«L'INDH n'achète que des vaches!» Mobilisation de ressources et notabilité à l'épreuve du développement au Maroc

The socio-political context in which a development machine takes place has to be considered in order to capture the transformation of it into concrete activities. Starting from this assumption, this paper explores the engagement of a local elite association in the Moroccan province of El Hajeb in the implementation of the National Initiative for Human Development (NIHD), in terms of «enunciation's perspective». The sociological category of notable is reconstructed through the analysis of the role of this association in the development process. The analysis helps to shed light over the heuristic limits of the category of association in tackling the actors involved in participatory development.