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research article

Understanding the Urban Middle-Class and Its Housing Characteristics-Case Study of Casablanca, Morocco

Mharzi Alaoui, Hicham
•
Radoine, Hassan
•
Chenal, Jerome  
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June 1, 2022
Urban Science

With the rapid urbanization occurring across African cities, the emergence of a middle class is exerting its influence on the urban form and structure. Matching their social status and drawing on global influences, the housing characteristics of this class are distinctive in spatial organization, material choice, and location, among others. Understanding these emerging typologies is critical for urban housing policy to be responsive to the needs and preferences of this class. The present paper aims first to develop a new approach for defining the middle class in the African context and second, to analyze its housing typology through a multidimensional analysis based on housing attributes and socio-economic characteristics in Casablanca City. A data-driven approach based on principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to define multidimensionally the middle class and its housing typology. Through the construction of a multidimensional composite index to measure middle class, the study highlighted that middle-class housing is characterized by an adequate condition, a suitable size (two to three rooms), and affordability between 8000 and 11,000 Moroccan dirhams (MAD) per square meter. In addition, although the Moroccan modern houses (two-floor single-family housing) and apartments (four floors or greater) are the most occupied by the middle class, the study showed that as income and social mobility increase, the apartment building and the villa are increasingly preferred to the Moroccan modern house.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.3390/urbansci6020032
Web of Science ID

WOS:000816390200001

Author(s)
Mharzi Alaoui, Hicham
Radoine, Hassan
Chenal, Jerome  
Yakubu, Hassan
Bajja, Salwa
Date Issued

2022-06-01

Publisher

MDPI

Published in
Urban Science
Volume

6

Issue

2

Start page

32

Subjects

Environmental Sciences

•

Environmental Studies

•

Geography

•

Regional & Urban Planning

•

Urban Studies

•

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

•

Geography

•

Public Administration

•

Urban Studies

•

urban middle class

•

housing typology

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multidimensional analysis

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composite index

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housing affordability

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price

•

growth

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

Available on Infoscience
July 4, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/188880
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