Évolution des registres de l’action, de la ruse à la mobilisation de la notion « droit » par les habitants des bidonvilles au Maroc

Abstract

Based on empirical research, this article proposes to identify the modes of protest and ranges of action used by slum dwellers to integrate their neighborhood into the city or to protest against urban transformation. Our study focuses on two slums: douar El Kora and douar Dlim in Rabat (Morocco), both affected by a relocation operation. The former is undergoing an in-situ relocating operation resulting in a minor transfer of some of its inhabitants, while the latter’s population is being relocated in distant outskirts of the city. In contrast with the passivity that has long been their attribute, slum dwellers have shown organizational skills and an ability to take the stage at very specific times to engage in demonstrations. Thus, the range of their actions has diversified and intensified. Indeed, the urban riots that characterized the 1980s and 1990s, as a time of social protest and beginning of new premises in urban policies, gave way to claims made along more legal lines; the idea of rights has been “emerging” as a major reference from the late 1990s until present days in the particular context of the Arab Springs. This angle represents an innovative approach to the subject of Moroccan slums, which is, incidentally, widely documented by social scientists and urban researchers.

Keywords

• Morocco
• mobilization
• slums
• collective actions
• right(s)