Abstract

Historic cities in North Africa are struggling to survive in rapidly emerging global environments. While many significant historic centers and districts are often demolished to pave way for modern highrise buildings, others just die of neglect and dilapidation. This situation raises important questions. What should be the future of these historic centers? Will they be demolished to provide more space for more ambitious growth or can they be conserved and sustained for present and future generations? Tensions over land use, changes in the nature of local economies, and the continued consumption of historic assets place considerable pressures on those distinctive values that make historic cities attractive places in which to visit, live, and work. Such pressures have brought into focus the extent to which sustainable development policies can participate in managing rapid change in historic cities. This paper explores some of the conceptual issues raised by the social sustainability / historic city discourse, and examines the degree to which sustainable development policy is emerging in the historic cities of North Africa. In order to place this discussion and debate in a real context, a number of cities will be explored in North Africa; respectively Algiers (Algeria), Tunis (Tunisia), and Fes (Morocco).