Refusing a "City without Slums": Moroccan slum dwellers' nonmovements and the art of presence. (June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Atia, Mona
• Is Part Of: Cities. Volume 125(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Subjects: City planning -- Periodicals; Urban policy -- Periodicals; 711.4
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2019.02.014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0264-2751

Abstract

Abstract: In June 2018, as a result of a program known as " Villes Sans Bidonvilles " (VSB) or "Cities without Slums, " the Kingdom of Morocco declared 58 of 85 cities across the country as slum-free. This paper analyzes the "pockets of resistance" that the Kingdom of Morocco has faced in the implementation of the VSB program. I assert that the contestations and acts of resistance pursued by slum-dwellers are an art of presence – "the ability of the subaltern subjects to assert their collective will in spite of all odds, to circumvent the constraints, utilizing what is possible, and discover new spaces within which to make themselves heard, seen, felt and realized" (Bayat, 2017:111). The art of presence is "the fundamental movement in the life of nonmovements, " therefore I combine the two concepts to argue that slum-dwellers responded to the VSB in incremental/spontaneous and organized/strategic ways, and in doing so they forced the authorities to change their approach against all odds. Using two case studies, I demonstrate how slum dwellers' responses to the rehousing scheme delayed the VSB process by a number of years, and in fact made the authorities offer a resettlement option ( recasement ) that was preferable to the residents. As slum dwellers resisted the intervention of the state and used tactics of refusal, protest, and grassroots organizing, they turned urban space into a site of contention, and made claims to that space despite being "dispersed, unorganized and atomized" (Bayat, 2017:106). The social 'nonmovement' of the slum-dwellers led to tangible benefits for them, and led to the "socialization of the state" through the replacement of the government rehousing program with a resettlement scheme that they preferred. They therein resisted the state's attempt to make them invisible, eradicate their built environment and inculcate them into proper neoliberal development subjects. Their resistance was not a form of radical, insurgent citizenship, but rather a form of "deradicalized dissent" that amended the existing order instead of producing a new one. Against all odds, the art of presence of the slum-dwellers induced a dramatic change in housing policy in their favor. Highlights: In June 2018 the Kingdom of Morocco declared 58 of 85 cities as slum-free. Slum residents resisted the intervention of the state through tactics of refusal, protest, and grassroots organizing. Resettlement replaced rehousing in response to the slum residents' resistance. Slum residents preferred resettlement because it was affordable and had income-generating potential. Slum-dwellers incremental/spontaneous and organized/strategic responses turned urban space into a site of contention.