Hegemonic extractivism: mining, groundwater and the closure of alternatives in Morocco

Many studies of extractivism emphasise the local conflicts and resistances it arouses. We argue that this focus has obscured a different political outcome: the consolidation of extractivism as a hegemonic development model. Drawing on the case of Morocco, we examine how such hegemony is (re)produced. We show that governing actors reinforce extractivism not only through cultural persuasion, or through abundant benefits, but through material policies that progressively foreclose alternative development pathways, generating durable policy feedback effects that narrow political and economic horizons. Comparing phosphate mining and groundwater-based intensive agriculture, we demonstrate that mining generates more visible contestation due to a higher concentration of benefits, while groundwater extraction diffuses rents more broadly and remains less contentious. Yet in both cases, conflicts rarely challenge extractivism as such; they revolve instead around access to, and distribution of, extractive rents. We conclude by suggesting that the durability of extractivism, and hegemony itself, can only be understood through historical-materialist lenses – as it depends on the state’s propensity to materially construct – or close down – credible alternatives over time.