Morocco

Traditional and Modern Social Networks

Poverty, limited access to education, limited resources, and a fundamentally oral culture contribute to a society rich in traditional social networks. Traditional social groups in Morocco tend to be based on family. Established gender roles are generally respected and influence protocol for interactions. As in other Muslim countries, men are comfortable in the public sphere and spend time visiting in cafés, going shopping, doing business, and at the mosque. Fathers introduce sons to mosque culture. Conversely, women are said to be in charge of the domestic or private sphere. Women may work outside the home and may be educated, especially if they live in urban areas. Groups of rural women have created informal social networks operating in the private sphere. The daart is an informal social and financial group that maintains its own microcredit system. The women meet regularly, with each contributing a set amount of money into the central pool. When it is time to leave, the one woman who is in the greatest financial need takes the entire pool of money. There is no expectation that she repay the money, but she is expected to continue contributing at future meetings.

As a complement to the traditional social networks, ICTs are being adopted in Morocco on a large scale. Mobile telephony is conducive to connecting nonliterate speakers across distances. Mobile phones are very common, and Moroccans have adapted these tools to their existing social interactions. Moroccans may place a call and hang up without leaving a message as a way of requesting contact or signaling a predetermined event with a correspondent. Literacy rates in Morocco average 52.3 percent, but even nonliterate Moroccans may find ways to make use of text messaging features on mobile phones, as airtime is expensive.

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