ENTREPRENEURIALISM IN THE GLOBALISING CITY-REGION OF TANGIER, MOROCCOtesg_622 346..360 MIGUEL KANAI & WILLIAM KUTZ Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Florida, USA. E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] Received: November 2009; revised May 2010 ABSTRACT This paper inspects the territorial and state restructuring of the globalising city-region of Tangier. It argues that recent economic growth and transnational connections follow new forms of entrepreneurial development that aggravate social and spatial inequalities. The analysis shows that these forms of urban and regional management are embedded in the neoliberalised, yet monarch- centric Moroccan state. Analysis of local governance arrangements demonstrates the pivotal importance of an elite cadre of urban managers within the monarchic power structure. Fieldwork evidence documents the emergence of megaprojects as preferred vehicles for entrepreneurial development through site observations, indepth interviews and archival research. The Tanger City Center project presents a case that illustrates the social and spatial implications of a restructuring territorial economy and the effects of new polarities being overlaid on existing urban and regional geographies. The paper concludes with a reflection on the comparative and relational lessons that can be drawn from Tangier’s restructuring. Key words: urban globalisation, Morocco, case study, entrepreneurialism, city-regions, megaprojects INTRODUCTION ing of metropolitan areas and emergence of new urban geographies of inequality and exclu- The discourse of urban globalisation provides a sionary built forms (Soja 2000; Graham & central explanation to complex transforma- Marvin 2001; Grant & Nijman 2002); and tions evidenced in contemporary cities. It (c) the socio-political management of such shows that globalisation-led urban and regional transformations carried through under the change encompasses multiple and interrelated hegemony of various forms of neoliberal economic, political, cultural and physical pro- entrepreneurialism that economic and state cesses in a world increasingly integrated elites have embraced (Harvey 1989; Moulaert through capitalist norms and practices. While et al. 2003; Ong 2006). initial studies focused on the economic struc- Contributing to this body of research, the tures and social profiles of a handful of global paper analyses the linkages between the institu- cities in the capitalist core, the field has tional and territorial transformations that are expanded to incorporate a wider scope of reshaping Tangier, which this paper concep- topics into its research agenda. These include tualises as a globalising city-region. Though not the following: (a) the opportunities and pre- located in a core country for the global capital- dicaments for globalising cities in non-core ist economy, Tangier is increasingly showing a regions (Grant & Short 2002; Machimura 2003; transnational orientation in its economic Robinson 2006); (b) the territorial restructur- dynamics and political logics (Scott 2001; Grant Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2011, DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9663.2010.00622.x, Vol. 102, No. 3, pp. 346–360. ©2010TheAuthors Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2010 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA ENTREPRENEURIALISM IN THE GLOBALISING CITY-REGION OF TANGIER, MOROCCO 347 2009, pp. 11–16). We argue that central to the The paper consists of three sections. The first city-region’s dynamism and shortcomings is the section assesses socio-spatial inequalities rooted reliance on large-scale initiatives for territorial in Tangier since early stages of modern growth development and urban megaprojects. These in the early twentieth-century. During the colo- are the preferred vehicles to harness the per- nial period (1923–1956) growth under foreign ceived benefits of globalisation though foreign domination produced a cosmopolitan city with investment, trade promotion and tourism- a transnationally-oriented economy, as well as a related revenue generation. Such an entrepre- physically fragmented and socially unequal neurial approach to development and structure. Regional tensions in the mid- and redevelopment has imbued the consolidating late-twentieth century resulted in Tangier’s city-region with economic momentum and is neglect by the developmentalist impetus of the reshaping Tangier’s urban and regional geog- newly independent Moroccan state. Since raphies. But entrepreneurialism has fallen 1983, novel forms of economic growth and short of addressing inherited regional uneven- regional development have emerged after a ness and urban fractures. It has been neglectful period of crisis-generated restructuring and of basic social needs and its selective focus on ensuing globalisation. strategic sites and projects is deepening exclu- The second section focuses on state restruc- sion and producing new spatial injustices. turing by noticing a redefinition of governmen- In order to be properly understood this tal and market roles that has occurred under process must also be located within the recon- King Mohammed VI, who continues to hold figured institutions of the city-region and both administrative and political power, and Moroccan state. Both have arisen from has promoted neoliberalisation as an active complex interactions between multiple exter- state project (Catusse 2008, p. 49). Under the nal pressures and localised case-specific tutelage of his monarchy, new development responses. A new elite cadre of entrepreneurial agencies and public-private partnerships have urban managers has emerged comprising gov- been created to steer the entrepreneurial glo- ernmental and private, Moroccan and transna- balisation process and expand the increasingly tional actors. They are all invested with integrated city-region. Priorities have shifted development objectives and prerequisites from (a) earlier forms of state-led regional unique to the current globalisation era. Within development through import-substitution the logics of a re-scaled state (see second industrialisation to (b) reliance on strategic section), planners and officials operate within nodes to territorialise transnational flows into an array of territorially dispersed and adminis- the urban fabric. Hence, policies now focus on tratively fragmented agencies that nevertheless the construction of megaprojects such as the are centrally chartered and controlled by Tanger-Med Port and the Tanger Free Zone. Morocco’s monarchy. Such arrangements only Pressing needs such as deficient basic infra- feature limited mechanisms for democratic structure and generalised lack of access to accountability. Necessitated by the imperatives adequate housing remain unheeded. of exogenously-driven entrepreneurial growth, The third and final section examines new pivotal roles for international developers the role of foreign city-builders in Tangier and real-estate firms have emerged in the plan- through a case study of the Tanger City Center ning and implementation of projects. Pro- initiative. After the bankruptcy of a previous duced spatial forms and architectural contractor, this high-profile project of over typologies hence respond to imported models 175,000 square metres has been entrusted and cater to foreign users while simultaneously to Inveravante, a transnational conglomerate ignoring the everyday lives, needs and claims of based in Spain and active throughout Europe, local populations. In order to support these Latin America and Morocco. Inveravante claims, the analysis employs evidence from is expected to deliver an internationally- fieldwork observations (June–August 2009) marketable product that will attract investors including interviews and local governmental and visitors. Envisioned as the new core of secondary sources (policy reports, maps and Tangier’s urban life, this project is however architectural blueprints). inaccessible for most residents. Its location on ©2010TheAuthors Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2010 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG 348 MIGUEL KANAI & WILLIAM KUTZ the outer edge of the modern city deepens exports increasing almost nine-fold and added longstanding divisions with the relegated value quadrupling. The data also show the medina. Concluding remarks touch upon the external orientation of Tangier’s economic comparability of this singular case of entre- dynamism and large productivity gains allowing preneurialism to broaden research agendas output to grow almost twice as fast as total on globalising cities and regions (Short et al. employment. 1996). There is also a call for further scrutiny Yet not all have benefited, a social statistics of the socio-political negotiation and contesta- show that for the past decade the officially dis- tion of urban development. closed unemployment rate has hovered around 10 per cent, while the cost of living has OLD AND NEW URBAN INEQUALITIES increased steadily particularly in basic catego- ries such as food (which increased by a factor of Tangier is a rapidly globalising city-region in approximately 25%), clothing, transportation North Africa strategically placed at the western and housing (Direction de la Statistique 2010). entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, which links Moreover, this economic expansion has argu- the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean (See ably been accompanied by deepening social Figure