Journal Article

The world-class city comes by tramway

Beier, Raffael

2020

Overview

Although framed as projects targeting the improvement of public transport, the reduction of traffic congestion and the integration of urban peripheries, tramways are often inscribed to political ambitions of modernisation and urban renewal. As such, Morocco’s tramway projects constitute a distinct feature of national urban worlding ambitions promoting ‘world-class’ cities. Likewise, Casablanca’s tramway is closely entangled with political discourses on the urban integration of politically marginalised working-class neighbourhoods. However, this article sees the tramway as a symbol and driving force of a new distinction of the urban peripheries of Casablanca – separating it into ‘old’ and ‘new’, desired and undesired population groups. On the one hand, the tramway has fostered the incorporation of the traditional working-class neighbourhoods – the old peripheries – into Casablanca’s urban ‘world-class’ project. On the other hand, the tramway is the flagship of urban renaissance policies that have pushed stigmatised street vendors and shantytown dwellers from the working-class neighbourhoods to isolated new towns – the emerging ‘new’ peripheries. Here they are kept – spatially and discursively – outside the ‘world-class’ city, largely dependent on inadequate, costly and insecure urban public transport. These dynamics not only conflict with the tramway’s objectives to decrease traffic congestion and to promote sociospatial integration, they also show the power of urban worlding projects to reframe urban marginality and to define who does (and who does not) have access to the ‘world-class’ city. 尽管电车轨道被设计成旨在改善公共交通、减少交通拥堵和城市周边一体化的项目，但 它往往被赋予现代化和城市更新的政治抱负。因此，摩洛哥的电车项目构成了一道独特 的风景线，它促进打造“世界级”城市的城市国际化国家雄心。同样，卡萨布兰卡的电 车轨道也与政治上被边缘化的工人阶级社区融入城市的政治讨论紧密相连。然而，本文 认为电车是卡萨布兰卡城市边缘新的割裂的象征和驱动力，因为电车把城市边缘分成 “旧的”和“新的”，想要的和不想要的人口群体。一方面，电车促进了传统的工人阶 级社区（旧的周边地区）融入卡萨布兰卡的打造“世界级”城市项目。另一方面，电车 轨道是城市复兴政策的旗舰，这些政策将被污名化的街头小贩和棚户区居民从工人阶级 聚居区推向孤立的新城镇一新出现的“新”边缘。在这里，它们在空间上被间接地保留 在“世界级”城市之外，主要依赖于不充分、昂贵和不安全的城市公共交通。这些动态 不仅与电车轨道减少交通拥堵和促进社会空间整合的目标相冲突，还显示了打造世界级 城市的项目具有一种力量，能重塑城市边缘，并决定谁可以(谁不可以)进入“世界级” 城市。

• Publisher: Sage Publications, Ltd,SAGE Publications,Sage Publications Ltd
• Subject: Boundaries / Cities / Classroom communication / Discourses / Educational activities / Frame analysis / Integration / Marginality / Modernization / Neighborhoods / New towns / Political discourse / Public transportation / Renewal / Social classes / Social exclusion / Traffic / Traffic conflicts / Traffic congestion / Traffic flow / Tramways / Urban areas / Urban policy / Urban renewal / Vendors / Working class