Rural Futurisms: Manufactures of modernity in the Haouz
Rural Futurisms examines the reconstruction of Morocco’s rural Haouz region following the 2023 earthquake that destroyed approximately 50,000 homes, displacing thousands of residents. The region, known for its living heritage of mud and stone architectures, faces complex challenges as reconstruction unfolds amid the growing dominance of concrete, which is steadily replacing vernacular constructions throughout the country.
The research examines the social and material aftermaths of the 2023 Haouz earthquake and the ways in which prevailing State reconstruction logics in the region are producing new rural identities. I argue that the reconstruction efforts unfolding in the Haouz are producing new social configurations of rural life, calling forth an understanding of post-earthquake reconstruction as a critical ground in which modernity is manufactured, negotiated and unevenly sedimented through domestic construction practices. In examining the earthquake beyond its natural aftermath, this research investigates how the reconstruction process exposes deeper conflicts between vernacular spatial practices and Morocco’s Vision 2030, a series of Royal development strategies culminating in the year 2030. In this context, concrete is situated not merely as a technical solution but as a social agent that binds and restructures labor relations, material hierarchies while simultaneously enabling new aspirations of modernity and citizenship for rural residents.
Rather than questioning what does it mean to be modern in today’s rural Morocco, this research project ventures into the how we do become modern in the countryside : What are the logics at play behind the manufacture of modernity and how, amidst the cracks of mud walls patched with cement mortars, can we read the emergence of a new spatial identity in the Haouz ?
The research examines the social and material aftermaths of the 2023 Haouz earthquake and the ways in which prevailing State reconstruction logics in the region are producing new rural identities. I argue that the reconstruction efforts unfolding in the Haouz are producing new social configurations of rural life, calling forth an understanding of post-earthquake reconstruction as a critical ground in which modernity is manufactured, negotiated and unevenly sedimented through domestic construction practices. In examining the earthquake beyond its natural aftermath, this research investigates how the reconstruction process exposes deeper conflicts between vernacular spatial practices and Morocco’s Vision 2030, a series of Royal development strategies culminating in the year 2030. In this context, concrete is situated not merely as a technical solution but as a social agent that binds and restructures labor relations, material hierarchies while simultaneously enabling new aspirations of modernity and citizenship for rural residents.
Rather than questioning what does it mean to be modern in today’s rural Morocco, this research project ventures into the how we do become modern in the countryside : What are the logics at play behind the manufacture of modernity and how, amidst the cracks of mud walls patched with cement mortars, can we read the emergence of a new spatial identity in the Haouz ?
