Anti/Thesis 22

Spectacular urban futures are being con- structed at astounding and unprece- Anti-Thesis A Tramway Called dented rates in . 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 infrastruc- ture on a large scale, from the building of Infrastructure a high-speed train line linking and Tangiers (LGV), to plans for the estab- and Emerging lishment of special economic zones such as . 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 - 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 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 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 , 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 became another way of providing a social service both mythicized and vilified during this Unlike similar mega-projects developed in to the city’s many university students. period in which infrastructure was meant recent years, such as the exclusive to serve the powerful. Hay Mohammadi Morocco Mall or Casa Marina complexes While this public works view of infrastruc- has come to be considered a paradig- which aim to attract a wealthy, moneyed, ture development was generally wel-

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 Anti/Thesis 25

comed by marginalized communities now read by inhabitants as finally bringing the were frequently so overcrowded that peo- served by the tramway, inhabitants from community into the urban fold, the stark ple had to stand on the steps), the smells Hay Mohammadi in particular saw the new contrast with existing forms of transport and textures, and overall negative affect means of transport as a veiled form of and local infrastructure also threw into a associated with these mobile spaces were reparations for the ghettoization and bru- new light the spatialization of class across frequently cited by both local men and tal political violence suffered by these the city, and allowed those of my infor- women to evoke and comment on their working class areas during the Years of mants on the lower end of the socio-eco- sense of indignity and exclusion. This Lead period. Although significantly subsi- nomic spectrum to comment on the elu- affect permeated frequent comments dized through both public and private sive but very present class differences that such as “not even animals (hayawanat) funding, the price of a one-way tramway marked Casablancan spaces. should be transported this way”, or ironic ticket (6 DH or around 0.60 €) remained talk that gave the shared taxis the moniker out of reach for many of these inhabitants. A Tramway Called Atonement? taxi al-ḥubb (love taxi) because of the way As a consequence, most people rode the Sitting with Sara5, one of my close inter- in which passengers were squeezed tramway for special occasions, or on week- locutors, one afternoon in 2013 in her fam- together (Sara). end outings to the beach, treating it as ily home near Hay Mohammadi’s old core, one would a special gift. While this situa- which the new tramway line now skirted, The arrival of the tramway seemed to tion changed visibly over the course of the she pleaded with me not to take the bus assuage these feelings, especially for my following years, the tramway retained anymore, and instead use either the informants in Hay Mohammadi. Firstly, traces of this aura, predominantly for my shared taxis or the tramway. Recounting locals like Sara frequently cited the mate- informants from Hay Mohammadi. stories about her school days, she insisted rial presence of the upgraded roads along that buses were neither a clean nor a safe the line, the new network of street lighting, In what follows I want to unpack the link way to travel. Not only that, but for women, the glossy red cars, and modern electronic between the tramway’s materiality and the Sara went on to add, travelling on an over- platform displays in a place like Hay kinds of affective associations (Navaro- crowded bus meant exposing oneself to a Mohammadi as physical proof that the Yashin) and political engagements it variety of forms of harassment.6 Hay neighbourhood had been symbolically enabled for marginalized communities. Mohammadi and adjacent areas have of redeemed from its previous politically- Politics here is understood in its expanded course been and continue to be linked to motivated marginalization.7 Secondly, the sense to mean the situated relationships the rest of Casablanca by an extensive net- modern, light, clean and airy spaces of the and mundane processes that enabled or work of public buses as well as shared tramway and the different embodied constrained the right to the city for a spe- taxis. The advanced state of dereliction of forms of mobility they fostered allowed cific group of people (de Certeau; these other means of transport, their ordinary inhabitants to comment on the Lefebvre; Larkin; Stoler). While the tram- unpredictable schedules, the close physi- well-known state of dereliction plaguing way’s presence in Hay Mohammadi was cal contact with others (popular bus routes other local means of transport and articu-

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 Anti/Thesis 26

late discussions about corruption and dys- The following ethnographic vignette illus- haps unintended consequence, Sara sug- functional local administrations. One such trates one way in which these dynamics gested, was that it underscored the differ- frequent discussion focused on the fact played out. Later that summer Sara invited ent positions inhabited by those who that already in the 1970s, ideas for devel- me on an outing to the beach. Similar to arrived in packed tramway cars at the oping a Metro line had been proposed, hundreds of other Casablancans from beach on Sundays, and those who impa- but owing to a combination of local places like Hay Mohammadi, we embarked tiently blared their horns at them from topography and structural limitations, on the tramway early in the day in order to their private automobiles. In noting these such as the difficulty to secure funding, be able to find a seat, and travelled to the failures of planning and their perhaps plans were shelved in the 1980s.8 terminus in Ain Diab. As we stepped out unintended effects, people like Sara Alongside this failure, questions about of the soundproofed capsule that had appeared to find an opening for articulat- how licenses were auctioned for the provi- smoothly delivered us there, we were ing the very real but often elusive realities sion of bus transport led my informants to greeted by the shimmering blue ocean linked to class differences that marked speculate that nepotism and favouritism framed by swaying palm trees and the Casablancan urban space. Unsurprisingly, had been used to ensure that certain bus overflowing bougainvillea masking the class in this case increasingly became operators received preferential treatment. high walls of the neighbourhood villas. indexed not in the mere access to infra- The tramways’ terminus sat at a perpen- structures and mobility, but also in the As local public transport infrastructure dicular angle to the wide, car-jammed ability to frequent particular spaces with- suffered from decades of de-funding and boulevard running along the length of the out quite literally rubbing shoulders with lack of maintenance, a common story beach promenade, or Corniche, but the social others. Indeed, upper-class inter- about who could afford not to utilise it planners had failed to install a signalled locutors, who were in the habit of driving emerged. Similar to transformations seen crosswalk for pedestrians.9 As a conse- to the beach on weekends, for their part elsewhere (Cass et al.), social mobility in quence, those who arrived by tramway claimed that since the tramway’s opening Casablanca became increasingly associ- had to wait for a halt in the flow of traffic in the Corniche had been flooded with peo- ated with the ownership of private cars order to attempt crossing the four-lane ple who clogged up the traffic and made and the growing enclavization of the road. Mothers with prams had to make a the area more populaire (classless, com- middle and upper classes (Cohen). The dash for the other side while cars swerved mon) (Saloua). tramway’s arrival, as stated by the local around them, loud horns filling the air. authorities, was meant to help undo this Commenting on the seemingly mundane process. However, the tramway’s incipient Echoing other opinions I had heard in Hay difference between public transport users success in addressing this socio-spatial Mohammadi, Sara saw this planning fail- and car owners allowed my lower class fragmentation also brought to the fore ure as typical of the type of shoddy work- informants to articulate thoughts on two existing class tensions. manship they had grown accustomed to levels. By pointing to the way in which the from the city’s authorities. A different, per- transport and planning authorities had

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 Anti/Thesis 27

Cristiana Strava failed to install a crosswalk, ordinary inhab- infrastructures that appear to succeed on tice. Drawing on these interpretations, I itants had a way of participating in discus- both a social and technical level. In this conclude that we should read this new is Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern sions about the local politics of technical article, I have argued that the new infrastructure as social justice not in the and International Studies at the Leiden expertise and its ability to provide safe Casablanca tramway can do just that, by sense that it unequivocally achieved it. Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Leiden and equal access to urban spaces for all. helping us examine how its incipient suc- Rather, infrastructural projects like the University. As a social anthropologist, At the same time, it also helped them artic- cess indexed and spoke to existing social tramway allowed those who saw them- she has worked on the transformation ulate thoughts about the spatialization of difference and historical trauma. selves as the victims of past state neglect of urban and social spaces in Morocco existing social distinctions in the city. As a and repression to formulate their griev- in particular, and is interested in the local graphic designer observed to me, Read by my informants in Hay Mohammadi ances in the language of social justice, a dynamics of social change in the region during the past decades Casablanca’s as a belated form of reparations, the tram- language that has been progressively more generally. Her most recent project middle and upper classes had progres- way brought into relief existing social frag- delegitimized by neoliberal discourses focused on the relationship between sively retreated into wealthy villa enclaves mentation, but it also opened up new that have led to the de-politicization of urban space, regulatory regimes, and along the Corniche. But the tramway had avenues for speaking about social and local struggles. the criminalization of lower class bodies now brought to them those they were political participation. As a new, clean and and practices as part of an increasingly retreating from. The mobility and proxim- safe, if not very economic means of trans- As such, the Casablanca tramway serves neoliberal socio-political landscape in ity of social others was thus perceived as port, the tramway became much more as a salient example of how infrastruc- Morocco. disturbing to the taken-for-granted social than just a new way of travelling in the city. tures, their materiality, and their ability to email: [email protected] order (McCallum), and suggested the Standing in for a foretaste of what the function as sites for the political (Nolte presence of a tacit struggle over not only future might hold for all Casablancans, the 443) by indexing certain ideas and affec- material but also symbolic resources, such tramway’s apparent success in promoting tive associations can open up new ways of as the prestige of frequenting previously a more socially inclusive urban experience engaging with the post-colonial, contem- exclusive urban areas. as well as its materiality became crucial for porary city. In an age increasingly marked the way in which conversations and ideas by the precarization of already vulnerable Conclusion about urban citizenship could now be urban communities, infrastructure might It has become commonplace to speak of framed and illustrated. help articulate a new language of political infrastructures as becoming visible only in participation and social recognition. moments of breakdown or rupture In spite of its small failures of planning, the (Elyachar). But what if working infrastruc- inhabitants at the lower end of the socio- tures can make visible ruptures and break- economic spectrum traversed by the downs in local social fabrics? We might tramway embraced it as a veiled form of then find equally salient moments of what reparations and as a way of fashioning might be deemed proper functioning and new forms of political participation and look at what we can learn from studying broadly formulating claims for social jus-

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 Anti/Thesis 28

Notes 4 In 2013 – 2014 Hay 7 An alternative reading Works Cited Cass, Noel, Elizabeth Shove, Mohammadi’s population might suggest that and John Urry. “Social 1 A common refrain heard was estimated at 140,000 instead of atonement, the Abu-Lughod, Janet. Rabat: Exclusion, Mobility and during my fieldwork was that people, inhabiting a surface tramway could be a form of Urban Apartheid in Morocco. Access.” The Sociological a private car was not a means of 4.2 square kilometres – a appeasement and a clever Princeton UP, 1980. Review, vol. 53, no. 3, 2005, of transport but a luxury. Even density of 33.33 inhabitants pre-emptive stifling of pp. 539-555. so, it was estimated that out per square kilometre. As potential dissent, reminiscent Appel, Hannah, Nikhil of a total 3 million vehicles a comparison, the of the emergency urbanism Anand, and Akhil Gupta. de Certeau, Michel, and registered nation-wide, neighbourhood abutting techniques of the past. An “Introduction: the Giard, Luce. The Practice of half were in circulation in Ain Diab, had a density of interesting comparison to this Infrastructure Toolbox.” Everyday Life. Translated Casablanca (Sabib). 6.5. For a statistical look would be the Cities without Cultural Anthropology, by Steven Rendall. U of at Casablanca’s different Slums (VSB) program. Further 24 Sept. 2015, https:// California P, 1984. 2 The research that this article neighbourhoods see work, beyond the scope of culanth.org/fieldsights/714- is based on was funded by Annuaire Statistique Regional this paper, would be required introduction-the- Cohen, Shana. Searching for a Wenner-Gren Dissertation du Grand Casablanca 2014. to test this hypothesis. infrastructure-toolbox. a Different Future: the Rise Fieldwork grant (2013-2014) Accessed 12 March 2018. of a Global Middle Class in and a UK ESRC grant (2011- 5 With the exception of public 8 These plans were unearthed Morocco. Duke UP, 2004. 2015). representatives, the names of once more in 2013 when Bogaert, Koenraad. “New my interlocutors have been the Casablanca City Council State Space Formation in El Affas, Aziza. “Casablanca 3 The term ʿarubiyya derives changed in order to protect announced plans to build an Morocco: the Example of renonce à son métro aérien”. from Moroccan dialect and is their privacy and identity. aerial Metro, only to retract the Bouregreg Valley.” Urban L’Economiste, 3 July 2014, used in previous publications that decision once more due Studies, vol. 49, no. 2, 2012, http://leconomiste.com/ in its local meaning of rural, 6 Despite these associations, to concerns over technical pp. 255-270. article/955958-casablanca- belonging to the countryside it goes without saying and financial feasibility (El renonce-son-metro-aerien. (Ossman, “Fashioning that a large number of Affas). ---. “The Problem of Accessed 28 February 2018. Casablanca”). Casablancans continued to Slums: Shifting Methods employ and rely on buses, 9 The situation remained of Neoliberal Urban Elyachar, Julia. “Phatic Labor, which were cheaper, for unchanged during a visit in Government in Morocco.” Infrastructure, and the their daily commutes and March 2017. Development and Change, Question of Empowerment in movements across the vol. 42, no. 3, 2011, pp. 709- Cairo.” American Ethnologist, sprawling city. 731. vol. 37, no. 3, 2010, pp. 452- 464. El Bouih, Fatna. Talk of Darkness. U of Texas P, 2008. El-Kazaz, Sarah, and Kevin Mazur. “Introduction to CASATRAM. Le Tramway de Special Section: The Un- Casablanca: Une année déjà. Exceptional Middle Eastern Casa Transports, 2013. City.” City & Society, vol. 29, no. 1, 2017, pp. 148-161.

––›

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018 Anti/Thesis 29

––› Haut Commissariat au Plan. Miller, Susan Gilson. A Rabinow, Paul. French Schnitzler, Antina. “Traveling Annuaire Statistique Regional History of Modern Morocco. Modern. Norms and Forms of Technologies: Infrastructure, du Grand Casablanca. Cambridge UP, 2013. the Social Environment. U of Ethical Regimes, and the Morocco, 2014, https://www. Chicago P, 1989. Materiality of Politics in hcp.ma/reg-casablanca/ Mitchell, Timothy. Rule of South Africa.” Cultural attachment/640385/. Experts: Egypt, Techno- Rachik, Abderrahmane. Anthropology, vol. 28, no. 4, Accessed 12 March 2018. politics, Modernity. U of Casablanca: l’Urbanisme 2013, pp. 670-693. California P, 2002. de l’Urgence. La Fondation K., Sara. Personal interview. Konrad Adenauer, 2002. Strava, Cristiana. “At Home September 2013. Miyazaki, Hirokazu. on the Margins: Care Giving Arbitraging Japan: Dreams ---. Ville et Pouvoirs au Maroc. and the ‘Un-homely’ among Knox, Hannah. “Affective of Capitalism at The End of Editions Afrique Orient, 1995. Casablanca’s Working Infrastructures and the Finance. U of California P, Poor.” City & Society, vol. 29, Political Imagination.” Public 2013. Sabib, Bouchra. “Circulation no. 2, 2017, pp. 329-348. Culture, vol. 29, no. 2 (82), à Casablanca: Le pire encore 2017, pp. 363-384. Navaro-Yashin, Yael. The à venir”. L’Economiste, Taib, Shada. Personal Make-Believe Space: 27 Sept. 2012, http:// Interview. January 2014. Larkin, Brian. “The Politics Affective Geography in a www.leconomiste.com/ and Poetics of Infrastructure.” Postwar Polity. Duke UP, 2012. article/898943-circulation- Wright, Gwendolyn. The Annual Review of casablanca-le-pire-encore- Politics of Design in French Anthropology, vol. 42 , 2013, Nolte, Amina. “Political venir. Accessed 28 February Colonial Urbanism. U of pp. 327-343. Infrastructure and the 2018. Chicago P, 1991. Politics of Infrastructure: Lefebvre, Henri. The The Jerusalem Light Rail.” Slyomovics. “Fatna El Bouih Production of Space. City, vol. 20, no. 3 , 2016, pp. and the Work of Memory, Translated by Donald 441-454. Gender, and Reparation in Nicholson-Smith.Blackwell, Morocco.” Journal of Middle 1991. Ossman, Susan. Picturing East Women’s Studies, vol. 8 Casablanca: Portraits of no. 1, 2012, pp. 37-62. M., Saloua. Personal interview. Power in a Modern City. U of October 2013. California P, 1994. ---. Waging War and Making Peace: Reparations and McCallum, Stephanie. ---. “Fashioning Casablanca in Human Rights. Left Coast “Othering Infrastructure: the Beauty Salon.” Everyday Press, 2008. Difference and Deferral in Life in the Muslim Middle Argentine Railways”. 114th East, edited by Donna Lee Stoler, Ann Laura. “Affective American Anthropological Bowen and Evelyn Early, states.” A Companion to the (CC BY 4.0) Association Annual Meeting, Indiana UP, 1993, pp. 180-188. Anthropology of Politics, 2015. edited by David Nugent ISSN: 2196-629X and Joan Vincent, Blackwell https://doi.org/10.17192/ Publishers, 2004, pp. 4-20. meta.2018.10.7590

Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 10 –2018