Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses the recent development of Tangier (Morocco) into a major transport hub at the intersection of several trade corridors and world regions. The focus will be on the joint effect of development visions on different spatial levels and on the local political and economic consequences.

Paper long abstract:

In the last ten years the wider agglomeration of Tangier (Morocco) has experienced unprecedented transport and economic infrastructure development, notably with the "Tanger Méditerranée" platform. The platform includes a huge container transhipment port, which has rapidly attained the first rank on the African continent. After further extension in near future, it will also become the first in the Mediterranean. Road and rail infrastructure in Tangier is also being expanded and integrates several large African and European transport corridors. The projects intend to open Tangier for foreign capital and to embed it into (trans-)regional and global trade and transport flows. The idea is to develop it into a major port city, profiting from its position at multiple (state and regional) borders, and to establish it as a transport hub between different parts of the world and a gateway both to Europe and to Africa.

The focus of the paper will be on the joint effect of the wide range of intersecting development visions coming from and addressing different - regional, national and local - scales and on their coactive and competing character. The analysis extends to the different, mostly "external" actors' involvement in urban development. Their interests and motives and the implications for political power and economic benefits on the local level are always at play. Finally, the outlook endeavours to highlight the urban repercussions of the new infrastructures, such as territorial exclusion and spatial fragmentation, which indicate uneven access to the new installations for several groups of local inhabitants.