“Concrete Futures examines a single technology, concrete, and traces its history, uses, and adaptations from the colonial period to the post-independence period in Morocco. Williford convincingly shows how this pervasive material that dominates the urban landscape created new forms of division and difference, privileged certain knowledge and expertise, and ultimately limited political possibilities. This work will be invaluable reading for scholars of Africa, the Middle East, empire, decolonization, environmental history, and science and technology studies.”

Jennifer Johnson, author of “The Battle for Algeria: Sovereignty, Health Care, and Humanitarianism”

“Williford’s engrossing exploration of the ‘politics of matter’ in colonial and postcolonial Morocco uses materials, materiality, and a complex story of technological change to offer fresh insights into the relationship between infrastructural technology and power in the twentieth century. Going well beyond interpretations of concrete as a signifier of modernity, he vividly demonstrates how concrete shaped and was shaped by broad struggles over justice, morality, and equality in colonial and postcolonial Moroccan society. Williford emphasizes not concrete’s solidity, but its indeterminacy, as it was drawn into divergent and often conflicting calculi for claiming power during a period of intense sociotechnical change. Williford skillfully demonstrates throughout the book the deeper significance of seemingly simple infrastructural technologies and how they facilitated or foreclosed different modes of colonial, anticolonial, and decolonial action. Highly recommended.”

Suzanne Moon, author of “Technology in Southeast Asian History”