The world-class city comes by tramway: Reframing Casablanca’s urban peripheries through public transport

Abstract

Chinese

Although framed as projects targeting the improvement of public transport, the reduction of traffic congestion and the integration of urban peripheries, tramways are often inscribed to political ambitions of modernisation and urban renewal. As such, Morocco’s tramway projects constitute a distinct feature of national urban worlding ambitions promoting ‘world-class’ cities. Likewise, Casablanca’s tramway is closely entangled with political discourses on the urban integration of politically marginalised working-class neighbourhoods. However, this article sees the tramway as a symbol and driving force of a new distinction of the urban peripheries of Casablanca – separating it into ‘old’ and ‘new’, desired and undesired population groups. On the one hand, the tramway has fostered the incorporation of the traditional working-class neighbourhoods – the old peripheries – into Casablanca’s urban ‘world-class’ project. On the other hand, the tramway is the flagship of urban renaissance policies that have pushed stigmatised street vendors and shantytown dwellers from the working-class neighbourhoods to isolated new towns – the emerging ‘new’ peripheries. Here they are kept – spatially and discursively – outside the ‘world-class’ city, largely dependent on inadequate, costly and insecure urban public transport. These dynamics not only conflict with the tramway’s objectives to decrease traffic congestion and to promote socio-spatial integration, they also show the power of urban worlding projects to reframe urban marginality and to define who does (and who does not) have access to the ‘world-class’ city.

Keywords

development displacement gentrification inequality planning transport

Introduction

In December 2012, King Mohammed VI inaugurated the first tramway line in Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco. At 31 km long, the tramway connects the working-class neighbourhoods in the east with the city centre and the beach villas of Ain Diab in the south-west. The tramway is the flagship project of an urban transport restructuring, which is an essential part of urban renewal strategies seeking to transform the industrial city of Casablanca into a ‘world class’ metropolis based on international trade and finance. Its initial success as a new, modern and clean mode of transportation has led to the planning and implementation of three further tramway projects.

Since spring 2019, the second tramway line operates on the ruins of Karyan Central, a former shantytown in the centre of the working-class neighbourhood Hay Mohammadi. A total of 30,000 residents were displaced 12 km away to the new town Nouvelle Lahraouiyine, where they now depend on informal modes of transportation, shared taxis and the insecure supply of one single private bus company.

While the residents of Nouvelle Lahraouiyine ride on buses without windows, the modern trains of the second tramway line operate on the cleared land of their former houses in Hay Mohammadi. This paper seeks to address these contrasting impressions of public transport as symbolic expressions underlining the double role of flagship infrastructure as both an essential part of cities’ worlding and modernisation strategies (cf. Anand, 2006; Carolini, 2017; Graham, 2018; Roy and Ong, 2011) and as a tool to reinforce existing power relations within urban societies (cf. McFarlane and Rutherford, 2008; Nolte, 2016; Rokem and Vaughan, 2018).

However, I argue that beyond the mere reproduction of urban inequality patterns, urban infrastructure is a political tool, powerful enough to reframe urban marginality. Hence, this reframing of marginality is not limited to physical displacement, which has widely been discussed in literature on megaprojects in the Global South (cf. Berry-Chikhaoui, 2010; Strauch et al., 2015), but puts further emphasis on the symbolism of exclusion and difference. Moreover, the paper highlights the political entanglement of discourses on urban world class and social inclusion, which has hardly been addressed in literature on urban mega-projects in the Global South (cf. Kennedy 2015: 166). I argue that Casablanca’s tramway, although promoted as a symbol of socio-spatial integration, has reframed and accentuated marginality that emerges outside the discursive and spatial boundaries of the aspired world-class city. As such, urban public transport becomes a driving force of reconfigurations at the urban peripheries; a significant aspect within the dynamic negotiations of marginality that redefine borders and the relationship between the margins and the centre.

As such, the paper adds a critical perspective on public transport to the existing research on infrastructural heterogeneity in the context of urban worlding aspirations, which has mostly dealt with classic network infrastructure (e.g. electricity, sewage systems, streets, etc.) (Coutard and Rutherford, 2016; Graham, 2018; McFarlane and Rutherford, 2008). Whereas in this context much has been written on Asia and Mumbai in particular (Anand, 2006; Graham, 2018; McFarlane, 2008), this study addresses a region where research on urban transport, and English-speaking scholarly work in general is thin.

Drawing on a discursive analysis of planning documents, interviews with resettled dwellers of Karyan Central, a representative household survey and my own observations during four months of field research (December 2016 – March 2017),¹ the paper provides an in-situ documentation of simultaneous marginalisation and integration dynamics of public transport planning and how these are entangled with discourses of the ‘world-class’ metropolis in Casablanca.

In the next section, I describe the paper’s conceptual framework, which combines literature on worlding cities, megaprojects and public transport with a strong emphasis on the Global South. Then, I provide a historic overview on infrastructure development in Casablanca before introducing the city’s tramway projects. The three last sections are based on my own empirical work. The first deals with the objectives behind the tramway and largely builds on document analysis. The last two employ interview and survey data to describe the reframing of marginality by means of the contrasting picture of Casablanca’s ‘old’ and ‘new’ peripheries.

Worlding, infrastructure and the urban peripheries

Achieving world class has become a key ambition behind urban planning strategies in many cities of the so-called Global South. Roy and Ong (2011) consider these new urban policies as acts of ‘worlding’, underlining both a sort of post-colonial emancipation as well as a wish to modernise and globalise the countries’ major cities. It is the aspiration for a renewed image of urban ‘world class’ – moving away from the image of the congested mega-city (Anand, 2006; Robinson, 2002). Ong (2011: 2) notes that these cities ‘have become centres of enormous political investment, economic growth, and cultural vitality, and thus have become sites for instantiating their countries’ claims to global significance’. In contrast to the static hierarchies of the global city concept (Sassen, 2001), worlding implies the ubiquitous possibility to exert influence on its own status of being in the world and a permanent dynamic reshaping of existing global hierarchies. As such, urban planning has become a national priority that follows objectives which go beyond the mere administrative boundaries of the city, using the urban fabric as a body of images and visions that should portray pictures of national development and (Western) modernity to outsiders and insiders (Kennedy, 2015: 164).

In urban planning, worlding strategies may materialise in the form of iconic megaprojects that – often in combination with mega-events – aim at boosting the city’s (and country’s) competitiveness in the global economy (cf. Beier, 2019; Ong, 2011; Kennedy, 2015). Concerning Morocco, Bogaert (2018: 51) describes the large number of urban megaprojects as representations of a new royal agenda and the cities’ new ‘showcases to the outside world’.

Megaprojects are emblematic of a neoliberal planning regime and often part of larger urban restructuring (cf. Kuyucu and Ünsal, 2010) or urban fantasies (Watson, 2014). They follow globally circulating planning concepts and are often implemented in an exceptional way through private–public partnerships or directly by (international) private investors (cf. Kennedy, 2015; Shatkin, 2008). In the developing world, scholars have put special emphasis on resistance and the displacement of less powerful population groups (cf. Berry-Chikhaoui, 2010; Kuyucu and Ünsal, 2010; Strauch et al., 2015) as well as on privatised and globalised governance schemes (cf. Barthel and Vignal, 2014; Bon, 2015; Shatkin, 2008). Kennedy (2015: 164–165) also notes a stronger influence of central governments as compared with megaprojects in the Global North, which is not only the result of relatively weak institutional and financial capacities of local governments but also mirrors the national interests that drive cities’ worlding aspirations (Beier, 2019). North Africa, with its ‘presidential’ or ‘royal’ megaprojects (Barthel, 2010), is a typical example.

Kennedy (2015: 166) further notes that in developing countries, megaprojects so far have remained classic top-down projects with limited transparency and without a more inclusive rhetoric about public benefits, which has characterised a ‘new generation’ of megaprojects in the Global North (cf. Boland et al., 2017; Lehrer and Laidley, 2008). In addition, while many papers acknowledge the global outreach of megaprojects in developing countries, there is little research on the symbolism and representation of urban megaprojects at the local city level (cf. Siemiatycki, 2006). Hence, Casablanca’s tramway is of particular interest, as it shows how discourses on social inclusion and worlding (repeated notions of modernity and development) may merge and slowly reframe the notion of urban marginality as a matter of access to an aspired ‘world-class’ city. Beyond physical displacement, it is the symbolic power of megaprojects that matters.

It is not a coincidence that it is a public transport megaproject that integrates both worlding aspirations and discourses on social integration. First, it is widely acknowledged that, theoretically, public transport functions as an integrative element within cities. Lucas (2011: 1321) calls it a ‘key factor in the economic and social development process because it facilitates the movement of people and goods, thereby (theoretically at least) promotes trade and better standards of living through improved access to markets, employment, health, education and social services’.

Second, transport infrastructure is an essential aspect of urban worlding strategies, for two reasons. On the one hand, it provides the necessary conditions to realise urban world class (cf. McFarlane, 2008: 429; Shatkin, 2008: 388) in contrast to the image of the congested mega-city (Anand, 2006: 3424). With focus on Mumbai, authors such as Anand (2006) and Graham (2018) have shown how discourses of the world-class city are entangled with the transformation and modernisation of transport infrastructure according to ‘elite expectations of the modern, circulatory city’ (McFarlane, 2009: 134). This selective investment in infrastructure has favoured interests of already privileged urban dwellers (e.g. car owners) while ignoring the needs of the less powerful (e.g. pedestrians, public transport users and street vendors) (Anand, 2006).

On the other hand, transport infrastructure may itself be an attribute of urban ‘world class’. Flagship infrastructure such as high-speed trains, subway lines, but also tramways themselves, become urban megaprojects that should portray national development progress. They enhance a city’s claim to ‘world-class’ status while offering a promising marketing mix including aspects of modernity, speed, as well as ecological consciousness (cf. Siemiatycki, 2006). However, flagship public transport bears the risk that it serves middle and upper classes only – either because it puts single focus on urban centres (Godard, 2011: 255) or because poorer people cannot afford higher costs for modern high-speed transport (cf. Lo, 2010; Pirie, 2014: 136). In relation to Delhi’s metro, Dupont (2011: 544) remarks, ‘infrastructure mega-projects fulfil other functions than the transportation needs that have been used to justify their promotion. […] [W]hat seems to matter more for officials in Delhi is to use the iconic power of this high-tech project as a symbol of progress, to stake a claim as a world-class city.’ Thus, transport megaprojects do not only serve national claims to modernisation, they are also a way to challenge and remake global hierarchies of political power and influence; a way to aspire after world recognition (Ong, 2011: 10).

However, these kinds of flexible negotiation and reframing practices not only happen at the global, but also at the local level, which is often overlooked. If urban elites produce infrastructure according to circulating global urban values to influence their own status of ‘being in the world’ (cf. Ellis, 2012; McFarlane et al., 2016), access to (‘world-class’) infrastructure may in the same way influence one’s own status of ‘being in the city’. Similar to global hierarchies based on worldviews, images and aspirations, also intra-urban hierarchies are the unstable product of constant negotiation practices. This is similar to Yiftachel’s (2009) concept of grey spaces, which describes various forms of urban informality as politically intended ‘permanent temporariness’, positioned between ‘the “whiteness” of legality/approval/safety and the “blackness” of eviction/destruction/death’ (Yiftachel, 2009: 89). Through the powerful tool of urban planning – and with infrastructure as a central element of it – political (and economic) elites keep the power to direct the development of grey spaces between ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’. If considering whiteness as the modern ‘world-class city’ and ‘blackness’ as the congested mega-city (cf. Anand, 2006), then worlding through the construction of flagship infrastructure implies the power to define who does (and who does not) have access to the ‘world-class’ city.

Thus, through the example of Casablanca’s flagship tramway development, I show how at the local level worlding practices lead to an ambivalent reframing of people’s state of being in the city and a transformation of urban grey space. On the one hand, selected parts of Casablanca’s working-class neighbourhoods, which I call the ‘old’ peripheries, experience stronger political recognition. The tramway integrates them in a spatial and symbolic way into the elitist vision of the ‘world-class’ city. On the other hand, other inhabitants of these neighbourhoods (bidonville dwellers, but also street vendors) were displaced to spatially detached and politically abandoned new towns that mark the city’s ‘new’ peripheries. They are the neither recognised nor integrated ‘grey’ spaces of the ‘world-class’ city, characterised by informal but tolerated means of transport and other forms of makeshift infrastructure.

Infrastructural ‘upgrading’ in Morocco

In Casablanca, infrastructure development has been closely entangled with authoritarian rule and modernisation since colonial times. Infrastructure has not only been a powerful planning tool to distinguish between the ordered, ‘modern’ European city (villes nouvelles), the congested, ‘traditional’ Moroccan old towns (médinas) and the neglected, ‘anarchic’ shantytowns (bidonvilles), home to the industrial working class. It has also been a political means to maintain existing power structures through selective ‘modernisation’ of infrastructure according to Western (or French) standards (cf. Abu-Lughod, 1980; Rabinow, 1992). Infrastructure later also functioned as a political tool to ‘embody and project the power and presence of the state’ (Strava, 2018: 24). It further remained a matter of distinction, keeping the stigma of ‘backwardness’ to inhabitants of médinas and traditional working-class neighbourhoods. Simultaneously, this allowed infrastructure to be used as a political means of co-optation and symbolic integration, which has been most obvious in the ambiguous strategies to ‘upgrade’ the life of shantytown dwellers through resettlement and displacement (Navez-Bouchanine, 2012; Rachik, 2002).

Since 1999, with Mohammed VI coming to power, infrastructural ‘upgrading’ has gained new momentum as a national political priority of central state authorities, used simultaneously as a tool to portray and promote ‘urban world class’ through the construction of urban mega-projects (cf. Barthel and Vignal, 2014) and as a means to demonstrate a political will to ‘integrate’ marginalised neighbourhoods (cf. Bogaert, 2018). As such, Mohammed VI has not only declared the intention to ‘upgrade infrastructure to global standards’ but also stressed the role of infrastructure for the integration of the ‘excluded’ urban poor (quoted in MHU, 2013: 53, 158).

The programme Cities Without Shantytowns (VSB, villes sans bidonvilles) is a good example. Against the background of an increasingly externally orientated urban development policy, Bogaert (2018: 2) writes, ‘slums, obviously, do not fit the particular picture of modernity advertised by [megaprojects such as] Casablanca Marina’. However, the main driver behind national urban policies, Mohammed VI, publicly staged as the ‘king of the poor’, has succeeded in framing the fight against shantytowns as a positive social policy that benefits shantytown dwellers and that would help them to integrate into the urban (‘modern’) society through a modernisation of infrastructure (e.g. decent housing and formal electricity and water supply).

Similarly, the new tramway stands in the historic tradition of infrastructure upgrade and modernisation in Morocco. This becomes obvious in the decision not to build only Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines, as recommended by the World Bank (Godard, 2013: 100f). State authorities did not aspire to follow other developing countries that had successfully implemented BRT systems, but preferred tramways because they seemed to fit better with the aspired image of ‘world class’ and Western modernity (Unité d’Évaluation des Activités de Développement de la DG Trésor, 2018: 10f). As in colonial times, France was a major frame of reference. Nadia Bouhriz, former head of Casa Tramway, stated: ‘Casablanca is twinned with Bordeaux; the city officials saw what a well-designed tramway could bring to a city. They therefore insisted on a tramway project […]’ (quoted in Désveaux, 2013: 125).

Furthermore, the French development cooperation agency AFD supported the decision to build a tramway and the French treasury financially supported Alstom’s successful bid for the construction of the tramway wagons. In addition, Casa Tramway, a subsidiary of the French company RATP Dev, has won the bid to operate and maintain the tramway in Casablanca. However, the public agency Casa Transports, jointly formed out of local and central state agencies in 2009, compensates for the losses that the tramway generates. Each tramway journey receives subsidies at the level of 40% (Caoucabi, 2016). Xu and Manibog (2016: 14) warn that Casa Transports should not only direct its focus to the development of cost-intensive tramway projects – given the generated severe public deficit. Instead, priority should be given to an overall urban mobility strategy that includes the restructuring of bus networks, the establishment of inter-modality (one ticket for different modes of public transport), as well as non-motorised transportation.

In December 2012, Casa Transports succeeded in opening the first tramway line. The second line started operating in spring 2019. The ticket price of 6DH² is almost on the same level as prices for buses and shared taxis (mostly 5 to 7DH). However, so far, the different ticket systems in place do not allow passengers to change from bus to tramway with the same ticket. Crowded trains and the increase of passenger numbers show the tramway’s wide acceptance among the population. Consequently, Casa Transports has invested in the expansion of the tramway network (including two BRT lines) and expanded the contract with Casa Tramway for the operation and maintenance of the network until 2029 (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

The 2022 tramway and BRT networks of Casablanca according to the current plan of Casa Transports. Cartography: T. Dedring.

Unveiling the objectives behind Casablanca’s tramway

Casablanca’s tramway combines worlding aspirations, policies of socio-spatial integration as well as environmental planning objectives. This plurality of objectives becomes most evident in a quote on the website of Casa Tramway (2013), the operating company: ‘The tramway … [is] ecological, reliable, and efficient. Numerous big cities around the world have tramways (Paris, London, Dubai, Rabat …). Casablanca decided to build a tramway to solve its traffic congestion and public transport problems particularly at the city’s peripheries.’ What becomes obvious in this quotation – similar to the work of Anand (2006) on Mumbai – is the notion of a congested backwardness at the urban peripheries that is used to contrast the aspired picture of a modern, circulatory ‘world-class’ metropolis. Therefore, infrastructure is used not only to physically but also to symbolically integrate urban peripheries into discourses about urban ‘world class’. This becomes more obvious by looking at the wider framework of urban policy in Casablanca.

Because of its national importance as a destination for many international investors as well as tourists, urban development policy in Casablanca is largely influenced and driven by the central state authorities – the royal palace as well as the Ministry of Interior. In his speech on 11 October 2013 (Chambre des Représentants, 2013), King Mohammed VI restated the objective to renew ‘Morocco’s economic engine of growth’, and to transform the industrial city into an international financial hub, which would first require infrastructure and basic services to meet international standards. Consequently, this would help to overcome the striking urban inequalities that characterise Casablanca. This may be read as another hint at the double notion of infrastructure both as a basic condition of urban ‘world class’ and as a tool of symbolic and selective socio-spatial integration.

The royal speeches have strongly influenced Casablanca’s planning strategies. As such, the urban masterplan of Greater Casablanca (SDAU, schéma directeur de l’aménagement urbain du Grand Casablanca) calls itself the spatial translation of the royal ambition to raise Casablanca to the rank of a big global city (AUC, 2008: 4). It stresses the necessity to improve public transport according to international standards and advocates for the construction of modern means of mass transportation such as a tramway (AUC, 2008: 7). The October speech further inspired the urban planning vision Casablanca 2030. Its six mid-term priorities of urban development include the megaproject Casablanca Financial City, the eradication of shantytowns, as well as the restructuring of public transport (Ville de Casablanca, n.d.). The latter is also mentioned within the national tourism development strategy ‘Vision 2020’ (SMIT, 2011), which follows the aim to place Morocco among the 20 most-frequented tourist destinations in the world. The realisation of large-scale, ‘world-class’ infrastructure, such as the construction of a high-speed railway line between Casablanca and Tangier, highway expansion as well as tramway projects (also in Rabat and Salé), are key aspects of the strategy, which also carries a marketing notion of environmental sustainability (Verdeil, 2019). Considering these urban policy directives, the tramway project can be considered a flagship project of Casablanca’s urban development, representing a distinct feature of urban worlding ambitions.

The plan to build a tramway also resulted from an assessment of the city’s urban transport situation, which revealed high traffic congestion and insufficient public transport supply (Ait Boubkr et al., 2011). Traffic congestion is the result of an increase in individual motorised transportation. Between 2006 and 2014, the city’s car fleet grew about three times faster than its population (Xu and Manibog, 2016: 2). Regarding public transport, Crochet and Leyvigne (2008: 10ff) point to the insufficient and unreliable supply of public bus services, which left a gap that has been filled by large numbers of small taxis (petits taxis) and shared taxis (grands taxis). According to Casablanca’s 2004 Urban Mobility Master Plan (PDU, Plan de Déplacement Urbain), individual motorised transportation and taxis accounted for more than two-thirds of all journeys within the metropolitan area (Crochet and Leyvigne, 2008: 12). The tramway was considered to be a green and inclusive alternative.

The tramway’s integration of the ‘old’ peripheries

[…] During the French protectorate, Karyan Central was an important centre of Moroccan resistance. Its inhabitants played a crucial role in the struggle for independence. After independence in 1956, King Mohammed V paid homage to people’s loyalty, when praying in the neighbourhood’s eponymous mosque. Consequently, the name Hay Mohammadi was given to this place rich in history that has contributed to shaping the social and cultural landscape of Casablanca and Morocco. (Translated by the author from a memorial tablet at the tramway stop Ali Yaata)

This inscription on a memorial tourism sign, jointly installed by Casa Tramway and Casamémoire at the tramway station Ali Yaata in Hay Mohammadi, glorifies Morocco’s formerly biggest shantytown Karyan Central. However, it does not mention that Karyan Central no longer exists. On top of its ruins, the second tramway was built. Its residents were displaced in the framework of the VSB programme to the new town Nouvelle Lahraouiyine, outside the formal city boundaries and outside the future tramway and BRT network (see Figure 1). In March 2016, the last residents were evicted by force – despite all glory on the signboard and after being accused of illegal occupation. Many others had moved voluntarily, hoping to leave the stigma and the hardship of the bidonville behind. Rachid,³ president of a neighbourhood association, describes how: ‘We were happy with the plans of resettlement. However, once the programme was set up, the state has only acted in its own interest. The authorities have promised us a paradise, but Nouvelle Lahraouiyine is hell.’ His disappointment is exemplary. Many others felt they were kicked out of the city – from the centre to a rural, isolated place. Ironically, the transport deficiencies in Nouvelle Lahraouiyine are, together with its isolated location, the most frequently mentioned disadvantages among 362 interviewed resettled residents.

The inscription at the tramway stop Ali Yaata underlines the central argument of this paper. On the one hand, the tramway promotes the symbolic and physical ‘upgrading’ of long-term marginalised (and congested) working-class neighbourhoods such as Hay Mohammadi and Sidi Moumen. These ‘old’ peripheries with a colonial history have suffered from state oppression and marginalisation for a long time (cf. Strava, 2017). However, since Mohammed VI came to power, these neighbourhoods have been the preferred target of discourses about ‘urban integration’, highlighting their significant historic role especially during the fight for independence.

On the other hand, the tramway contributes to the emergence of ‘new’ peripheries; new towns and estates (such as Nouvelle Lahraouiyine) that have recently been constructed at the sprawling margins of the city to host people that were displaced and resettled from central neighbourhoods. They are not only physically but also symbolically detached from discourses about and materialities of the ‘world-class’ city that are embodied by the tramway. While fostering the showcase integration of stigmatised but established neighbourhoods such as Hay Mohammadi and Sidi Moumen (‘old’ peripheries), the tramway silently accentuates the deprivation of faceless new towns such as Nouvelle Lahraouiyine (‘new’ peripheries) – new home of a surplus population that was pushed out of the city.

The construction of the second tramway line was indeed not the only reason behind the demolition of Karyan Central, but it accelerated it by putting pressure on local governments to clear the land. The tramway construction in Hay Mohammadi discloses in an exemplary way the strong interlinkages between Morocco’s urban world-class ambitions and strengthened political efforts at the urban peripheries – both in a spatial and a discursive way (cf. Bogaert, 2018). Without the demolition of Karyan Central, the tramway construction on the narrow Avenue Ibn Zair Abdessalam, the neighbourhood’s former border street, would not have been possible. The building of the tramway included a widening of the street and the construction of new tracks on the cleared site. The construction company also installed its construction trailers and containers on the brownfield as its construction base. Furthermore, the tramway is linked to more comprehensive urban renewal strategies in Hay Mohammadi. The former head of Casa Tramway, Nadia Bouhriz, stressed that the tramway ‘has the main advantage of being marvellous for urban renovation. Opting for the tramway was a way of killing two birds with one stone: establishing a mass transit system and using the occasion to embellish the city’ (quoted in Désveaux, 2013: 128). This also explains why planning authorities have opted for the track course on Avenue Ibn Zair Abdessalam, although tramway T1 operates just 300 m away on the parallel Boulevard Echouhada (see Figure 1). The tramway construction allows for a modern urban facelift combining façade renovations along the line, the resettlement of shantytowns, the eviction of street vendors and a commodification of urban land. Thus, as is clear in Bouhriz’s statement, the tramway brings an elitist vision of the modern, ordered ‘world-class’ city to the traditional working-class neighbourhood, which is different from the visions and demands of many displaced residents. For example, 19-year-old Bouchra appreciated the vibrant and crowded former marketplace: ‘Hay Mohammadi is no longer like before. It is deserted without the Karyan Central and markets have worsened.’ In fact, the tramway’s marketed political claim to address social equity and to integrate formerly oppressed and disregarded urban neighbourhoods functions as a justification for profound urban transformations.

Sidi Moumen, the terminus of the first tramway line, shows this in an exemplary way. Sidi Moumen was the home of the shantytown dwellers who committed suicide attacks in Casablanca’s city centre in 2003. The attacks led to immediate political efforts – an ‘urbanism of urgency’⁴ (Rachik, 2002) – that sought to end the long-term neglect of the ‘old’, ‘excluded’ peripheries. Most prominently, the attacks triggered the VSB programme. In addition, Casablanca’s SDAU calls the upgrading and urban ‘integration’ of Sidi Moumen an urban development priority. The ‘big urban project of Sidi Moumen’ includes among others the resettlement of shantytown dwellers, plans for the construction of a football stadium, and the tramway (AUC, 2008: 24). Thus, the tramway is a political means to manifest – symbolically and visibly – the political will to end the state’s ignorance towards Sidi Moumen.

In a similar way, the tramway aims at transforming Hay Mohammadi, incorporating it into Casablanca’s urban ‘world-class’ project. According to Strava (2018: 25), residents of Hay Mohammadi interpreted the construction of the tramway and its connected urban renewal as a ‘physical proof that the neighbourhood had been symbolically redeemed from its previous politically motivated marginalisation’.⁵ In contrast, one interviewed resident felt that the state just wanted to get rid of the shantytown to make business with land sales. Another mentioned: ‘Karyan Central was a monument! They [authorities] destroyed it and put us here, next to the cemetery!’ Indeed, local authorities, in my own interviews, emphasised the modernist ambition of the tramway in Hay Mohammadi, which accordingly is part of a wider strategy to fight air pollution and congestion resulting from the neighbourhood’s high population density. This strategy includes the construction of a park on the cleared land of Karyan Central. However, according to information given by a person involved in the renewal planning for Hay Mohammadi, hotel developments will complement the park construction, reflecting the city’s objective to increase its accommodation capacity in the framework of ‘Vision 2020’.

Thus, the construction of the second tramway line on top of the ruins of Karyan Central, the birthplace of Hay Mohammadi and the centre of the Independence movement, shows the ambiguities of political discourses on ‘urban integration’. While glorifying the fight for independence and announcing the ‘upgrading’ of Hay Mohammadi, it has, at the same time, fostered the eviction of dwellers from Karyan Central. Thus, the tramway has induced and accentuated new lines of distinction within the urban peripheries, separating them into ‘desired’ and ‘undesired’ population groups and features of urban life.

Besides the demolition of shantytowns, the fight against street vendors provides another example. The construction of the tramway lines has fostered the fight against this traditional form of Moroccan urban space, now framed as ‘non-modern’ because of its informality, chaotic appearance and congestion. Under the French protectorate, Hay Mohammadi had developed into a vibrant market hub that traditionally served the families of Morocco’s industrial workers who settled in the area. Later, its reputation grew remarkably, attracting customers from all over the city. The market consists in large parts of informal traders, who have established semi-permanent shop structures along the main streets, including security as well as cleaning systems.

The construction of the second tramway is linked to the construction of a new market hall that should formalise and order the market. The promoted vision of new ordered modernity – with the tramway as its symbol – contrasts with the congestion of the informal market that is squeezed between the tramway construction and the market hall under renovation. According to interviews with market traders, informal stand owners along the new tramway line were among the last people evicted because of the tramway construction. They hope to get a new stall in the new market hall. However, it is unlikely that the new market hall will provide enough space for all informal traders facing eviction in the area. Many were asked to move, such as the dwellers of Karyan Central, to Nouvelle Lahraouiyine – the ‘new’ peripheries. In addition, many shop and stall owners complained about a severe drop in turnover after the resettlement of Karyan Central and its corresponding loss of clients.

The tramway’s exclusion of the new peripheries

Following the pathways of the displaced dwellers of Karyan Central to the isolated ‘new’ peripheries, first, allows us to deconstruct a central planning objective of the tramway – the reduction of traffic congestion and air pollution. Nouvelle Lahraouiyine, belonging to the rural province of Médiouna, is the new home of approximately 30,000 former residents of Karyan Central. The construction contributes to an urban sprawl in the metropolitan hinterland of Casablanca – the new peripheries. While the population of Casablanca has increased at an annual rate of 1.04%, the population of the two neighbouring provinces in the south, Nouaceur and Médiouna, grew six times faster between 2004 and 2014 (HCP-DRGC, 2014).

Whereas a wide range of urban opportunities had been available in walking distance from Karyan Central, the new residents of Nouvelle Lahraouiyine now have to rely much more often and for longer distances on motorised transportation to reach their workplaces, universities or families. Many go back to Hay Mohammadi each day. Khadija, 40 years of age, described her new spatial isolation and transport dependency in a symbolic way: ‘Here, it is like an island – you have to take a boat to go somewhere and take other transport.’ Naima (20 years) even used the word ‘travel’: ‘If you want to buy or do something, you have to travel!’

The only modes of transport available include shared taxis, neglected buses, private cars, motorcycles and three-wheelers – all highly polluting means of transportation. Data from my own representative household survey among resettled dwellers in Nouvelle Lahraouiyine and inhabitants of Er-Rhamna, a still-existing shantytown in Sidi Moumen, show that significantly more people in the new town have to rely on motorised transportation to reach their workplaces. In contrast, in Er-Rhamna more than one-third of the active population walk to their workplaces, which is the case for only 19% of the working population in Nouvelle Lahraouiyine (see Figure 2). Thus, the resettlement of shantytown dwellers to the peripheries of Casablanca heavily conflicts with the objective to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

Figure 2.

Use of transport for working purposes among residents of Nouvelle Lahraouiyine and Er-Rhamna.

Second, the new transport dependency in Nouvelle Lahraouiyine also puts the tramway’s objectives concerning social integration into question. The ‘new’ peripheries such as Nouvelle Lahraouiyine are strongly characterised by inadequate and inefficient public transport supply. The planned tramway and BRT lines will not serve Nouvelle Lahraouiyine, terminating about 4 km north of the new town (see Figure 1). Because of its location outside Casablanca’s jurisdiction, small taxis are not allowed to operate in the new town.

Likewise, Casablanca’s official public bus concessionaire does not serve the neighbourhood. One private bus company has filled the gap, linking the neighbourhood to the city at its own risk and without any schedule. Because of missing public support, the operator cannot sufficiently invest in the maintenance of its bus fleet and therefore operates with visibly neglected buses that frequently lack windows, doors or seats. Many inhabitants of Nouvelle Lahraouiyine have described the bus services as time-consuming, unreliable, uncomfortable and dangerous. They complained about buses that pass bus stops without stopping, as well as robberies, sexual harassment, drug abuse and alcohol consumption on the bus. Because of that, many people refrain from taking the bus, depending even more on shared taxis that connect the new town with Hay Mohammadi at a regular fee of 7DH. In the evening, the insufficient number of shared taxis that go back from Hay Mohammadi to Nouvelle Lahraouiyine results in long queues and a price increase from 7 to 10DH. Moreover, buses and taxis only serve the northern and central parts of Nouvelle Lahraouiyine. Long distances to the taxi stand are a problem for disabled and elderly people. Moreover, many residents mentioned that they are afraid of being robbed on their way home from the taxi stand during night-time. Some younger people mentioned that their parents do not allow them to access higher education because of the costs and insecurities of public transport.

The increased dependence on public transport has also led to higher costs. Among resettled residents in Nouvelle Lahraouiyine, the median work-related transport costs of each working household member are 280 DH/month, which is more than two times higher than in Er-Rhamna (130 DH/month).⁶ The situation of the most vulnerable households is even worse. Their median per capita expenditure for work-related transport is 250 DH/month, being only slightly lower than the general median stated above. In contrast, in Er-Rhamna, the respective median value is only 60 DH/month.

Considering the dependency on costly but inefficient and insecure transport systems among resettled residents in Nouvelle Lahraouiyine questions the tramway’s objective to re-integrate the urban peripheries. While the remaining inhabitants of Hay Mohammadi may consider the tramway as an atonement for long-term marginalisation (Strava, 2018), several resettled residents felt that the state only thinks about the upgrading of Hay Mohammadi but not about (displaced) people. One resident argued: ‘What they [authorities] target is not only a city without shantytowns, but a city without shantytown dwellers.’ In this sense, the non-provision of public transport is a political means to keep shantytown dwellers out of the imagined ‘world-class’ city. The tramway is its pervasive expression, accelerating displacement and marginalisation of ‘undesired’ population groups, while, at the same time, promoting a showcase integration of their former places of living.

Discussion and conclusion

The tramway is Morocco’s flagship project of urban transportation. As such, Casablanca’s tramway development serves national urban worlding aspirations that should promote Morocco’s claims to global significance and urban ‘world class’. Thus, the tramway, first, is a driver of a politically led and centrally governed modernisation – similar to other infrastructure megaprojects in the context of worlding strategies (cf. Anand, 2006; Carolini, 2017; Dupont, 2011; Graham, 2018; McFarlane, 2009). This priority stands in conflict with local public benefits – to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution as well as to foster socio-spatial integration – that were used to justify the tramway.

In fact, the tramway construction in Hay Mohammadi has pushed forward the resettlement of 30,000 inhabitants outside the city’s administrative borders, where they now depend on individual motorised transportation or shared taxis – modes of transportation the government initially wanted to fight. Second, instead of spatial integration, flagship tramway projects limited to the administrative borders of Casablanca have ignored the growing metropolitan margins and have fostered the emergence of new urban peripheries, characterised by insufficient, inefficient and unplanned public transport provision.

The picture, however, is more complex. Different from other examples in Mumbai (Anand, 2006; Graham, 2018) or Maputo (Carolini, 2017), where megaprojects have solely benefited wealthier classes while displacing and excluding the urban poor in a direct and overt way, the construction of Casablanca’s tramway is more closely entangled with a political rhetoric of socio-spatial integration. Despite similar discourses on public benefits of ‘new’ megaprojects in the Global North (cf. Boland et al., 2017; Lehrer and Laidley, 2008), this rhetoric has so far been rather absent in megaprojects in the Global South (Kennedy, 2015). In Casablanca, worlding aspirations and discourses on social integration have merged, changing the notion of marginality. Politicians have successfully promoted the tramway as the manifestation of the political will to re-integrate traditional working-class neighbourhoods that have suffered from oppression and marginalisation for a long time (cf. Strava, 2018). However, hidden behind showcase integration and discourses on infrastructural ‘upgrading’, the tramway has brought a new distinction to the urban peripheries of Casablanca – separating it into ‘old’ and ‘new’, desired and undesired population groups. Whereas the traditionally marginalised neighbourhoods such as Hay Mohammadi and Sidi Moumen are incorporated into Casablanca’s urban ‘world class’, some of its dwellers – stigmatised street vendors and shantytown dwellers – were displaced to the ‘new’ peripheries. They are kept – spatially and discursively – outside the ‘world-class’ city, largely dependent on inadequate, costly and insecure urban public transport. Thus, although the tramway was a visible mark of integration policies, it was at the same time a driving force of marginalisation processes that have existed since colonial times. As such, the tramway – as an example of a flagship public transport project – may be considered at the same time as a symbolic end and a driving force of marginalisation.

To conclude, the analysis of Casablanca’s tramway shows that public transport infrastructure in the context of urban worlding aspirations has the power to reframe urban marginality, which goes beyond a mere reproduction of urban inequality (cf. McFarlane, 2009). Urban marginality is redefined even within the urban peripheries and according to Westernised images of ‘modernity’ and ‘non-modernity’. Hence, worlding is not limited to a macro-level aspiration for world recognition. Instead, at the local level, worlding is also about an aspiration for urban recognition which, similar to Yiftachel’s (2009) notion of grey space, appears as a negotiable and flexible construct. Access to ‘world-class’ infrastructure redefines one’s own status of being in the city between the whiteness of the circulatory global city and the blackness of the congested mega-city (cf. Anand, 2006).

While traditional working-class neighbourhoods are getting ‘upgraded’ and symbolically incorporated into Casablanca’s neoliberal ‘world-class’ ambitions, the former heart and origin of the neighbourhood, the shantytown Karyan Central, was demolished. Its dwellers are considered an urban surplus population that should be kept physically outside the ‘world-class’ city. If urban worlding strategies are challenging global hierarchies, flagship public transport projects may redefine the symbolic and spatial attributes of being part of the ‘world-class city’ – at the local level of everyday life.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the support of Sylvia Bergh and the encouraging comments of Paul Watt. Furthermore, I would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful remarks and Torben Dedring, Selda Erdem and Niels Keulertz for their assistance.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Ruhr University Research School PLUS, funded by Germany’s Excellence Initiative [grant number DFG GSC 98/3].

ORCID iD

Raffael Beier

Notes

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