 32-kilometer line tramway opened up new ways for engag- ment for marginalized communities. had been hailed as the lifeline that would ing in political commentary and participa- bring modern transportation and social tion for a segment of the city that fre- Keywords: Morocco, infrastructure, mobil- integration to an increasingly congested,1 quently lacks the direct means for ity, affect, political imaginaries crime-ridden, and socially fragmented accessing power. In the process, the aim city. Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 ANTI/THESIS 23 Arriving in Casablanca to begin research in recent years infrastructure has received structural projects like the tramway are a month after the opening of the tramway increasing attention from anthropologists also indicative of new kinds of political line, I was able to directly witness the way and geographers who seek to understand imaginations and possibilities for engage- in which spaces and forms of mobility how the materiality of our late-capitalist ment available to ordinary people. Recent were impacted by the new line.2 Drawing world saturates “a particular politics of the work on the development of light rail in on ethnographic fieldwork material gath- present”, while constantly conjuring up the region, including Hanna Baumann’s ered over sixteen months during 2013- aspirations for the future (Appel et al.; article in this volume, illuminates the disci- 2014 with urban planners, local activists, Larkin; Miyazaki; von Schnitzler). By taking plining character behind such technolo- and the inhabitants of a lower-class into account the ability of materials to gies of governance. In what follows, I neighbourhood serviced by the tramway, function as what Hannah Knox has termed argue that looking at the different embod- in this article I set out to explore the role “the imaginative resources through which ied associations and ideas spurred by the of infrastructure in the production of political participation is structured” (374), tramway for one particularly vilified com- post-colonial political imaginaries linked we can expand the field of enquiry into munity is equally important for revitalizing to mobility and expectations of social jus- alternative modes of political experience discussions about political participation tice. More specifically, I am interested in and engagement outside the confines of and citizenship in the region. the way in which the Casablanca tramway conventionally defined arenas such as the opened new ways for engaging in politi- state or official institutions. Infrastructural Genealogies cal commentary and participation for a Commonly referred to as the country’s segment of the city that frequently lacks This article also aims to contribute to the poumon economique (economic lung), the direct means and channels for access- growing literature on the Middle Eastern Casablanca was initially developed by ing power. In the process, my aim is to and North African city which seeks to French colonial forces as a node for trade contribute a brief account of the histori- move beyond the established tropes of and industry, as well as a site for the exper- cal genealogies behind such projects exceptionalism, Islamic and/or “dual city”, imentation with modern forms of techno- and argue for an understanding of infra- or the more recent focus on “Dubaization” cratic urban planning and control structure not only as material form, but of urban centres in the region (El-Kazaz (Rabinow 289; Wright). Linked to the rest also as a site for the production of future and Mazur 151). Illustrative of this trend is of the country and the world by an exten- aspirations and political engagement for the work of Koenraad Bogaert, who looks sive road network and growing harbour, marginalized communities. at how new modes of governance and Casablanca was a focal point in the colo- state spaces are produced through pri- nial vision that divided Morocco’s territory Whereas in the twentieth century the vate-public models for urban develop- into utile and inutile (useful and useless), development of infrastructural projects ment in the case of the Bouregreg Valley based on a model of productivity that rel- was often studied as a marker of national- project in Rabat. Here I want to extend this egated the difficult-to-control Berber hin- ist and modernisation agendas (Mitchell), work and consider how such recent infra- terlands of the ʿarubiyya (countryside)3 to Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 ANTI/THESIS 24 increasing economic precarity (Abu- matic example of the fate that befell the and cosmopolitan clientele, the official Lughod; Rachik, Ville et Pouvoirs). In the urban margins in the postcolonial era. motivations cited by the authorities explic- postcolonial period, the Moroccan state Considered a laboratory for industrial and itly spoke of efforts to promote a more went through a period known as the Years housing innovation during the colonial “socially inclusive” city, albeit without nec- of Lead, when the late King Hassan II period (Rabinow 326), beginning in the essarily speaking to the causes behind fiercely repressed political contestation 1960s the neighbourhood experienced a existing exclusion (CASATRAM). This pre- (Slyomovics; Miller 162). Political scientists, prolonged period of population growth occupation with using the development anthropologists and historians have docu- and infrastructural dilapidation as the con- and implementation of a modern trans- mented how during this time infrastruc- sequence of political neglect and the dev- port network to create a more “socially ture played a central role in the regime’s astating impact of structural adjustment integrated” city was repeated by a public stifling of dissent. Abderahmane Rachik policies.4 Home to the now closed Derb relations representative of the tramway’s has referred to this approach as an exten- Moulay Cheriff Commissariat, one of the managing company during an interview in sion of the French colonial era’s militariza- most infamous urban political detention late 2013 (Taib). The spokesperson empha- tion of urbanism, or urbanisme de and torture centres created during the sized from the start that the planners had l’urgence, while Susan Ossman (30) has Years of Lead, in the local popular imagi- wanted to take advantage of this opportu- pointed towards how during this period nation the neighbourhood is synonymous nity to connect the “disadvantaged areas the building of new highways and monu- with repression and historical trauma. of the city” to the more affluent parts on mental administrative infrastructure, par- During the subsequent reconciliation pro- the Ain Diab beachfront – where the ticularly in Casablanca, was designed with cess, the neighbourhood was designated Morocco Mall as well as other upscale a double purpose: wide Hausmannian a “priority area” and recommendations hotels and shopping centres are located boulevards served as riot-proof cordons were made for a host of cultural projects – but also “to hospitals, public administra- around the city core, while imposing, with a view to “restoring dignity” to the tion and schools” (Taib). In fact, it was only monumental administrative buildings on community (El Bouih; Slyomovics; Strava). during the later phases of the planning, the urban margins would embody and When it was announced that a significant the spokesperson confirmed, that an project the power and presence of the portion of the new tramway line would extension had also been added to bring state (Rachik Casablanca; Bogaert The pass through the heart of Hay Mohammadi, the tramway to the main university cam- Problem of Slums). local residents began to speculate about pus in Casablanca’s southwest. This addi- motivations behind this decision. tion to the original plans was presented as One particular neighbourhood

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