Agadir and its rural environment under urban influence: Stakeholder strategies and newly globalized spaces
Rural areas that are becoming urbanized in Agadir are experiencing major changes as a result of globalized economic and urban dynamics. Better understanding the urban - rural/rural - urban interrelationship that has developed means analyzing the strategies adopted by economic or sociopolitical stakeholders in relation to major issues such as export-based agribusiness, international tourism, and important land-related issues arising from the growth of metropolitan Agadir. These strategies vary, depending on the importance of the players involved, the strength of their ties to the region and the flexibility they can exercise in alternating between alliances and competition. The major economic stakeholders, most of them transnationals, some involved in local or national politics and others not, draw simultaneously on urban and rural resources. The resulting tightly-woven fabric of capitalism leaves little room for smaller players. While this excessive, global economy-dependent integration does lead to remarkable economic success, it also increases socioeconomic and environmental vulnerability, thereby undermining any possibility of sustainable development.