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Oberlin College

Publication Date

Spring 2019

Program Name

Morocco: Migration and Transnational Identity

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, Morocco’s strategies of urban governance have been decidedly neoliberal, focusing on entrepreneurialism, market liberalization, and privatization in order to make Moroccan cities more competitive in a global capitalist market (Bogaert 2010; Kanai & Kutz 2011). Within this context of neoliberal urban restructuring, I examine the case of Airbnb in the rapidly globalising city-region of Tangier. Airbnb is an online “sharing economy” platform which allows property owners to rent out living spaces to short-term travellers, usually tourists. In the Moroccan urban context, Airbnb is part of a broader trend of entrepreneurial development, influx of international capital into the real estate market, and touristification. However, while most urban entrepreneurialism in Morocco has been tightly state-lead and planned by a confederation of government agencies and private interests, Airbnb hosts participate in transnational entrepreneurialism outside of the scope of the state or other financial institutions (Zemni & Bogaert 2011). Interviews conducted with Airbnb hosts in Tangier help to provide a picture of the individuals participating in global urban processes and the concrete social networks in which these processes unfold, complicating simplistic narratives of neoliberal globalisation in which depersonified “capital” and monolithic institutions are the only relevant actors.

Disciplines

Behavioral Economics | E-Commerce | Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations | Growth and Development | Hospitality Administration and Management | Politics and Social Change | Social and Cultural Anthropology

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