Urban generations: Post-colonial cities
01-03 October 2004
Conference Abstracts
6. Belghazi, Taieb; Mohammed V University –
Agdal, Morocco: "The Festivalisation of Urban Space in Morocco"
This paper discusses the phenomenon of festivalisation
of Moroccan urban space in recent years. It addresses the issue
of how festivals constitute a site of struggle for the definition
of the city’s identity through its construction as a charged
symbolic field and a space of governance. The paper gives particular
attention to the ways in which discourse on festivals is deployed
by the state and by NGO organisations including Islamist associations
and how this discourse represents an instance of the contest of
culture.
Through a discussion of the festivals organised by
the Ministry of culture and Fes Sais association, the paper also
discusses the ways in which “Eventising the city” also
stages it as a brand, a cultural good that is marketed in ethnic
terms.
