Global Players & Local Agency in Rural Morocco

Abstract

In Morocco, as elsewhere, Western development initiatives face increasing competition from transnationally active Islamic movements, thereby complicating the dynamics of transnational-state-local interaction. The author analyses these dynamics by focusing on the dilemmas that arose when, in his research site, a pious Muslim won a sum of money in the “Ramadan lottery” and was engulfed by contradictory transnational advice. Ironically, this competition between global players boosted the legal agency of local actors.