Precarious Modernities makes an outstanding contribution to a longstanding and highly respected tradition of conducting anthropological research in Morocco. Strava provides a medium through which residents of an historically contentious area of Casablanca - one that has suffered from violence, deprivation, and marginalization – can identify what they want for their homes, their neighbourhoods, and their locale. She illustrates the tensions between the closed, static concepts states and often private developers use and the far more fluid, contradictory understanding of past, present, and future residents have of place. The continued expansion of urban centers means that her research will resonate for a long time.

Shana Cohen, University of Cambridge, UK

A brilliant anthropology of and in Casablanca's urban margins. Cristiana Strava cogently explores and unravels the practices and spaces of everyday life in Hay Mohammadi, a well-known urban laboratory in the country's colonial and postcolonial history, and shows us how the (re-)production of Morocco's urban margins were crucial for the consolidation of social, spatial and economic order. A thoughtful and in-depth study. Highly recommended.

Koenraad Bogaert, author of Globalized Authoritarianism: Megaprojects, slums, and class relations in Urban Morocco