Paper short abstract:

This paper will consider the logics, temporalities, and morals behind recent efforts to build 'green' urban infrastructures at some of Morocco's most polluted industrial sites.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years the Kingdom of Morocco has embarked on a series of ambitious billion-euro projects to overhaul the country's infrastructure on an unprecedented scale.

Capitalizing on the ongoing crises precipitated by the Arab Spring revolts in the region and its own comparative political and social stability, the Moroccan regime has been attracting global as well as regional investors with the promise of new 'eco projects' that aim to transform natural, economic and social landscapes through a "virtuous approach".

Zenata Eco-City is one such example. Situated along the Atlantic coast between the country's administrative and financial capitals - Rabat and Casablanca, respectively - the future 'green' city will be developed on the site of a highly polluting phosphate processing plant as well as an oil refinery. Using buzzwords such as "strategic", "innovative", and "participatory", the developers describe the new Eco-City as destined for the "emerging classes".

For a resource-poor country facing increasingly chaotic weather patterns, these projects become catalysts for narratives about national economic and social development. Promising a new age of 'green' modernity, these narratives help depict the future with carefully crafted and curated images signalling an aspiration towards a future focused on ecological responsibility and sustainable living, while continuing to invest in fossil fuel processing plants.

Drawing on material gathered during my doctoral fieldwork, this paper will examine how anxieties about the future are articulated in the case of the Zenata Eco-city and present some preliminary conclusions on the politics and morals of 'green' city development in Morocco.