Unpredictable and Tinkered: Rural and Agricultural Modernization in Morocco

This article offers an analysis of the "modernization" of rural and agricultural Morocco from a social anthropology of development perspective. We will go beyond considering the development account as being linear by considering "a strong state before" and "a less central state after the structural adjustment policies." We consider that other actors existed, even when the State was considered as omnipresent. We analyze three arenas where the development initiatives carried out by the State reflect the interweaving of logics and actions of other actors and by doing so the development process becomes unpredictable and tinkered. The first arena is the practice of the social sciences. More particularly, the sociological training within the agricultural engineering institutes testifies of the confrontation between the modernization model promoted by the State and the oftencritical reflection provided by the social sciences. We illustrate how the social sciences became interested in development issues and in doing so, they both contributed to building this modernization model, while criticizing the State. The second arena is that of irrigation projects which have received special attention from the State and where agricultural land allocation has been confronted with the different logics of farmers. Finally, we describe the political arena at the local level which has been marked by the mobilization of rural notables in development projects, leading unpredictably to the appearance of new profiles of rural leaders.