INTRODUCTION

The scientific debate and literature related to the territorial governance is plethoric. Considerable progress had been obtained in its paradigms and concepts’ apprehension (global governance, transboundary governance, interactive governance, corporate governance, associative governance, relational governance, co-governance, governance by contract, governance from inside, adaptive governance, integrated governance, etc.). Actors› controversies stimulated several scientific tensions and debates (Loconto et al., 2020, p. 2Loconto , A., Desquilbe, M., Moreaua,T., Couvet, D., Dorin B. (2020). The land sparing - land sharing controversy: Tracing the politics of knowledge. Land Use Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.09.014 ). In the developed countries they are regulated and framed by laws and pacts (Antonescu, 2014; Counsell and Haughton, 2006Counsell, D. and Haughton, G. (2006). Sustainable development in regional planning: The search for new tools and renewed legitimacy. Geoforum, 37, 921-931.). Following the evolution of rules, economies and societal paradigms in managing land property and resources’ use, the territorial governance is valued as a multidisciplinary concept in spatial economic, geographic, urbanity or architectural studies. Spatiality is more apprehended at different scales of investigation. In a world scale for example, Grataloup and Margolin (1987, p. 66)Grataloup, Ch. et Margolin, J.-L. (1987). Du puzzle au réseau. Espaces Temps, 36, 55-66. mentioned the importance of networking in the third world and difficulties to find spatial limits because it is heterogeneous and composed of diverse socioeconomic, cultural and environmental entities. In local scale, specific models were developed to apprehend the controversies of actors due to their diverse interests and the dynamic balances in the area. The governance of local productive systems was suggested for local development led by small and medium enterprises in industry and innovation. It may be integrated in training for performance of firms and economic sectors (Guidetti and Mazzanti, 2007, p. 892Guidetti G. and Mazzanti, M. (2007). Firm-level training in local economic systems Complementarities in production and firm innovation strategies. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 36, 875-894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2007.01.021 ). Newman (2000)Newman, P. (2000). Changing patterns of regional governance in the EU. Urban Studies, 37(5-6), 895-908. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980050011145 focused on the changing patterns of regional governance in Europe, due its contextual change. In suburbs, it reveals the complex system of actors’ relations, and heterogeneous interactions adopted or imposed in the management of territorial systems, including peripheries. Callon (1986)Callon, M. (1986). Eléments pour une sociologie de la traduction. La domestication des coquilles Saint Jacques et des marins-pêcheurs dans la baie de Saint-Brieuc. L’année sociologique, 36, 169-208. studied the trajectories of networks along actors controversies, and the translation of logics. The urban and suburban literature has increasingly recognized the importance of integrating actors’ logics and even their culture and interests with other value chains in landscape planning. Arnaboldi and Spiller (2011, p. 641)Arnaboldi, M. and Spiller, N. (2011): Actor-network theory and stakeholder collaboration: The case of Cultural Districts. Tourism Management, 32, 641-654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2010.05.016 applied the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to apprehend the cultural districts « by deploying three ANT rules: enrolling actors, fact-building and circulating translations. These rules are used to define a “conditional path” whereby specific actions are activated when controversies emerge».

Giraut (2013, p. 302)Giraut F. (2013). Territoire multi-situé, complexité territoriale et postmodernité territoriale : des concepts opératoires pour rendre compte des territorialités contemporaines ? L’Espace géographique, 4 (42), 293 - 305. https://doi.org/10.3917/eg.424.0293 apprehend territorial complexity and Territorial Postmodernity focusing on the relevance of the concept of “multi-sited territory’’ and the specification of spatial entities perceived with modern ways. McFarlane (2011, p. 204)McFarlane, C. (2011). Assemblage and critical urbanism. City, 15, 204-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2011.568715 recommended further studies to apprehend the critical urbanism, using the assemblage approach in urbanism to focus on socio-material interactions and distribution.

More recently Rasoolimanesh et al. (2019b)Rasoolimanesh, S. M., Nurwati, B., Aldrin A. and Behrang, M. (2019b). How governance influences the components of sustainable urban development? Journal of Cleaner Production, 238, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117983 apprehend the question of how the governance influences the components of sustainable urban development? Their findings reveal the negative effects of governance on the social development, inclusion, and economic development components of sustainable urban development (SUD). These results though issued from case studies in several countries are reviewed in the present study led in Aïn Chkef, a small urban center developed in the southern suburbs area at the vicinity of Fez (Morocco).

Though the public investment in the commune of Ain Chkef (Ain Chkef center and Ras El Ma) are huge, severe problems of social inclusion and economic development remain unsolved due to the local governance facing the problems of projects’ coordination and the actors’ controversies and conflicts on lands and resources. The sustainable development in such cases is often conditioned by the knowledge of the actors’ logics and how they may be adapted to improve the ongoing complex territorial systems by different stakeholders’ collaboration.

This paper deals with the suburban governance problems in Ain Chkef center, where the planned urban pole (a major development program in action since 2006) face serious problems in achieving its goals of integration, economic development and social inclusion. In the first part of the article, a literature review is cited to frame the urban development problems explaining the research questions, and how adopted governance include failing germs. The study area presentation is a geographic description focusing on apprehensive environmental, social and spatial elements and the methodology adopted in the study.

The second part of the article presents the acquired data in terms of territorial problematic sectors revealing types of actors’ conflicts. These sectors are mapped and located using the homogenic sectors approach provided by the ArcGis GIS tools. The diversity of concerned actors in territorial development is also enlightened to show the complexity that urban governance should apprehend in this area. The third part of article is a further discussion providing comprehensive elements that explain such situations and the convergent governance is argued to be the adequate model of governance in this complex area.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND FIELD WORK

The Moroccan spatial change in the last decades seem positively affected by the major public infrastructure investments and the economic reforms that favor investment in the urban peripheries. However, the social mixite and inequalities in public equipment do not favor their territorial development.

The adopted regional approach and administrative decentralization improved the territorial governance since the start of the democratic and regional politics after 1975, but actors’ engagement and their capabilities remain problematic as illustrated by the ongoing urban management and governance. As a result, the equity in terms of social and economic impacts of the development projects either in urban or in rural areas was subject of critics (Rapport du Développement Humain, 2006Rapport de Développement Humain (2006). L’avenir se construit et le meilleur est possible. Rapport du cinquantenaire Développement humain au Maroc, Synthèse, 46p. https://www.ires.ma/documents_reviews/50-ans-de-developpement-humain-au-maroc-et-perspectives-2025/ ; Haut Commissariat au Plan, 2003Haut-Commissariat au Plan (2003). Prospective Maroc 2030. Permanences, changements et enjeux de l’avenir. Rapp., Rabat.: 2014Haut-Commissariat au Plan (2014). Principaux résultats de la cartographie de la pauvreté multidimensionnelle, Paysage territorial et dynamique. Rapp., Rabat, 9p.). The public efforts to reduce poverty face serious challenges because the gap was huge.

Several economic, social and environmental problems for example appear, mainly in marginal areas such as in mountain, periphery regions and suburbs. Most of Moroccan metropolitan cities are surrounded by poor spatial crowns, slums or unequipped rural areas. Suburban centers were developed to offer proximity services but remain unable to satisfy the residents’ needs and improve the population’s wellbeing. Since 2005 the National Initiative of Human Development planned several programs to reduce such inequalities and favor social inclusion, the country is engaged to attain the Millennium Development Goals and the elected communities and public administrations engage equipment programs to face territorial disparities. However, in some cases, the results are not optimal as several projects fail. In most cases, the adopted governance is cited among responsible factors. The Country Program for Morocco, signed with OECD in 2019, builds on the following four main pillars:

In terms of political economy, the governance and territorial development equity are still serious questions in Morocco. In the urban suburbs at the vicinity of Fez, several factors including the social and economic practices are considerably affecting the territorial development.

Among the eight communes chosen in the area, Ain Chkef is the most quickly developing due to its proximity to the metropolis and the advantages it offers considering its environmental context (the main forest and springs of the area). Its population increased 6.4% between 1994 and 2004 and 4.12 between 2004 and 2014. It is the highest rate compared to the rates calculated for other communes of Fez.

The case study of Aïn Chkef at the vicinity of Fez is an inspirative case to apprehend realities in the light of the actor network theory (Comber et al., 2003, p. 299Comber, A., Peter, F., Richard, W. (2003). Actor-network theory: a suitable framework to understand how land cover mapping projects develop? Land Use Policy, 20, 299-309. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-8377(03)00048-6 ) and the critical urban theory adapted to the urban assemblage theory (McFarlane, 2011, p. 204McFarlane, C. (2011). Assemblage and critical urbanism. City, 15, 204-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2011.568715 ) to test how such social theories may frame the ongoing processes. The center is a significant case where social practices affect efforts of institutional actors in urban development. In terms of equity and social integration, the acquired results remain modest. The situation’s diagnostic shows that applied urban solutions in the center need further knowledge of causes and adapted management tools, with open and participatory approaches (Akdim, 2020Akdim, S. (2020). L’éloquence spatiale : les traces spatiales des conflits d’acteurs dans la fabrique de la ville, cas de Aïn Chkef, Maroc. Memoir de Master, Ecole Nationale d’Architecture, Nantes, France, 119p.).

The studied area is framed by the limits of Aïn Chkef commune territory and contain two major small centers formed by the agglomeration of Ras El Ma and Ain Chkef . It is located in the administrative subdivision of Moulay Yacoub Province, in the southern zone of Fez, 10 kilometers far from the city, on the Saïs plain. Ain Chkef forms the main center of the commune, where most administrative services are located.

However, the main center of Aïn Chkef, modernization introduced by the urban plan following a top-down approach, faces problems at the executive phase because projects (infrastructures, urban zoning, location of public equipment, etc.) are considered as administrative decisions without prepared guarantees to ensure their success. In fact, a part of the local population districts the projects as they weaken the original social rules between individuals who build systems of tribal and tradition of land use throughout centuries. The modern conception of the territorial development and governance fails to establish a new social and territorial inclusive system that will meet the needs of actors, who have different aspirations and interests.

Land property in these rural areas is influenced by the settlement evolution and local history. Even the settlement in the peripheral zone of the city of Fez is a composite and multi-ethnic domain, the most population in the center is affiliated to the Oulad El Haj tribe. Its settlement is influenced by the turbulent history of the Saïs plain and its borders over the past three centuries. The main ethnic groups, Arabic-speaking and Amazigh-speaking, definitively established in this area are the Oudaya, the Oulad Lhaj, the Aït Ayach - Aït Ouallal and the Sjaa - Hamyane. Historical resources (Knineh, 2005Knineh, L. (2005). Ouverture du Maroc sur le marché mondial au 19^ième siècle, et ses incidences sur les structures économiques, sociales et politiques au Saïs. Info-Print, Fès, 260p.) describe the great movements of these tribes across the country. Some are from the South (Aït Ayach for example) and others are from the East and Southeast (Sjaa and Oulad Lhaj for example). The events and the challenges of their settlement in Saïs, especially in the 18th century and under the reign of the Alaoui Sultans Moulay Ismail and Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah are numerous. Along history the central government managed social - spatial balances, implementing a policy based on military action, the economy and the management of land potential. The land was thus distributed «for exploitation», in return for the services rendered to the government. Some villages are organized in farming cooperatives. In all cases, the groups benefit from using the land in the framework of a collective property status. None of them has individual land ownership right. An ethnically composite country was therefore created around Fez. The ethnic groupings and the land property status in the area are partly inherited from this turbulent historical evolution. The local populations considering themselves as “owners” of the land want to negotiate all territorial management authorities to suggest to be included in the urban center.

The Aïn Chkef commune is chosen as the study area because it shows significant demographic indicators (Table 2) that influence urban and spatial evolution of suburbs.

It is a sensible area because as it knows a rapid urbanization process influenced by the human and economic links with Fez and the potential development and advantages it offers to investors (land, plain morphology, forest leisure opportunities, water resources and environment quality, etc.). However acute actors’ controversies have taken place in the center, because the changes underway lead to multiple challenges. Major stakeholder issues have developed around land property and exploitation, and suburban development in the center of Ain Chkef, especially after the launch of the urban pole (or district) project and the major intervention of the Al Omrane Enterprise in the development of the site. Many controversies of actors have been aroused around the land because the actors act according to opportunities, acquired historic rights or even the games of power and politics.

The controversies of actors of the territory emerge from the divergences of interests and points of view on the questions of local development, equipment and regional planning. They sometimes diverge or oppose, creating controversies, which can defeat local development initiatives, projects and processes, when the gaps are huge. Several situations of this type have been observed in the territory of the commune of Aïn Chkef, where large-scale projects face real difficulties and are sometimes blocked (certain roads in the urban center are not completed in the center; the Ras El Ma industrial platform face development problems).

Successful local development thus faces challenges linked to conflicting actors. Several questions arise about the reasons for these blockages and their factors? How can we avoid, or solve, these problems? What governance can be effective in this regard? The challenges can be social, economic, spatial or environmental and are constantly evolving. Their mastery is fundamental for relaunching the constructive dynamics in accordance with the fixed objectives.

Selected illustrative models from the field will be presented to discuss the challenges of territorial governance by discussing the relationship between the Metropole Fez and its suburb agglomeration Aïn Chkef, the impact of central governance at the regional and local levels and the apparent imbalances shown by various economic and social indicators.

Several questions emerged, such as:

These topics were questioned because their answers may contribute to attain the following objectives:

METHODOLOGY

The social and ecologic parameters and the interactions in landscape are complex in several cases as their impacts may be visible or latent and may be affected by the policy strategies and actors’ mastering the change (Primdahl et al., 2013Primdahl, J., Lone S. K. and Swaffield S. (2013). Guiding rural landscape change Current policy approaches and potentials of landscape strategy making as a policy integrating approach. Applied Geography, 42, 86-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2013.04.004 ). Studying the territorial governance in such contexts is therefore multi-dimensional and needs synthetic approaches. Interviewing actors is a pertinent qualitative technique to study their perceptions (Seidman, 2006Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as Qualitative Research. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York and London, 177p). Based on this postulate, the present study used several tools considered pertinent in revealing the interactions between different parameters. To understand how actors adapt their actions to better profit from the situation in the ongoing territorial management, a three steps approach have been adopted in the study.

In the first step, the key parameters in the territorial management and governance in the area were identified, mapped and analyzed. They are the contextual environmental, social, cultural, economic, institutional and legal factors. These factors may influence the territorial challenges, engender reason for actors’ controversies and impulse development actions and actors’ adaptations.

Either in field work or along the bibliographic research data related to these factors have been collected. The official documents illustrating public views for future development of the Aïn Chkef center were analyzed (the regional development plan, the Urban development plan, the municipal development plan). Demographic data was issued from the General Census of Population and Habitat (2014) and further bibliographic review was realized.

The second study phase was the interviews phase. It extended between 2018 and 2019. The major socio-professional categories engaged in the territorial management in Aïn Chkef were targeted.

The main criteria used to choose the interviewees were:

Interviews were organized with three representative actors from each category. A total of 40 persons were selected based on the criteria cited above. 25% of them were female. The survey is designed and realized considering its reliability and pertinence to produce actors’ points of views on the studied matter (Floyd and Fowler, 1995Floyd, J. and Fowler, Jr. (1995). Improving survey questions. SAGE publications, New Delhi, 196p.). The conversation guide does not present formal questions however each semi-structured interview is organized around four major topics (socio-professional activities, urban challenges in the center, perspectives of the agglomeration development, and actions that may be suggested as solutions to better development to meet the population needs. The answers were tape - recorded and their content’s transcript was done later.

The third study phase consists in data analysis oriented to find the homogeneous territories, actors and effects of the ongoing governance in terms of projects execution. This approach facilitates the determination of the major point of views based on actors’ interests and strategies. Mapping and data analysis using the ArcGIS program were very useful to clarify the spatial variations of the studied parameters. It also permits the identification of the sensible territorial sites that reflect the causes of controversies and actors’ conflicts. These sites were targeted using the actors’ perceptions analysis. The discussion of the results underlined useful elements for the alternative governance model elaboration. The top - down governance usually adopted was criticized and the convergent approach gains reason and become progressively consistent.

RESULTS

The Ain Chkef commune is located in the vicinity of Fez metropolis but it is not marginal considering the development opportunities it offers to its inhabitants and to Fez and its future potential role in the regional economy. However, it is facing several challenges where governance seems to be a central factor that affects the dynamics of the territorial development.

Both in Aïn Chkef and Ras El Ma centers, the observed projects’ blockages illustrate problems of territorial governance. In the case of Ras El Ma, the industrial zone has been incomplete to date, and has steered controversy between various actors. The authorities developed this platform to revive the regional economy, but the objectives were not attained. Despite the site’s important potential positive factors and the existence of the train station ensuring future communication and products’ export the project did not attract investors. According to MedZ, the operator of Ras El Ma’s integrated industrial platform (P2i), this project suffers from the lack of investors’ demand. The investors recognize the fact that the land price is low in this area but the off-site facilities and infrastructures are not attractive, and transport linking with Fez remains problematic in the absence of modern roads and equipment. The contrasting visions do not yet encourage the development of this center to take off, although it can play pioneering roles in the spatial structuring and integrated development of the whole region.

-In the case of the urban pole in the center of Aïn Chkef, the diversity of actors and their different interests engaged several projects contestations and do not facilitate the realization of the integrated visions desired for the development of the center. They generate in certain cases blockages of projects requiring a proximity approach and clear decision-making to overcome these constraints.

Actors’ controversies and place specificities

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The Aïn Chkef center is a significant case to apprehend the urban challenges in peripheral areas and satellite centers of the Moroccan cities. It offers local models to study the role of historic and cultural factors on management practices, identify the diversity of territorial entities and actors’ strategies adopted in the process of territorial change and analysis approaches and governance issues.

Several urban actors with contrasting logics are identified in the center. Their main socio-professionnel types are:

• the institutional actors (the commune, the Urban Agency which is in charge of legal control of urban management, the administrative local public services).

• The non-institutional but organized actors (the Al Omrane Enterprise for construction and management, the architects’ order, the technical studies offices, the notaries, the agencies and enterprises of land and buildings promotion and marketing).

• The “ordinary” or individual actors of urban fabrics (the local population including the land owners, the new citizen investors, the building craftsmen, etc.).

The heterogeneity of spatial units in the studied area brings information to understand some aspects of actors controversies and the sites sensibilities.

Five major homogeneous territorial units were identified (Fig. 1).

FIGURE 1.  LANDSCAPE UNITS AND SITES OF CONTROVERSY IN AÏN CHKEF.

Their management, under the present-day adopted governance, engender controversial situations between actors as follows:

• The major district recently developed in Ain Chkef center is the Al Omrane district (called the urban pole). This area is theoretically well-designed on the plan, but in reality, it is installed in a socially complex territory, before even solving all the problems of land status and mastering the conditions of the change to be triggered by the suggested projects. Multiple overlaps of controversial spaces were created as the project produced a hybrid territory, where social mixture remain problematic as well as the different juxtaposed territories (units of rural heritage, modern planned and managed units, equipped units and informal agglomerations as an example). The amenities were expressed by local inhabitant and new coming populations whose needs are different. Management decisions and projects introduced in the area by the Al Omrane Enterprise were not collectively accepted by actors. The authorities’ visions to develop the center were not shared by all actors mainly some land owners. As underlined by Young (2006, p. 253)Young N. (2006). Distance as a hybrid actor in rural economies. Journal of Rural Studies, 22, 253-266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2005.11.007 actors networking and governance are a key factors in space dynamics and economic performance. Loubaresse and Pestre (2012)Loubaresse, E. et Pestre, F. (2012). Les facteurs de réussite d’une stratégie collective hybride: le rôle de l’acteur-tiers. Communication, AIMS, https://www.strategie-aims.com/ focus on collective strategies of actors to demonstrate such complex situations that influence negatively the local development strategies as the behaviors of actors sometimes do not converge.

• The green rural area considered «urban» by the urban plan: it consists of most parcels within the center, still used in farming although officially considered urban on plan. Controversies are evident concerning the land use type, the services and equipment and the imposed taxes in the area as an example.

• The rural villages or ‘douars’ annexed by the urban plan. They are of two types: (i) agglomerations located in the urban pole «District Al Omrane» which has been destroyed following the negotiations between Al Omrane Enterprise and the homes’ owners who were compensated as they accept suggested rates and leave. (ii) Agglomerations outside the «District Al Omrane» whose management is under the authority of the commune. The commune has the legal responsibility to equip the villages when they integrate the urban center, and invest in infrastructures and restructuration operations. However, it does not have the necessary budget for land status regularization and cannot expropriate the land owners to provide sufficient space for equipment projects. Some land owners and residents in the area contest the rate price of compensation suggested by the commune and exclude any compromise on the planned projects on their land.

• The bordering forest of Aïn Chkef, which is the unique dense forest in the area, is intensively used in leisure activities by citizens from Fez and its periphery centers. But presently it is under exhaustion, due to the urban extension of the Aïn Chkef center. Its carrying capacity is overpassed by the dense use by citizens.

• The hydrologic perimeter, along the Aïn Chkef river and around its unique spring. A touristic equipment is installed with the protection perimeter of the spring and shows the problematic aspect of this investment as conservative techniques are neglected.

Problems in the projects’ execution and the actors’ adaptations

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Within the “urban pole” and in other integrated villages to the center, several projects have faced opposed opinions and critical positions of unsatisfied local actors. As a result, the infrastructure projects are blocked since more than five years and are still today unfinished (Fig. 2 and 3).

FIGURE 2.  BLOCKED ROAD MANAGEMENT IN THE URBAN POLE

FIGURE 3.  THE UNFINISHED ROAD IN THE DOUAR TLALSA, BLOCKING THE RESTRUCTURATION OPERATION LEAD BY THE COMMUNE

Before the equipment interventions in the urban pole, the regularization of land property should be a priority. The Al Omrane Enterprise has negotiated land’s rate price with the owners and mostly obtain compromises.

In fact, in an early agreement between Alomrane Enterprise and most of the land owners in the urban pole, the planted lands are compensated applying a rate price of 700 dirhams per square meter in open land. For already planted land, an additional 1500 dirhams per square meter for each plant was offered. Slums are compensated by apartments in the modern building constructed by Al Omrane. After the agreement with Al Omrane, the owners have given up their land and, in return, they benefit from modern apartments in the Al Omrane buildings. Concerning farming parcels in the urban perimeter, the olive trees are money compensated.

However, few owners in Oulad Maaref reject the agreement and do not allow the public equipment on their parcels. They represent obstacles for the management’s objectives achieving as shown in Figure 2.

Similar situations appear outside the urban pole, at Tlalsa village for example, where the commune is engaged in a restructuration operation where the planned road of the village opening up could not be realized as it faced problems of land status and opposition of land owners (Fig. 3).

Based on these two cases, we observe how local actors intervene to block the new management projects when their interests were not considered or compensated. The various actors on the territory, forge their own strategies to defend their interests or increase the profits drawn from the current situation or in prospect. In some cases, worrying phenomena in relation to sustainable and integrated development result from the situation.

The local actors are engaging their own strategies and adaptations to ensure their interests. Outside the Al Omrane district in the center, land transactions increase because investors come from other areas. However, they are operated within an ambiguous legal status of land property and sometimes create conflicts between the new lands’ purchasers and the buyers. The byers have no permission to sell the land as its legal status is not clear (the farmers had only rights to exploit the land but not the recognition of its property and are not allowed to sell it). This situation engenders several conflicts between actors and impacts the center management actions.

According to interviewees, more than 5000 complaints are currently disposed in the courts (disputes between users, rights’ holders, Al Omrane Enterprise, the commune, or the administration services). Having no legal document (rental or sale contract or even transfer of the exploitation rights) these new buyers are legally weakened. Judgments are often not at their advantage, but their high number poses social problems to execute the judgments and the real status of the territory remains ambiguous.

Knowing that the authorities have legal competencies to expropriate parcels for public projects and infrastructures installation, a risk feeling developed among land owners and operators. They adapt to the situation by intensifying signs of their rights on the land so they may amplify their income and compensation rate in case of expropriation. Several types of actors’ adaptations are inventoried in the center as:

• the trees’ planting intensification, although in the urban center,

• the rising of numbers of slums,

• the parcels’ marking.

Most of these non-regulatory practices (planting of olive trees, hedges and rising of buildings) are implemented by actors as strategies to confirm their rights in land property for eventual future transactions related to the center management.

FIGURE 4.  THE INHABITANTS’ ADAPTATIONS IN RISKY SITUATIONS:
A: THE RISING OF NUMBERS OF SLUMS, OLIVE TREES PLANTATIONS AND PARCELS HEDGES AROUND PARCELS IN THE AÏN CHKEF CENTER

B: ADAPTATIONS IN RISKY SITUATIONS BY MARKING PARCELS

DISCUSSION

The obtained results explain selected actors’ controversies in these new managed centers. They confirm the complexity of local systems and factors of these controversies as there are interactive social, cultural, economic or environmental components. We used the synthetic landscape approach suggested by Berger (1987, p. 296)Berger, J. (1987). Guidelines for landscape synthesis: some Directions - old and new. Landscape and Urban Planning, 14, 295-311. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-2046(87)90041-7 and Berta et al. (2017)Berta, M.-L., Palomob, I., Marina, G.-L, Irene, I.-A., Castroe, A., Del Amoc, D.G., Gómez, B. and Montes C. (2017). Delineating boundaries of social-ecological systems for landscape planning: a comprehensive spatial approach. Land Use Policy, 66, 90-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.04.040 and conclude that in emerging urban centers in peripheries, apparent and latent dynamics are locally often active. The physical environment, the historic evolution of the landscape, the cultural and heritage parameters, the social factors, the land ownership status, the actors’ strategies and their adaptations in this framework are factors that rapidly impact landscape and affect the urbanization, the projects realization and the development sustainability. The urban fabrics in such muting areas are submitted to permanent mutations that should be understood for sustained action. As described by Swyngedouw (2006)Swyngedouw, E. (2006). Circulations and metabolisms: (hybrid) natures and (cyborg) cities. Science as Culture, 15(2), 105-121. «every metabolized thing embodies the complex processes and heterogeneous relations of its past making, it enters (or becomes enrolled), in its turn and its specific manner, into new assemblages of metabolic transformation».

The importance of local social factors in urban action is underlined in the findings of this article. It confirms the results on social adaptations to innovations obtained by Comber et al. (2003, p. 300)Comber, A., Peter, F., Richard, W. (2003). Actor-network theory: a suitable framework to understand how land cover mapping projects develop? Land Use Policy, 20, 299-309. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-8377(03)00048-6 and Hawkins (2014, p. 1683)Hawkins, Ch. V. (2014). Planning and competing interests: testing the mediating influence of planning capacity on smart growth policy adoption. Journal of Environnemental Planning and Management, 57 (11), 1683-1703. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2013.829027 . Difficulties to realize the planned projects in the studied area are analyzed with a focus on local actors who adopt repulsive positions to face institutional strategies, because they are not convinced that they are well founded. These are drivers of not planned facts which frame different perspectives in the city. The results show the limits and critical impacts of the technocratic planning and the top-down governance approach in territorial planning at suburbs. The position of the studied area, as a spatial interface unit between the city (Fez) and its rural area, favors complex situations where inherited structures, sociologic impacts and several stakes and interests are coexisting.

CONCLUSION

The above analysis shows that the territorial urban governance is a complex task, which impose a further assimilation of local and external impacting factors and dynamic processes. To face unpredicted stakes, it is the subject of a continuous adaptations to implement its objectives, methods and techniques and cope with the actors’ needs.

The studied area in Aïn Chkef shows a large diversity in both physical parameters, in the local immaterial capital, in resources and valuation possibilities (natural, economic, human, cultural, technical, equipment, etc.). It illustrates diverse suburban development problems and constraints. The results of its ongoing governance in this analytical study underline deficits in integrating the historic and social local factors in planning and realizing the projects. Examples of local actors’ controversies that negatively impact the center management were presented and discussed.

Findings focus on the fact that most of the non-regulatory practices described in the center (blocking the equipment projects, planting of the olive trees in urban parcels, putting the hedges around parcels, and the rising of slum buildings) reflect two important facts:

The convergent governance is adequate to integrate the multiplicity of components of the suburb system and the multiplicity of its actors because it is based on the synthetic thinking and accommodation with local complexities associated with the system, including the local actors’ interests, their adaptations, interactive practices and opportunities to develop new adapted solutions for the new emerging problems. Guiding transformation and change in a complex system is also argued to be a question of leadership, because it challenges the way the change is initiated and how to reinforce its supporters within a progressive creative process.

The convergent governance model in suburbs is therefore an open model argued to be suitable in Morocco. It could be transferred to implement such cases worldwide in similar contexts.