Mediterranean Space Research Articles

Controlling the Mediterranean space through surveillance

The efforts to strengthen the control over the European Union’s (EU) external borders currently revolve around the reinforcement of the surveillance capabilities of the Member States. The European Border Surveillance System, EUROSUR, is supposed to be operational by October 2013, and will enable the Member States to share surveillance data, with the aim of improving the coordination of their responses. The initiative is driven by political motivations (reducing irregular migration into Europe), security objectives (preventing cross-border crime) and a more humanitarian aim (to reduce the death toll at sea among migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean), with an overarching belief in surveillance technologies as the ultimate way to solve these issues. By virtually pushing the effective border of the EU further out, this future surveillance system however raises a range of legal and ethical dilemmas. This article analyzes the discourse legitimating the need for a more robust surveillance capability at the external borders of the EU, by looking at what can be qualified as the main “drivers”, but also the main points of contention, or “obstacles”, in the process of establishing such a system. It argues that the fundamental belief in surveillance technologies as the ultimate tool to solve the challenges at play along the external border of the EU is such that it only meets the geographical obstacles and legal and ethical dilemmas with a call for more surveillance and more information sharing.

Cosmopolitanism: the Mediterranean Archives†

.The existing postcolonial literature privileges the British and French imperial/colonial history that mirrors the ongoing debate on the relationship among cosmopolitanism, universalism, and imperialism. These debates take for granted the Kantian and Hegelian hierarchy of European civilizations, hence marginalizing the southern shores of Europe and the broader Mediterranean space. Drawing on Mignolo's notion of “border thinking” and on Isin's account of the city as a “difference machine,” I address the issue of how imperialism, colonialism, and cosmopolitanism come together and relate to each other in the context of the Mediterranean (allegedly) cosmopolitan cities. In particular, cosmopolitanism is read as the outcome of the reciprocal adjustment of interior and exterior borders in the making of modernity/coloniality in the Mediterranean. Focusing on the Ottoman millet system, my main claim in this article is that cosmopolitanism worked as a peculiar dispositif within the urban difference machine, enabling the city to sustain the tension between different accounts of citizenship.

Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly

Book Review| March 01 2012 Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly Kousis, Maria; Selwyn, Tom; Clark, David, Eds.: Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly.New York: Berghan Books, 2011. 364 Pages. ISBN 978-0-85745-132-3. $95.00(hardcover). Christina Lizzi Christina Lizzi Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Mediterranean Quarterly (2012) 23 (1): 106–110. https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-1540738 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Christina Lizzi; Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly. Mediterranean Quarterly 1 March 2012; 23 (1): 106–110. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-1540738 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsMediterranean Quarterly Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2012 by Mediterranean Affairs, Inc.2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Kousis, Maria, Tom Selwyn, and David Clark (eds.): Contested Mediterranean Spaces. Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly

Kousis, Maria, Tom Selwyn, and David Clark (eds.): Contested Mediterranean Spaces. Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly

The Inhibitory Role Of Natural Conditions In The Use Of Space And Regulation Of Rural Territories In The Region Of Gjirokastra In The Southern Of Albania

In rural area the impact of natural conditions on the use of space, production activities and ways of life is permanent and more sensitive than in urban space. The degree of impact depends on the particulars of building land, relief, climate, hydrographs, land, flora, fauna and level of development of society, which says the size and way of human intervention in the environment. As part of the Mediterranean space, Gjirokastra, with mountainous relief and climate caprices, is very exposed to the influence of natural factors.

L'Espace méditerranéen dans Cap Nord d'Hédi Bouraoui

The purpose of this paper is to explore Mediterranean space considering its transcultural, transnational, and trans-frontier conception. Both public and private spaces are treated in relation to memory which does not reduce them only to fixed supports that history takes upon itself to people with references. Memory weds a perspective in motion, that of a Hannibal-traveler who seeks beyond fixity and identity traits favoring a dynamic reading of the space-time continuum. In place of a constructed space, we witness the birth of a space being constructed.

Baladni ritem usode: metametrične značilnosti balad Svetlane Makarovič na ozadju širšega mednarodnega izročila

The author treats three dimensions of the original, powerful and rich poetics of Svetlana Makarovič. The first topic is the semantic motivation of thetraditional ballad meter in the poems written by the contemporary Slovene poet Svetlana Makarovič: she has re-semanticised meter as the stride ofDestiny, as an inevitable step of Death. The second topic is the genre nature and the form of her ballads, which do not stem just from the Slovene folktradition, but fruitfully revive the meta-metrical features of other types of ballads from the wider European and Mediterranean space as well. Throughthe modernised Slovene ballads of Svetlana Makarovič we can also hear the original dance rhythm of the Italian ballata (and the influence of theMozarabic zéjel), the circular structure of the medieval French ballade, the dramatic force of the English and Scottish ballads, and the narrative models of the German Volksballade and Kunstballade. The third theme is the phenomenology of Evil: the poet shows theviolence committed by male-dominated authoritarian society against those who are weaker, especially children and women. She gives a terrifying insightinto the close relationship between the lust for power and sexuality.

Sub-regional Cooperation around the Mediterranean and the Role of the EU

Abstract. More than other seas, the Mediterranean has played not only a uniting role, acting as a bridge between different regions (Europe, Africa, and the Middle East), but also an important role in competition and division. Its geographical definition is not unchallenged, nor is its political definition, and the Mediterranean has therefore been defined by some scholars as a region connecting other regions rather than as a region per se. However, it is also considered an ensemble of different sub-regional spaces. This article argues that the many heterogeneous elements as well as the different political and economic systems and the different perceptions of security between the two shores of the Mediterranean are obstacles to the emergence of a homogeneous and organized regional space. Nevertheless, the idea of a common Mediterranean space has a normative value that could be used as a political catalyst for cooperation in the area. Numerous sub-regional cooperation initiatives have been launched in the Mediterranean basin, with mixed results. The European Union (EU) has tried to trigger cooperation both indirectly by supporting sub-regional initiatives, especially in the economic field, and directly, through the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), which was merged with the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) following the Paris Summit in July 2008. Indeed, EU-led cooperation in the Mediterranean represents the most important and comprehensive form of cooperation in the area, even though the latest developments of the UfM are not encouraging.

Waste Growth Challenges Local Democracy. The Politics of Waste between Europe and the Mediterranean: a Focus on Italy

This article investigates the politics of waste from an Italian perspective as part of a European and Mediterranean space. Waste is a contested field where several ideas, interests and governance patterns have been producing different management models and, despite the European Union’s harmonization targets, “waste wars” continue. The division of North and South is often explained by the “Mediterranean Syndrome,” but the article challenges the view of South European countries as environmental laggards with weak environmentalist movements. Differences among countries are strong – Camorra’s waste traffic is an emblematic case – but the political spacing is more complex and requires a trans-scalar view. Historical legacies and geographical sets must be taken into account too. The modernization process however is dynamic, and three shifts have been detected as groups articulate more participatory governance of waste management.

The Andalusian population from Huelva reveals a high diversification of Y-DNA paternal lineages from haplogroup E: Identifying human male movements within the Mediterranean space

Background: Gene flow among human populations is generally interpreted in terms of complex patterns, with the observed gene frequencies being the consequence of the entire genetic and demographic histories of the population.Aims: This study performs a high-resolution analysis of the Y-chromosome haplogroup E in Western Andalusians (Huelva province). The genetic information presented here provides new insights into migration processes that took place throughout the Mediterranean space and tries to evaluate its impact on the current genetic composition of the most southwestern population of Spain.Subjects and methods: 167 unrelated males were previously typed for the presence/absence of the Y-chromosome Alu polymorphism (YAP). The group of YAP (+) Andalusians was genotyped for 16 Y-SNPs and also characterized for 16 Y-STR loci.Results: The distribution of E-M81 haplogroup, a Berber marker, was found at a frequency of 3% in our sample. The distribution of M81 frequencies in Iberia seems to be not concordant with the regions where Islamic rule was most intense and long-lasting. The study also showed that most of M78 derived allele (6.6%) led to the V13* subhaplogroup. We also found the most basal and rare paragroup M78* and others with V12 and V65 mutations. The lineage defined by M34 mutation, which is quite frequent in Jews, was detected as well.Conclusions: The haplogroup E among Western Andalusians revealed a complex admixture of genetic markers from the Mediterranean space, with interesting signatures of populations from the Middle East and the Balkan Peninsula and a surprisingly low influence by Berber populations compared to other areas of the Iberian Peninsula.

The end of the ‘Euro-Mediterranean vision’

Relations between the European Union and North Africa have veered away from the political vision expounded under the Barcelona Process. The Union for the Mediterranean will likely deepen this trend. The Euro—Mediterranean space is increasingly characterized by competitive, containment-based and exclusionary security strategies. The more political dimensions of the partnership are now given short shrift and the EU appears inattentive to the dynamics of change within North African societies. Countries such as Spain and the UK have been overly passive in rescuing the Euro-Med vision from French diplomacy and the nature of relations between Europe and North Africa are increasingly out of sync with the changing international system.

Being there and away. Gentrification and globalization in Andromeda Hill Project, Jaffa, Israel

- Recent studies on gentrification identify its sociological and structural relationships to globalization, mainly as being a global urban strategy or a form of class reproduction. However the relationship between gentrification and globalization may be generated and fostered by real estate capital agents and architects, who use global narratives within the urban development discourse to create a distinguished urban habitat, which is detached from the immediate gentrified neighborhood. Such a relationship is evident in the case of Andromeda Hill Project in the Arab city Jaffa, Israel, which finds its assertion through the mobilization of global narratives, images and capital oriented towards a cosmopolitan audience outside of Jaffa. The deployment of images of ‘authenticity' and ‘orientalism' served in this project as a means to face outward of Jaffa's urban space and towards a mythical Mediterranean space and international arena, to reconstruct it as an ‘old-new city'. This process results in the devalorization and erasure of the local urban space and its longneglected Arab population, and consequently in the creation of alienated, exclusive, Jewish gated community which ignores its social and physical surroundings.

L'espace méditerranéen, interface ou espace intermédiaire ? (The Mediterranean Space, Interface or Intermediate Space ?)

The Mediterranean sea and its rims are often presented as a cut, a frature line, an interface between countries of the " North ", Europeans, and countries of the " South ", Africans and Asians. That is true only on a small scale, and in neglecting the weak development and the cultural originality of ex - Yugoslavia and Albania. To more large scale, the Mediterranean space can rather be interpreted as a progressive transition band, an intermediate space between North-western Europe, rich, industrialized, center of immigration, and very poor states of saharian and south saharian Africa and Middle -East, earth of emigration. This space is animated by intense internal dynamics, while being strongly linked to the European Union in the framework of an euro-mediterranean partnership that distinguishes it a bit more of the other states of the deep " South ".

The Boundless Sea of Unlikeness? On Defining the Mediterranean

In this preliminary attempt to compare the boundaries implied by traditional accounts of the Mediterranean with those that would follow from the hypotheses of The Corrupting Sea, the essential variable turns out to be complexity, in which the ‘connectivity’ of the monograph plays the most important role. Defining Mediterranean space in this way avoids some disadvantages of traditional views and fits more closely with cultural preoccupations in at least some periods of Mediterranean history. It also offers easier ways of building the Mediterranean into ‘connected histories’ of much larger geographical reference.

Imaging the 'Other': The Bosnian Slave in Mediterranean Space during the Lower Middle Ages

The article investigates the processes by which a particular image of slavery was created and diffused in the Mediterranean basin. It draws upon notarial records from the archives of Dubrovnik and Barcelona, whichfurnish rich descriptions of the origins, names, character traits and physical anomalies of 'human merchandise' during the Middle Ages. The constitution of a particular image of slavery cannot be dissociated from politico-economic considerations that governed the working of medieval communes, nor does the conversion of the slave through baptism bring with it an automatic change in servile status.

Structuration de la façade atlantique européenne : l’Arc Atlantique et ses métropoles maritimes / Structuring of the European maritime façade : Arc Atlantique and its maritime metropolis

The conclusions of the "Maritime Transports" working group of the EU Program Atlantis concerning the Atlantic Arc introduce the issue of the importance of maritime metropolises in the development of this European region under construction. Nantes, heart of the Arc, and Sevilla, pivot with the Mediterranean space, are the two main cities written about here ; both metropolises are associated with a system of port sites.