ENTREPRENEURIALISM IN THE GLOBALISING CITY-REGION OF TANGIER, MOROCCO MIGUEL KANAI & WILLIAM KUTZ Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Florida, USA. E-mails: miguelkanai@miami.edu; w.kutz@umiami.edu Received: November 2009; revised May 2010 ABSTRACT This paper inspects the territorial and state restructuring of the globalising city-region of Tangier. It argues that recent economic growth and transnational connections follow new forms of entrepreneurial development that aggravate social and spatial inequalities. The analysis shows that these forms of urban and regional management are embedded in the neoliberalised, yet monarch- centric Moroccan state. Analysis of local governance arrangements demonstrates the pivotal importance of an elite cadre of urban managers within the monarchic power structure. Fieldwork evidence documents the emergence of megaprojects as preferred vehicles for entrepreneurial development through site observations, indepth interviews and archival research. The Tanger City Center project presents a case that illustrates the social and spatial implications of a restructuring territorial economy and the effects of new polarities being overlaid on existing urban and regional geographies. The paper concludes with a reflection on the comparative and relational lessons that can be drawn from Tangier’s restructuring. Key words: urban globalisation, Morocco, case study, entrepreneurialism, city-regions, megaprojects INTRODUCTION The discourse of urban globalisation provides a central explanation to complex transforma- tions evidenced in contemporary cities. It shows that globalisation-led urban and regional change encompasses multiple and interrelated economic, political, cultural and physical pro- cesses in a world increasingly integrated through capitalist norms and practices. While initial studies focused on the economic struc- tures and social profiles of a handful of global cities in the capitalist core, the field has expanded to incorporate a wider scope of topics into its research agenda. These include the following: (a) the opportunities and pre- dicaments for globalising cities in non-core regions (Grant & Short 2002; Machimura 2003; Robinson 2006); (b) the territorial restructur- ing of metropolitan areas and emergence of new urban geographies of inequality and exclu- sionary built forms (Soja 2000; Graham & Marvin 2001; Grant & Nijman 2002); and (c) the socio-political management of such transformations carried through under the hegemony of various forms of neoliberal entrepreneurialism that economic and state elites have embraced (Harvey 1989; Moulaert et al. 2003; Ong 2006). Contributing to this body of research, the paper analyses the linkages between the institu- tional and territorial transformations that are reshaping Tangier, which this paper concep- tualises as a globalising city-region. Though not located in a core country for the global capital- ist economy, Tangier is increasingly showing a transnational orientation in its economic dynamics and political logics (Scott 2001; Grant Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2011, DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9663.2010.00622.x, Vol. 102, No. 3, pp. 346–360. © 2010 The Authors Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2010 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA