Privatization of Education and Health Services and Transformation of Urban Land A Safe Investment in North-African Cities?
Résumé
While the role of the State has been analyzed through the prism of its neoliberalization of public policies in the manufacture of urban space, capitalism has been renewed and extended to new, rapidly expanding sectors, which for a long time were niches for investors and today are tools for urban development. Private education sites, in elementary, secondary and tertiary education, appears to be a new front of urban capitalism, as private schooling is increasing worldwide and States do facilitate their construction. Through new research fields in North African cities, we aim to map the expansion of the private education market in cities, according to different development opportunities, in order to understand investment logics. Initial research results show that both local and foreign education companies benefit from state tax incentives, the support of a complex network of local players, and the availability of land that other productive activities have turned their backs on. The financialization of educational facilities, sometimes in the form of campuses, encourages major urban development projects, involving investors of various kinds: foreign governments, philanthropic foundations and international investors. These new infrastructures - which are not perceived as capital-intensive a priori - thus demonstrate the interaction of state mechanisms and financial players.