Cristiana Strava - Precarious Modernities: Assembling State, Space and Society on the Urban Margins in Morocco

Precarious Modernities

Assembling State, Space and Society on the Urban Margins in Morocco

Cristiana Strava

Contents

Map of Hay Mohammadis location within the wider Casablanca area. Sketch map by the author.

I write Moroccan personal names and place names as they would most commonly appear in the Moroccan context (i.e. Hay Mohammadi, Mohammed V, Echouhada, Ain Sebaa). This transliteration is the outcome of a long history of Francophone scholarship in North Africa (see Wagner 1993).

Similar to other not officially transcribed languages, transcription of Darija colloquial Moroccan Arabic has varied greatly. I follow a logic adopted by ethnographies of Morocco, albeit with three exceptions. First, for words that Darija shares with Modern Standard Arabic (fu) I transliterate according to the IJMES system (i.e. jamiyya or aroubiyin ). Second, I signal words that have been imported from other languages, such as French, in brackets (Fr.). The meaning and provenance of words are explained when a term is first introduced in the text. I do this as a way of staying faithful to the local context of vernacular language production and its usage (see Introduction for further elaboration on language and terminological choices). Third, I employ Anglicized plurals for words that appear frequently in the text, such as djellabas or suqs .

Finally, Arabic names of prominent political groups or figures are transliterated according to the IJMES system (e.g. al-Adl-w-al-Ihsan ). For words that have entered English discourse (Quran or medina), I follow the common English spelling.

Translations from Darija and French into English are mine unless otherwise noted.

It takes a global village to raise an anthropologist. Similarly, this ethnographic book owes a debt of gratitude to a significant number of people. First and foremost, the research it is based on would not have been possible without the generous welcome and participation of Hay Mohammadis inhabitants. I would like to thank all those who have opened their homes to me and allowed me into their lives, even though I cannot name them here. Above all, I would like to thank the women of Hay Mohammadi, who have helped me reflect on the complexities of life, and whose wisdom, good humour and companionship have been crucial to the realization of this study.

Several other people and groups made my research in Casablanca and Morocco a wonderful journey of discovery. Fadma Ait-Mous helped me secure official credentials as a research associate of the Centre Marocain de Sciences Sociales (CM2S) at the Hassan II University in Casablanca. The staff and volunteers of both Casammoire and the local welfare association mentioned throughout the book provided me with gracious help that often extended beyond the principal concerns of this study. I am extremely grateful for their assistance. Asma Issam was a wonderful companion and occasional research assistant, helping to pry open doors where bureaucratic hurdles seemed impassable. Sara Benabachir housed and fed me many a time, shared her hopes and anxieties about Casablanca, asked difficult questions and offered her cheerful energy when it was most needed.

This book is largely based on long-term, in-depth research I carried out as part of my doctoral training. At SOAS, Trevor Marchand acted as an exceptionally dedicated teacher, mentor and kind friend. His thoughtful comments and questions provided me with many insightful reflections, which have hopefully found their way into the text. Edward Simpson and Marloes Janson pushed me to think about the difficult questions before setting out on my scholarly journey, and also helped me find my way through the thicket of post-fieldwork thoughts. Bringing this project to fruition in an era of deepening austerity measures and the corporatization of higher education in the UK, as elsewhere, was a trying process at times. I am therefore grateful to the funding bodies that financially supported me at various stages in this process. During the pre-fieldwork period I was supported by a SOAS Master Bursary. A UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) studentship covered the tuition for the entirety of my doctoral programme. The generous support of a Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant funded the sixteen months I spent in the field; a grant from the Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies at Oxford helped me begin work in the early writing stages. A significant part of the dissertation that this book is based on was written at the KHI-Max Planck Institute in Florence where I was a doctoral fellow with the Max Planck Research Group Objects in the contact-zone the cross-cultural lives of things. I am deeply thankful to Eva Troelenberg, the groups director, for taking an interest in my project and for generously extending my fellowship to support the completion of early drafts. At Leiden University, Crystal Ennis, Judith Naeff, Noa Schonmann, Tsolin Nalbantian, Jasmijn Rana, Mark Westmoreland, Christian Henderson, Sanjukta Sunderason and Radhika Gupta offered moral support when it was most needed and aided my writing and thinking in more ways than they are probably aware.

Different parts of this book were written and revised in the German cities of Mainz and Munich, and in my Romanian hometown of Cisndie. In these places I benefitted from the kind words and nurturing food shared by my friends and their families, as well as a few complete strangers. I consider myself immensely lucky to be part of such supporting communities. Old friends, near and far, have provided me with intellectual, technical and emotional support at different stages. I owe special thanks to Issam Lamsili, Maria Larsson, Martin Liby, Najib Rahmani, Katharina Hay, Cristina Moreno Almeida, Thalia Gigerenzer, Henry Agbo, David Hernandez Garcia, Felicity Bodenstein, Franziska Fay, Zoe Goodman, Marta Agosti, Lauren Yapp, Mara Constantinescu, Oana Danciu and my brother, Sebastian Strava. Stefan Esselborn has been my best friend, careful proofreader and listener, editor of misplaced commas and loving partner. He has helped me refine my arguments and made sure I didnt forget to have an occasional laugh. Any remaining errors and faults are completely my own.

Last, but not least, this book is dedicated to my mother, Adela, and her mother, Lucia, two women whose unending capacity for love (communicated through food) and support (communicated by never questioning my choices) have buoyed me along this path since childhood. Their understated strength and resolve in the face of lifes challenges taught me the value of ordinary things and act as a constant reminder of the resilience found in everyday places.