Abstract
Morocco provides an interesting framework for re-examining planetary urban- isation in relation to planning policies, which shape spaces that were considered “rural” un- til now. In Morocco, a country deeply affected by metropolitanisation, the agricultural areas on the periphery of major cities are undergoing rapid economic, social and landscape transfor- mations. City growth is silently disrupting ways of life and economic activities, as well as ru- ral-based social organisations. These changes are critical because Morocco is a country where agriculture and, more generally, “rurality”, is still vitally important. This explains why the relations between the city and the country are deeply affected by the regime’s contradictory new policies. These include: a neoliberal approach, which is undermining the political or- der for the sake of accumulation, draining the countryside and pursuing urban sprawl; and an authoritarian approach that is designed to preserve the social and political order and in- volves keeping a tight rein on the rural commu- nity, which traditionally supported the regime. To explore these contradictions, we examine the periphery on the east of the Rabat-Salé-Témara region, where the control of urban sprawl pro- vides a particularly interesting perspective when analysing how the authoritarian state has developed in a context of laissez-faire regula- tion. When urban sprawl interferes with the limits between town and country and fragments peri-urban “grey spaces”, it becomes the focus of bitter negotiation between public and private actors, between social groups and between use value (for the rural population) and exchange value (for state-supported urban investors). The first part examines the power relations be- tween the main actors involved in the urbani- sation of Rabat’s grey spaces. The second part explores their impact on rural and farming communities in three successive phases. The first phase examines the recomposition of the state, with the new city model, using the case of Tamesna.