MEDIATION IN A MOROCCAN SETTING (MOROCCO)
Abstract
Personal mediation is a particular mode of system articulation and resource management. It is based on informal dependency relations. These include patron-broker/client relationships and networks. A broad and process-oriented theoretical and methodological framework is proposed for the analysis of personal mediation, a social feature of many societies. A study of the interface between bureaucracy and community at the level of an urban Moroccan neighborhood revealed that intermediate groups such as low- and middle-level bureaucrats play a vital role as mediators between national and local systems. Bureaucratic mediation is based on the use of personal relations within and outside of the administrative context. Bureaucrats are part of a larger system of intermediates which extends throughout the society. An analysis of individual and family problem-solving showed that informal strategies were commonly used. Informal patron and broker networks constituted a framework through which information and other tangible and intangible resources were sought, mobilized and allocated. As a major dispenser of valued resources, the state and its bureaucracy were key elements in this transactional process. Individual and family networks were heterogeneous and could be very large. I stressed that these networks, which integrate traditional and non-traditional values and relations, were largely ad hoc and tended to evolve toward increasing instrumentalism. In the traditional social order, multiple structures and mechanisms had acted to mediate the relationship between state and society. These have been discarded or marginalized but institutionalized alternatives were not created. In the absence of viable interest articulation, such as through an effective political participation, people are forced to deal with the bureaucracy with what they have in common with it: individuals personally known or accessible. At the individual and group level personal mediation can at times be functional. At the national level its long term social costs are high.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Cultural anthropology
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