Paper short abstract:

Despite the limited extent and erratic performance of the Arab Spring in Morocco, it entailed a discursive shift reshaping regional identity from below and away from the neoliberal assumptions on regional integration that had isolated Morocco from its Southern neighbors since its independence.

Paper long abstract:

The Moroccan path of international integration since its independence can be understood in terms of a passive revolution whereby its resilient power structure achieved international legitimacy by adapting the economic structure to neoliberal patterns. This trend distanced Morocco from its Maghreb and African neighbours, rather engaged in the Third World pro-socialist movements arising throughout the continent. Co-opted by the European coercive funding and regionalist ideology, the Moroccan ruling class took advantage of the decolonization process to set an open economy based on agricultural exports and tourism from which also the former French and Spanish settlers benefit. However, while North-South patterns prevail in terms of formal regionalism, the uprisings of 2011 reinforced a pervasive discourse on regional identity that overcomes the neoliberal assumptions on regional integration. Despite being a fragmentary movement with contrasting claims and scant continuity in Morocco, it set a discursive turning point that could resemble fragmentary subaltern groups and challenge the boundaries of the post-colonial state. To this regard, the category of subalternity becomes an essential asset not only in ontological terms —since it is key to characterize the structure—, but also for its potential role in shaping a post-colonial and counter-hegemonic regionalism whose features would be defined from within and from below.