Abstract
Due to a fast-growing economy, Morocco is facing several issues concerning a local way to a global modernization. The Islamic society is slowly changing towards new forms of rules to achieve a balance between traditional values and new emergent needs. While the vast rural world keeps a stronger resistance to mutations, cities are laboratories for innovation. In terms of spaces, among the famous imperial cities, Marrakech is the one in which the phenomena are more acute and accelerated. The ancient heart of the medina is the great object of external pressures for new touristic uses and consequent gentrification, while the colonial modern parts of the city are progressively replaced and new urban expansions are looking for a development model. Starting from this point of view, the essay describes and interprets the main dynamics in place and attempts to indicate the contradictions and critical aspects that will be the most difficult challenge for Moroccan cities in the next few years: Is there a local way to modernize in a global world? Which tools and strategies for a sustainable development?
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Notes
- 1.
Program social du quartier Al-Massira.
- 2.
The “Dubai case” testifies of an invention: a standardized yet clearly recognizable city image to export and sell, an operation of city marketing which proved undoubtedly successful, but that is still waiting for a critical assessment.
- 3.
To get a measure of the phenomenon: Mumbai, which has primacy in the density in the world, has 31,000 inhabitants per square kilometre. Milan, for an easy comparison, has about 8000.
- 4.
The definition of this social group is relatively new. It has been given by the American economist Richard Florida that refers especially to the urban population of some cities in the world (Florida 2002).
- 5.
Another element of fascination for young Europeans of the seventies, it must be said, was the availability or the expectation of the availability of cheap opiates. For a generation of Italians, the image of Marrakech is linked to Gabriele Salvatores’ movie “Marrakech Express”.
- 6.
In addition to the plan of Marrakech, in the same period he was engaged in the development plans of Fez, Meknes, Rabat and Casablanca. Henri Prost, a key planning protagonist of the first half of ‘900’, is known for the Plan d’Aménagement de la Région Parisienne, approved in 1939. Equally important was his work as a “colonial” town planner in the Mediterranean. In 1936, he was also responsible for the general plan of Istanbul, the city where he worked until 1951. Among the main publications dedicated to him, see: J.L. Cohen, Henri Prost and Casablanca: the art of making successful cities (1912–1940), The New City, № 3, 1996, pp. 106–121.
- 7.
Rachele Borghi refers to the essay by Ley D (2001) Styles of the times: liberal and neoconservative landscapes in inner Vancouver, in Minca C (ed), Introduzione alla geografia post-modern, Cedam, Padova. By the same author, we suggest also the very useful essay Borghi R (2008) Geografia, postcolonialismo e costruzione delle identità. Una lettura dello spazio urbano di Marrakech, Unicopli, Milano.
- 8.
The reference is to a statement—“10 million tourists by 2010”—made by Muhammad V, King of Morocco, 10 January 2001 (Borghi 2010: 2).
- 9.
And also a “multitude of architectural horrors” (El Faiz 2002: 34).
- 10.
At the time of the French protectorate, about 51,000 fruit trees had been surveyed, but sixteenth-century sources report 66,000 trees.
- 11.
On the same topic, see also Pérennès J.J., L’eau et les Hommes au Maghreb, Karthala, Paris 1993.
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Montedoro, L. (2018). Development Against Sustainability? Marrakech as a Case Study. In: Petrillo, A., Bellaviti, P. (eds) Sustainable Urban Development and Globalization. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61988-0_1
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