Media and the scaling of ritual spaces in Morocco

Abstract

The author explores how members of the Moroccan Sufi brotherhoods of the ‘Isāwaand Ḥamadša shape their activities and transnational networks through the use of technical media. Trying to think beyond notions of the local, regional and transnational, the article focuses on the mediators and practices by which actors understand the scope of their actions and redefine their agency at different locales through ‘scaling’. More particularly, he explores how actors engage in ‘downscaling’ complex issues into ritual procedures, and in ‘upscaling’ these procedures by inscribing them into a media chain and a more encompassing network of people, signs and things.