Local initiatives, public policies and the development of tourism in the rural Morocco: A 15 year perspective on development initiatives in rural tourism

There are demands and potentials for a promising development of rural tourism in Morocco, but due to a lack of organisation up until 2000, the offer has remained limited. A tourist boom is currently underway countrywide, with numerous projects developed rather anarchically and involving a multitude of actors with a focus on heritage and local products.This tourism is generating great hopes as a tool to increase cash income, particularly in marginalised areas. The development of rural tourism requires a territorial approach. Based on several case studies we hypothesise that the  success of a rural tourism project is bound to the degree of appropriation by localpeople. It prompts two questions:(i) what are the relationships and the articulations between top-down and bottom-up initiatives?(ii) Is this tourism venture conducted according to a territorial logic: are all the stakeholders equally involved in planning, developing and commercial activities across the rural tourism continuum?These case studies are representative of the national context in terms of actors’ involvement, project planning, partnership, stakeholders, and relationships between initiatives at the regional level. In addition, the provisional conclusions drawn from this can be used to follow further development of this activity

We all one mob but different : groups, grouping and identity in a Kimberley aboriginal village

`This thesis examines the development and maintenance of a fragile group identity at the community level among Aboriginal people in the West Kimberley in Western Australia. It focuses on the town-based Aboriginal settlement of Junjuwa in Fitzroy Crossing. With no indigenous political structures relevant to the permanent co-residence of several hundreds of people the development and maintenance of a community sentiment powerful enough to allow the effective operation of the community as an administrative unit is problematic. While the material constraints of successive government policies have been a key limitation on people, indigenous identities, groupings and associations which pose obstacles to sustaining a commitment to the community are always present and constantly threatening it. This thesis explores the bases of cohesion at the community level and the constant tension with sub-community loyalties of one kind or another. It begins with a consideration of aspects of the historical background that are crucial to understanding the contemporary situation, paying particular attention to the transformations in residence patterns brought about by the pastoral industry. The emergence of Junjuwa is described in the context of the pastoral industry in the 1960s, which forced many Aboriginal people into Fitzroy Crossing. This is followed by an analysis of the community constitution, the physical structure and the resident population. In the subsequent Chapter, the bases of group sentiments and the circumstances in which these were expressed and operated are analysed. Chapters six and seven examine the sub-groupings, associations and identities that are in constant tension with the community identity. Chapter eight concentrates on the leadership in the community and Chapter nine on the consequences of external interventions. In the final chapter I discuss why the factors that make the emergence of a community sentiment at the level of associations like Junjuwa are not, at present, expendable to the regional level

We are not a Christian mob, we want that UAM land back

Hello everybody. I am pretty happy that yesterday Jon Altman said we would be hearing from the next generation today. So I believe Sylvie and I are part of the new generation. Secondly, that’s probably the first time in 25 years or so that I am attending a symposium or a seminar where I have colleagues who were enrolled in the PhD at the same time as I was, my supervisor, one of my examiners and very close friends as well, so it is a bit embarrassing. Not only for that, but embarrassing too b..

Alain Testart (1945-2013)

Alain Testart, Avignon, 2004 (cl. Valérie Lécrivain) Alain Testart, anthropologue, directeur de recherche émérite au Cnrs, nous a quittés il y a maintenant un an, alors qu’il venait de recevoir le Prix Guizot de l’Académie française et le Prix Émile Girardeau de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques pour son livre Avant l’histoire (2012a). Il s’est éteint à l’âge de 68 ans, le 2 septembre 2013, des suites d’une longue maladie en nous laissant une œuvre à la fois ambitieuse, singulière..

Les « patrimoines ruraux » au Maroc : Un nouveau produit des mobilités contemporaines ?

The concept of « patrimony » (heritage) is currently emerging and being developped in rural areas in Morocco where material and mental elements of agro-pastoral cultures are re-qualified ​​and considered as important assets to preserve for future generations. Revelation, redefinition, protection or development of these assets have emerged in relation to recent processes targeting the economic development and territorial qualification of local products (“terroir products”), landscapes and know-how. However, “mobility” also appears central in these patrimony development dynamics, with, on the one hand, the emergence of new actors on the rural scene such as "experts" in local products development, tourism operators and tourists, rural fairs promoters, and on the other hand the increased circulation of ideas, development models, capital and goods, This working paper aims to analyze patrimony development dynamics and processes in the light of these new dynamics linked to mobility, relocation and circulation that mark the rural contexts. We also analyze how far the increased movement of goods and people in the new dynamics of rural areas in Morocco generate anchoring/dis-anchoring (or associative/dissociative) dynamics, or impact on the relationships between rural and urban patrimonies.La notion de patrimoine est appliquée aujourd’hui au Maroc aux territoires ruraux : les éléments matériels et idéels des systèmes agraires et pastoraux sont investis de nouvelles valeurs et considérés comme des biens à conserver pour les générations futures. Les processus de révélation et de redéfinition de ces « patrimoines » sont souvent mis en relation avec les changements du rapport des sociétés au territoire induits par la valorisation et la qualification des produits, des paysages et des savoirs faire. Dans ces processus, la mobilité des hommes et la circulation des idées, des modèles de développement, des capitaux et des marchandises, jouent un rôle central. Cet article propose d’analyser ces processus à la lumière des nouvelles dynamiques mobilitaires qui marquent les contextes ruraux et où sont impliquées différentes catégories d’acteurs : « experts » actifs dans la valorisation des produits de terroir, entrepreneurs touristiques et touristes, promoteurs des foires à thème. Nous aborderons aussi les effets d’ancrage (ou de « désancrage ») territorial et identitaire, ainsi que les nouvelles relations entre patrimoines ruraux et patrimoines urbains, générés par la circulation accrue des produits et des hommes