Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:44:22.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mediterranean: Bridging, Bordering and Cross-bordering in a Global Mobile Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Maria Paradiso
Maria Paradiso*
Affiliation:
Department DEMM, University of Sannio, Piazza Arechi II, Benevento, Italy. E-mail: paradiso@unisannio.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

If we look at the Mediterranean only as a space, a dissonant geography is obvious. Its diversity is mistakenly reduced in a process of ‘diorthosis’, a cognitive and operational approach that starts from assuming the nature of things and functionality modes rather than arriving at a proper image via actual analysis.1 The study of flows, of networks – i.e. the circulation of ideas, people, finances, and so on – challenges the continuous representation of the Mediterranean between homogeneity and otherness, and re-posits it as both a post-colonial imbricate site of encounters and currents and as a site of new hegemonic and counter-power discourse(s) and alliances. This paper explores the ‘mobility’ paradigm as an initial approach to contemporary geographies of the Mediterranean. The latter are being created not only by the media, powers and ideologies, but also by everyday people’s inter-ethnic, inter-cultural, and emotional interactions in places and digital communication channels. Such interactions are often characterized by blockages of inter-ethnic or inter-cultural exchanges, as well as by inequalities. They present and discuss initial paths of new encounters structuring North–South relationships, and vice versa, but also circular and East–West ones since they are typified by a variety of personal and virtual mobilities in terms of gender, motivations, emotional geographies, impacts, and circulation rather than origin/destination, and so on. It seems to me that the internet and people’s spatial mobility underline a deep process of change for the Mediterranean. A dialectic of diaspora politics, circuits of funds, weapons, empowerments, and emotions, challenge the boundaries of political communities in transformation. The Mediterranean thus appears as a global space of confrontation, emulation, opposition, dialectics, and change. Places, flows, wires and digital TV are the loci for all this. There is no assumption of ‘Mediterranean as a bridge of cultures’; instead, we all are actors in networking communities

Type
Erasmus Lecture 2014
Information
European Review , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 105 - 131
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Farinelli, F. (1998) Il Mediterraneo, la differenza, il differimento. Geotema, 12, pp. 57–62.Google Scholar
2.Ben-Artzi, Y. (2004) The idea of a Mediterranean region in nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century German geography. Mediterranean Historical Review, 2, 2–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Claval, P. (2007) About rural landscapes: the invention of the Mediterranean and the French school of geography. In: Z. Roca et al. (eds), European Landscapes and Lifestyles. The Mediterranean and Beyond (Lisbon: Ediçoes Universitarias Lusofonas), pp. 15–32.Google Scholar
4.Howard, D. (2007) The Mediterranean in the eyes of the North: how can we use paintings?. In: Z. Roca et al. (eds), European Landscapes and Lifestyles. The Mediterranean and Beyond (Lisbon: Ediçoes Universitarias Lusofonas), pp. 45–56.Google Scholar
5.Herzfeld, M. (1984) The horns of the Mediterraneanist dilemma. American Ethnologist, 3, pp. 439–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Herzfeld, M. (2005) Practical Mediterraneanism. Excuses for everything, from epistemology to eating. In: W. V. Harris (ed.), Rethinking the Mediterranean (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Chambers, I. (2008) Mediterranean Crossings. The Politics of an Interrupted Modernity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).Google Scholar
8.Campione, G. (1998) La frontiera mediterranea tra attese e oblii. Geotema, 4, pp. 3–9.Google Scholar
9.Gottman, J. (1966) Géographie Politique. In Encyclopédie de la Pléiade (Paris: Gallimard).Google Scholar
10.Clarke, J. and Jones, A. (2008) The spatialities of Europeanisation: territory, government and power in ‘EUrope’. Transactions Institute of British Geographers, 3, pp. 300–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Barraclough, G. (1963) European Unity in Thought and Action (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).Google Scholar
12.Duroselle, J.B. (1990) Europe: A History of its Peoples (Harmondsworth: Penguin).Google Scholar
13.Steinberg, P.E. (2014) Steering between Scylla and Charybdis: the Northwest Passage as territorial sea. Ocean Development & International Law, 45, pp. 84–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Jones, A. and Clark, J. (2008) Europeanisation and discourse building. The European Commission, European narratives and European neighbourhood policy. Geopolitics, 3, pp. 545–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Jones, A. (2011) Making regions for EU action. The EU and the Mediterranean. In: L. Bialasiewicz (ed.), Europe in the World. EU Geopolitics and the Making of European Space (Farnham: Ashgate), pp. 41–58.Google Scholar
16.Celata, F. (2012) Free trade area. In: P. Giaccaria and M. Paradiso (eds), Mediterranean Lexicon, Geo-Italy 5, Italian Committee for the International Geographical Union, CNR (Società Geografica Italiana: Rome), pp. 329–348.Google Scholar
17.Bicchi, F. (2006) ‘Our size fits all’: normative power Europe and the Mediterranean. Journal of European Public Policy, 2, pp. 286–303; p. 287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Celata, F. and Coletti, R. (2013) Cross-border cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean and beyond: between policy transfers and regional adaptations. International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies, 2, pp. 109–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Jones, A. (2006) Narrative-based production of state spaces for international regional building. Europeanization and the Mediterranean. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2, pp. 415–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Smith, M. (2000) Conforming to Europe: the domestic impact of EU foreign policy cooperation. Journal of European Public Policy, 7, pp. 613–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Caporaso, J., Cowles, M. and Risse, T. (Eds) (2001) Transforming Europe: Europeanization and Domestic Change (New York: Cornell University Press), p. 201.Google Scholar
22.Berg, E. and Ehin, P. (2006) What kind of border regime is in the making? Towards a differentiated and uneven border strategy. Cooperation and Conflict, 1, pp. 53–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Walters, W. (2006) Rethinking borders beyond the state. Comparative European Politics, 2–3, pp. 141–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.European Commission (2011) A Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean. EC Communication 8.3.2011, COM (2011) 200. Accessed 29 October 2012. http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/docs/com2011_200_en.pdfGoogle Scholar
25.Cavalli, A. (2015) Europe’s ‘Mare Nostrum’. Book review ‘Claus Leggewie, The Future is to the South. How the Mediterranean Union can Revitalize Europe (Original title Die Zukunft im Süden. Wie die Mittelmeerunion Europa wiederbeleben kann, Hamburg, Edition Körber Stiftung, 2012) The Federalist Debate, 1, 2015.Google Scholar
26.Cattedra, R., Governa, F. and Memoli, M. (2012) C Città/Cities. In: P. Giaccaria and M. Paradiso (eds), Mediterranean Lexicon, Geo-Italy 5, Italian Committee for the International Geographical Union, CNR (Rome: Società Geografica Italiana), pp. 39–54.Google Scholar
27.Giaccaria, P. and Minca, C. (2011) The Mediterranean alternative. Progress in Human Geography, 3, pp. 345–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28. Zayd, Nasr Hamid Abu (2012) Religiones: de la fobia al entendimiento. In: R. Grosfoguel and G. Martín Muñoz (eds), La islamofobia a debate. La genealogía del miedo al islam y la construcción de los discursos antiislámicos (Madrid: Biblioteca de Casa Árabe), pp. 11–34.Google Scholar
29.Giaccaria, P. (2012) O Ospitalità/Hospitality. In: P. Giaccaria and M. Paradiso (eds), Mediterranean Lexicon, Geo-Italy 5, Italian Committee for the International Geographical Union, CNR (Rome: Società Geografica Italiana), pp. 197–212.Google Scholar
30.Mazzucchelli, F. (2012) U Urbicide/Urbicidio. In: P. Giaccaria and M. Paradiso (eds), Mediterranean Lexicon, Geo-Italy 5, Italian Committee for the International Geographical Union, CNR (Rome: Società Geografica Italiana), pp. 299–314.Google Scholar
31.Mountz, A.,Coddington, ■, Catania, T.R. and Loyd, J.M. (2013) Conceptualizing detention: mobility, containment, bordering, and exclusion. Progress in Human Geography, 4, pp. 522–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32.Ramadan, A. (2013) Spatialising the refugee camp. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38, pp. 65–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Matvejevic, P. (1999) Mediterranean a Cultural Landscape (Berkely, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press), p. 10.Google Scholar
34.Sebaa, R. (2010) Algérie, La tierce rive en Méditerranée. Confluences Méditerranée, 3, pp. 185–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.Sayyed, Y. (2006) Méditerranée comme zone stratégique. RAMSES Cycle de conférence, stratégies méditerranéennes, conférence du 17 décembre 2006, bibliothèque Alexandrina, Alexandrie (en Arabe).Google Scholar
36.Sfeir, A. (2013) L’Euro-Méditerranée: des fractures et des hommes. Monde méditerranéen, 3, pp. 83–87; p. 84.Google Scholar
37.Telle, S. (2009) L’Union pour la Méditerranée: un héritage contrasté mais une continuité indispensable. Outre-Terre, 23, pp. 19–29.Google Scholar
38.Rahmouni, B. and Sloui, Y. (2013) Géopolitique de la Méditerranée (Paris: PUF).Google Scholar
39.Dagher, C. H. (2003) L’espoir européen, vu du sud de la Méditerranée Confluences Méditerranée, 3, pp. 93–98. www.cairn.info/revue-confluences-mediterranee-2003-3-page-93.htm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40.Giaccaria, P. and Paradiso, M. (2012) Introduction. Mediterranean Lexicon: a geography of a contemporary labyrinth (or pluriverso?). In: P. Giaccaria and M. Paradiso (eds), Mediterranean Lexicon, Geo-Italy 5, Italian Committee for the International Geographical Union, CNR (Rome: Società Geografica Italiana), pp. 1–4.Google Scholar
41.Olsson, G., Merriman, P., Jones, M., Olsson, G., Sheppard, E., Thrift, N. and Tuan, Y.-F. (2012) Space and spatiality in theory. Dialogues in Human Geography, 1, pp. 3–22.Google Scholar
42.Claval, P. (2010) Penser Med. Original manuscript following personal communications to Maria Paradiso, May. Permission to quote granted.Google Scholar
43.Castells, M., Fernandez-Ardévol, M., Linchuan Qiu, J. and Sey, A. (2007) Mobile Communication and Society. A Global Perspective (Boston, MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
44.Paradiso, M. (2013) The role of information and communications technologies in migrants from Tunisia’s Jasmine revolution. Growth and Change, 4, pp. 168–182, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2257.2012.00603.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
45.Anderson, K. and Smith, S. (2001) Emotional geographies. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 26), pp. 7–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46.Davidson, J., Bondi, L. and Smith, M. (eds) (2005) Emotional Geographies (Aldershot: Ashgate).Google Scholar
47.Thien, D. (2005) After or beyond feeling? A consideration of affect and emotion in geography. Area, 4, pp. 450–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48.Paradiso, M. and Tabusi, M. (2012) R. Internet/Rete. In: P. Giaccaria and M. Paradiso (eds), Mediterranean Lexicon, Geo-Italy 5, Italian Committee for the International Geographical Union, CNR (Rome: Società Geografica Italiana), pp. 249–264.Google Scholar
49.Sidi Hida, B. (2011) Mobilisation collectives à l’épreuve des changements au Maroc. Revue Tiers Monde, 3, pp. 10–26.Google Scholar
50.Bensalah, M. (2012) Réseaux sociaux et révolutions arabes (Paris: Michalon).Google Scholar
51.Tarrius, A. (1989) Anthropologie du Movement (Orléans: Paradigme).Google Scholar
52.Diminescu, D. (2008) The connected migrant: an epistemological manifesto. Social Science Information, 4, pp. 565–579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53.Berriane, M. (2014) Introduction. In: M. Berriane (ed.), Marocains de l’extérieur 2013 (Rabat: Fondation Hassan II, Organisation Internationale des Migrations l’Observatoire des résidents marocains à l’étranger), pp. 9–20.Google Scholar
54.Berriane, M. and Aderghal, M. (2014) Etat de la recherché sur les migration marocains. In: M. Berriane (ed.), Marocains de l’extérieur (Rabat: Fondation Hassan II, Organisation Internationale des Migrations l’Observatoire des résidents marocains à l’étranger), pp. 23–60.Google Scholar
55.Paradiso., M. Ongoing research fieldwork in the cadre of FP7 MEDCHANGe 612639.Google Scholar
56.Garcia, B.L. and Berraine, M. (ed.) (2004) Atlas de inmigraciòn Marroqui en Espana. Taller des studios Internacionales Mediterràneos. https://www.uam.es/otroscentros/TEIM/Observainmigra/Atlas%202004%20inicio.htm.Google Scholar
57.Berriane, M. and Cohen, A. (2009) Regards croisés sur la migration marocaine en Andalousie à travers ses origines géographiques, ses profils sociodémographiques et ses expériences migratoires. Revue Méditerranée, Numéro spécial ‘Migrations et territoires de la mobilité en Méditerranée’, 2, 55–69.Google Scholar
58.Cohen, A. and Berriane, M. (Eds) (2011) De Marruecos a Andalucia: migracion y espacio social (Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja).Google Scholar
59.Alioua, M. (2011) L’étape marocaine des transmigrants subsahariens en route vers l’Europe: l’épreuve de la construction des réseaux et de leurs territoires. PhD dissertation, discussed on 29 June 2011 at Université de Toulouse le Mirail.Google Scholar
60.Pian, A. (2009) Aux nouvelles frontiers de l’Europe. L’aventure incertaine des Sénégalais au Maroc (Paris: La Dispute).Google Scholar
61.Timera, M. (2009) Aventuriers ou orphelins de la migration international? Nouveaux et anciens migrants subsahariens au Maroc. Politique Africaine, 115, pp. 175–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
62.Berriane, M., Aderghal, M., Janati, M.I. and Berriane, J. (2013) Immigration to Fes: the meaning of the new dynamics of the Euro-African migratory system. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 5, pp. 486–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
63.Bonnet, J. and Bossar, R. (1973) Aspects géographiques de l’emigration marocaine vers l’Europe. Revue de Géographie du Maroc, 23–24, pp. 5–50.Google Scholar
64.Aderghal, M. (2006) L’émigration vers l’Espagne et la recomposition des territoires migratoires au MAroc. Paper presented at Conference Les mobilités géographiques des population en Méditérranéee occidentale, Université de Grenade, October (available at www: redamed.com).Google Scholar
65.Cohen, A., Capote, L.A., Jolivet, D. and de Miguel, V. (2011) La migration de marroquies estudiada desdesus ‘destinos’ andaluces. In: A. Cohen and M. Berriane (eds), De Marruecos a Andalucia: migracion y espacio social (Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada), pp. 95–165.Google Scholar
66.Simon, G. (2008) La Planète Migratoire Dans La Mondialisation (Paris: Armand Colin).Google Scholar
67.Cesari, J. (Ed.) (2002) La Méditerranée des réseaux. Marchands, entrepreneurs et migrants entre l’Europe et le Maghreb (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose; Aix en Provence Maison méditerranèenne des sciences de l’homme).Google Scholar
68.Tapia (De), S. (2005) Les migrations turques contemporaines: nouvelle diaspora ou dernier avatar d’une expansion linguistique en Eurasie continentale?. In: L. Anteby-Yemini, W. Berthomière and G. Sheffer (eds), Les diaspora 2000 ans d’histoire (Rennes: Presse Universitaire de Rennes), pp. 347–370.Google Scholar
69.Tarius, A. (2009) Intérêt et faisabilité de l’approche des territoires des circulations transnationales. In: G. Cortes and L. Faret (eds), Les circulations transnationales. Lire les turbulences migratoires contemporaines (Paris: Armand Colin), pp. 43–51.Google Scholar
70.Ma Mung, E., Dorai, K., Hily, M.-A. and Loyer, F. (1998) La circulation migratoire, bilan des travaux. Rapport à la direction de la population et des migrations, ministère de la Solidarité et de l’Emploi, ADRI (Agence pour le d´eveloppement des relations interculturelles) (Poitiers: Migrinter), pp. 1–12. (February 2008) doc. En ligne (hal.archivesouvertes.fr/docs/00/25/20/13/.../ bilan_circulation_1998.pdGoogle Scholar
71.Tarrius, A. (2000) Mobilités, identités, territoires: les nouveaux cosmopolitismes (Paris: L’Aube)Google Scholar
72.Arab, C. (2009) Circulants marocains en réseau. La diversité des itinéraires et des routes migratoires. In: G. Cortes and L. Faret (eds), Les circulations transnationales. Lire les turbulences migratoires contemporaines (Paris: Armand Colin), pp. 72–89.Google Scholar
73.Shuttler, K. (2007) La Diaspora marocaine en Allemagne. Sa contribution au développement au Maroc. GTZ-Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH Division Économie et emploi Projet sectoriel Migration et Développement (Eschborn: Germany) http://www.oriental.ma/upload/MoDUle_1/File_1_84.pdfGoogle Scholar
74.Daoud, Z. (2008) La Diaspore marocaine en Europe (Paris: Seguier).Google Scholar
75.Tarrius, A. (2005) Au delà de la diaspora: réseaux et sociétés de migrants en Méditerranée occidentale. In: L. Anteby-Yemini, W. Berthomière and G. Sheffer (eds), Les diaspora 2000 ans d’histoire (Rennes: Presse Universitaires), pp. 385–390.Google Scholar
76.Schnell, I., Diab, A. Abu Baker and Benenson, I. (2015) A global index for measuring integration vs. segregation. Applied Geography, 58, pp. 179–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
77.Paradiso, M. (2013) EU FP7 People IRSES. Euro-Mediterranean Changing Relationships, project draft and concept, granted.Google Scholar
78.Vause, S. (2009) Genre et migrations internationales Sud-Nord. Une synthèse de la literature. Documents de travail, Lovan Catholic University. www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/.../31._Sophie_Vause.pdGoogle Scholar
79.Steinmann, S.H. (1993) Effects of international on women’s work in agriculture: the case of the Todgha oasis, Southern Morocco. Revue de Géographie du Maroc, 1–2, pp. 105–124.Google Scholar
80.Damamme, A. (2009) Les mobilités contemporaines des femmes marocaines dans le champ du développment: quels changements dans l’occupation des espaces sociaux? In: M. Cheikh and M. Peraldi (eds), Des femmes sur les routes. Voyages au fémininen entre Afrique et Méditerranée (Casablanca: Le Fennec), pp. 45–62.Google Scholar
81.Viché, C. (2009) Les mobilités des femmes seules au Maroc. De la prescription de normes à la construction des rapports sociaux originaux. In: M. Cheikh and M. Peraldi (eds), Des femmes sur les routes. Voyages au fémininen entre Afrique et Méditerranée (Casablanca: Le Fennec), pp. 169–181.Google Scholar