RGP Cycle Four Grantees and Projects

Lahcen Ameziane: The New Neoliberalism: Urban Areas in Moroccan Cities: Between Social Justice and Polarization

This research project explores the problematics of mega-projects, which polarize urban space and territories, and the relationship between these projects, urban policies, the dilemmas of social justice, and environmental implications. The core research question is articulated as follows: How did the role of infrastructure change from a simple role related to setting the stage for economic and social activities in a certain urban environment into a strategic role that places infrastructural development at the center of all these activities?
The main objective of the research project is to contribute to the understanding of the intersection between the socioeconomic development strategy behind mega-projects and new urban policies in order to determine the future of cities. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the negative effects of such projects on people’s social and economic conditions, and their relative significance to their lives. The research also aims to explore new methods and more flexible and creative mechanisms that involve different stakeholders in fairer and more effective planning strategies and urban policies.
The main problematic of the research project lies in searching for urban dynamics resulting from mega-projects that restructure urban space through geographical distribution of social and humanitarian activities, and uneven economic and political dynamics and processes that have expanded urban areas and space over the past years. The project highlights the organizational and procedural tactics of these dynamics and their relationship to prevalent territorial governance systems, and stakeholders. It explores the effects of these dynamics on groups and individuals, including impoverishment, uprooting, and deportation of citizens and communities. The project details the short-term and long-term environmental effects of an imbalance in the ecosystem stemming from deep-seated changes due to invasive projects, such mountain levelling or morphological changes to the features of valleys and coasts.
This research focuses on three-large projects, namely 1) The Bouregreg Valley Development Project; 2) The Rabat Waterfront Project; and 3) The Casablanca Waterfront Project.
The methodology consists of field work conducted to verify five essential hypotheses drawn from the research question. The Hypotheses will be evaluated using related themes, which will be the basis for the questions used in the research. In other words, we will use semi-structured interviews. Research samples are determined according to the research questions drawn from the problematic and hypotheses in order to investigate 1) the technical and political aspects of the projects (the relationship between the mega-projects, local governance, and current political and representative institutions); and 2) the urban integration and social seclusion aspects of the projects.

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