Mediterranean Studies

Tο βιβλίο αυτό καλύπτει την ελληνική πολιτική στο χώρο της Μεσογείου από το 1950 ως το 2004. Το1ο κεφάλαιο εστιάζει στην ελληνική διπλωματία τη δεκαετία του 1940, η οποία περιλαμβάνει το Β Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, τον ελληνικό εμφύλιο και την έναρξη του Ψυχρού Πολέμου. Τα κεφάλαια 2 και 3 αναλύουν τις ελληνοαραβικές σχέσεις και τη στάση της Ελλάδας στο παλαιστιανιακό ζήτημα, ενώ τα κεφ. 4 και 5 επικεντρώνονται στο κυπριακό ζήτημα, την τουρκική εισβολή στην Κύπρο και τις ελληνοτουρκικές σχέσεις και το κυπριακό ως το 2004 (σχέδιο Ανάν και ένταξη Κύπρου στην ΕΕ).

Η μελέτη απευθύνεται στο γενικό αναγνωστικό κοινό, που επιθυμεί να γνωρίσει την πολιτική της Ελλάδας στο περιφερειακό της περιβάλλον τον περασμένο αιώνα, αλλά και στους ειδικούς των επιστημών της ιστορίας, της πολιτικής επιστήμης και των διεθνών σχέσεων, για να εμβαθύνουν ακόμα περισσότερο σε ζητήματα ελληνικής εξωτερικής πολιτικής. Διδάσκοντες, φοιτητές, σπουδαστές και ειδικοί μπορούν να βρουν στο βιβλίο αυτό το απαραίτητο υλικό για να κατανοήσουν έννοιες και θέματα που σχετίζονται με θέματα εξωτερικής πολιτικής, περιφερειακών διενέξεων, ξένης επιρροής και εμπλοκής και τοπικών ιδιαιτεροτήτων

Naor Ben-Yehoyada: We are here today to discuss region formation and region making in the Mediterranean with Michael Herzfeld and Hashim Sarkis. Michael Herzfeld is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. Hashim Sarkis is the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Thank you both for joining us today.
As the theoretical framework of this issue of New Geographies argues, in architecture and urbanistic literatures on the Mediterranean, cities are taken as emblems of ancient and medieval cross-sea connections, of early modern capitalism, and of modern cosmopolitanism. Cities like Naples, Thessaloniki, Izmir, Alexandria, and Tunis are often contrasted on the one hand to Atlantic cities, and on the other hand to the Mediterranean hinterlands. Recently this image of Mediterranean cities has been questioned. Some argue that the boundaries between cities and their hinterlands are exaggerated.  Others claim that Mediterranean hinterlands have actually been as connected to the worlds beyond their national boundaries as to their urban centers, if not more so.
These developments in urbanistic scholarship on the Mediterranean raise several questions that may shed light not only on these cities but also on their relationships to the wider Mediterranean as well as the rest of the world. The Mediterranean is sometimes examined as an emblem or model for global interactions and connections.  Yet most historians agree that the Mediterranean world, however defined, died with the advent of modernity. How do megacities like Istanbul serve in the articulation of these tensions? What is the role of tourists, heritage projects, migration, and cultural politics in the ways in which such tensions unfold?
This issue’s thematic exploration frames this inquiry more generally: “What are the elements in the formula that determine Mediterranean regional formations? And how are they spatially manifested?” If the Mediterranean is not made of “cities and the routes between them,” if cosmopolitan urban centers are not the main building blocks in this regional puzzle, what spatial-social constructions are?
Finally, the relationship of urban form and transnational constellations may help us distinguish also between region making and region formation—the former drawing our attention to projects and the latter to processes. Prima facie, anthropologists seem to reside safely on the “process” side of the fence, whereas urban planners seem to focus on the “project” side. But anthropologists and other social scientists have celebrated projects of “making,” and scholars of the built environment have paid attention to the processes through which projects interact. How do you combine these approaches in your studies, and how does your work on the Mediterranean shape your approaches?

Michael Herzfeld: I find the question very disturbing, because that question presupposes a reification of the Mediterranean. It presupposes everything that I’ve argued against in the last thirty years and more, inasmuch as it seems to suggest that there is something that is identifiable as the Mediterranean other than a geographical fact. I would wonder what the purpose of this perspective is. Certainly the idea that the Mediterranean has, as a general region, included a lot of areas where cities have interacted with hinterlands, have drawn very heavily on the populations of those hinterlands, but also have emphasized the distinction between city and country holds true. But it’s also true for many other parts of the world. As for the idea that it’s a place where people now are beginning to construct cities that are specifically Mediterranean—perhaps because those who claim this have in mind a particular kind of climate—there again, what I fear is the domination of a set of stereotypes over individual planning and over the understanding of cultural processes. And this is particularly worrying, because Southern European countries and Middle Eastern countries, in very different ways, are now homes to new forms of violence. It would be easy for someone to say, “Ah, yes, this is typically Mediterranean behavior.” Then we would be back to square one. All the stereotypes that were common in the 1960s and actually animated much of the anthropological and sociological thinking about the area, would move to a different plane, with the result that instead of focusing on the play of honor and shame in the villages we would be talking about the play of violence and refuge, or something of that sort, in the cities. So I worry about this kind of formulation. I think it would be much more useful to ask the question: Why is the idea of the Mediterranean so important to people who are looking at processes that have taken place in the area over a very long period of time?” If we approach the matter in that way, I think the answer will be clear and it will serve as an admonition to those who want to plan the future of the countries that sit around the rim of the Mediterranean Sea.

Hashim Sarkis: Let me start by situating the discourse on the Mediterranean within architecture and urbanism in relation to what I understand to be its reception, rejection, and criticism, in history and anthropology. I know I might be conflating two discourses that differ in their understanding and construction of the Mediterranean. However, I did see them conflated last year in the history/anthropology conference you organized.
At the conference, I felt that we were at one level way behind you in our understanding of the Mediterranean as a region, and at another level way ahead of you. Let me start with where I felt we were behind. As much as our discourse has come to dismiss the issue of contextualism or regional expression in the last twenty years, we haven’t yet critically assessed where we go from there. Because of the phenomena of globalization, the increasing mobility of architectural practices, and the waning interest in the expression of locality, we have lost interest in the past regionalist discourse, but we have not questioned it. We continue to operate with models that assume that architecture is indelibly bound to its region, even if we do not want to talk about it. We haven’t asked the question: If architecture is in crisis in relation to the context, and this context is not going to go away, how are we going to be dealing with it? We understand region to be given rather than something that we are actively involved in constructing, which I saw both anthropology and historiography elaborate as a deep problematic at the conference last year.
However, I feel we are ahead of you because we are beginning to look at the Mediterranean differently, not with new eyes but because of the radical transformations that are happening in that region and that we as architects and urbanists have to deal with as projects. Irrespective of whether we define it, draw a line around it, to be corresponding to one of the lines of the different existing definitions or not, we are seeing radical transformations in the region, and we try to map and define them in different terms. And yet we keep resorting to our stereotypes because we haven’t yet questioned them in the manner that you have. So we look at the littoral, at the coastal development of many of these cities, which have completely eradicated any sense of the Mediterranean port-city type, and yet we still seek to confirm this type in some implicit manner. So at the level of what constitutes the Mediterranean city, we are confronted with examples that are fantastically transforming it, if there ever was such an “it.”  We are still holding on to some grounding in a particular conception of the Mediterranean city, its history, and its evolution; evolution is very important for us in thinking about cities. We do not like cataclysmic shifts and breaks.

Tra il XVI e il XVIII secolo, le corti europee adottarono politiche demografiche di riforma dei rispettivi territori di confine attraverso l’impianto di coloni stranieri. Questo saggio prova a fornire un primo inquadramento di questo tipo di intervento pubblico osservandolo da una prospettiva logistica.

Il contributo affronta, tramite l'utilizzo di fonti archivistiche, il ruolo svolto dagli ebrei di Messina nel commercio degli schiavi in Sicilia tra tardomedioevo e prima età moderna. L'obiettivo è una prima ricostruzione dell'inserimento di alcuni componenti della comunità giudaica peloritana nel lucroso traffico di questa preziosa "merce umana" e dell'atteggiamento dell'aljama nei confronti di importanti problematiche come la redenzione degli ebrei ridotti in schiavitù.

The local festival dedicated to the Anniversary of the Vision of Agia (Saint) or Osia (venerable, blessed, saint) Pelagia is celebrated on the Greek island of Tinos and is dedicated to one of the most recent Orthodox saints, Agia Pelagia, a nun who was sanctified in 1971. After the great Greek War of Liberation (1821) broke out, the pious nun Pelagia had several mystical visions which lead to the finding of the miraculous icon of the Annunciation. According to the tradition, Pelagia repeatedly saw, in her visions, the Panagia (Virgin Mary), who ordered her to start digging to find her icon. In 1823, the icon was unearthed in the field where it had remained for about 850 years. “Pelagia’s Vision” is celebrated annually on 23 July. During the festival the church housing her skull next to her cell in the monastery of Kekhrovouno, where she had the visions, is particularly important.
Based on a presentation of this festival and some other relevant rituals from Greece where I have conducted fieldwork, the article will explore some aspects of the way myths are important when re-presenting the past in the Greek context both, earlier and today.

Keywords: Method, Myth/s, Gender, Greece, Festivals

This study investigates the place of San Salvatore in the holy topography of Venetian Candia. By focusing on the largest convent in the Augustinian Province of the Holy Land, it contributes to a better understanding of a neglected subject in mendicant scholarship, namely the Augustinian friars’ expansion in the eastern Mediterranean. This article offers a detailed reconstruction of the demolished building and its sacred space, and sheds new light on interaction among the mixed Latin-Greek population in Venetian Crete by examining icons, altars, liturgy and, in particular, the introduction of the cult of Nicholas of Tolentino.

Figuration de la limite, chez Camus la Méditerranée désigne une confrontation entre différentes attitudes émotionnelles, de haine et d’amour devant le monde. Au-delà du ressentiment des “derniers hommes” et des la politique de puissance des “surhommes” nazi-fascistes, le “premier homme” de Camus se situe dans le sillage nietzschéen d’une recherche philosophico-politique de dépassement du nihilisme contemporain. Par une transformation radicale de la temporalité, il évoque une voie de libération qui permet d’enraciner la communauté politique, en dehors de la violence, dans l’amour.

During the early modern era foodways were an important signifier of identity. This is evident in the extensive body of literature produced by the growing number of Europeans who ventured into the Mediterranean, especially the lands of the Ottoman Empire. These travelers commented at length on the foods they encountered, their preparation, and how they were consumed. They drew on widely known classical models, as well as their own familiar foodways, to produce culinary geographies that delineated stark boundaries between East and West, Islam and Christianity, and that inscribed alterity and barbarity onto Ottoman culture. Ottomans ate undercooked bread, adulterated with seeds and spices, and meat prepared in an unrefined fashion that was barely removed from its natural state. They consumed this food while seated on the ground and without the benefit of civilized utensils, and hypocritically washed it all down with large quantities of wine. In the early modern Mediterranean world who you were was defined, at least partly, by what you ate and how you ate it.

KESER, Ulvi, Mustafa Durmuş Sönmez “Stratejik Güvenlik Bağlamında Ortadoğu’da Dinleme ve Espiyonaj Faaliyetleri”, Casus Belli; Kıbrıs, Yayına Hazırlayan Ulvi Keser ve Serdal Akgün, Kıbrıs- Akdeniz Stratejik Araştırmalar Merkezi Yay., Lefkoşa, 2015, s. 134-148

The legation sent by Pope Eugenius IV to Constantinople in 1437 played a critical role in the long diplomatic efforts towards a reunification of the Latin and Greek Churches, and paved the way for the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1439). With some exceptions, such as the later Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus, the members of the delegation have not received wide attention. This paper presents a biographical analysis of all those involved – the nuncios, the financiers and the galley commanders – and their relationship to the Pope. The findings provide new insight into Eugenius IV’s diplomacy towards the Byzantines, as well as Cusanus’s place in it. Cusanus’s presence added conciliar legitimacy, but the key functions were in the hands of a core team of Venetians – including non-patricians – who had prior experience in Constantinople and a personal connection to the Pope.

Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359 and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality.

This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth.

Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

A 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

In this volume, Elisabeth Fraser shows that artists and the works they created in the Mediterranean during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were informed by mutual dependence and reciprocity between European nations and the Ottoman Empire. Her rich exploration of this vibrant cross-cultural exchange challenges the dominant interpretation of European relations with the East during the period, revealing a shared world of fluid and long-sustained interactions.

Voyagers to and from the Ottoman Empire documented their journeys in prints, paintings, and lavishly illustrated travelogues; many of these helped define Europe’s self-identified role as heir to Ottoman civilizations and bolstered its presence in the Islamic Mediterranean and beyond. Fraser finds that these works illuminate not only how travelers’ experiences abroad were more nuanced than the expansionist ideology with which they became associated, but also how these narratives depicted the vitality of Ottoman culture and served as extensions of Ottoman diplomacy. Ottomans were aware of and responded to European representations, using them to defend Ottoman culture and sovereignty. In embracing the art of both cultures and setting these works in a broader context, Fraser challenges the dominant historiographical tradition that sees Ottoman artists adopting European modes of art in a one-sided process of “Europeanization.”

Theoretically informed and rigorously researched, this cross-cultural approach to European and Ottoman art sheds much-needed critical light on the widely disseminated travel images of the era—important cultural artifacts in their own right—and provides a fresh and inviting understanding of the relationships among cultures in the Mediterranean during an era of increasing European expansionism.
ISBN: 978-0-271-07320-0

This paper aims to address the importance of the Mediterranean setting for the study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. A region’s climatic pattern and geological conditions are important in the formation of its religion and history of longue durée (Fernand Braudel). Unfortunately, the twentieth-century western scholarship of the Hebrew Bible has ignored these natural elements in their study of the religious and historical texts, as Theodore Hiebert (1996/2007) has concluded. In this article, I demonstrate that the climatic and geological setting of the East Mediterranean, or the Levant, is crucial to interpreting the Hebrew Bible in multi-dimensions.
For this purpose, the paper discusses the following exemplary Mediterranean religions and Hebrew Bible passages that illustrate the usefulness of reading the Hebrew Bible in the context of a Mediterranean setting. (1) The Ba‘alu cycle and Demeter myth of Israel’s neighbors demonstrate that climatic patterns played important roles in myth-making in the Mediterranean regions. (2) The Föhn effect in Israel creates different environmental settings between the west and the east of the central hills. The Föhn wind causes the east parts to be arid and without rain. However, grasses grow, and flowers blossom in the wilderness of the rainy season thanks to rainfall flowing down from the central hills. Dramatic changes in the Judean wilderness landscape caused by flowing water (wadi) might have inspired some eschatological visionaries (Isaiah 35:6-7; 43:19-20). (3) The Fall feast or the feast of Booths played a central role in Israel’s religion. It was celebrated not only in memory of wilderness life (Leviticus 23:33-43) but also for the restoration of the rainy season in the Fall (Psalm 126). Jeroboam’s reform of the calendar (1 Kings 12:31-33) was understood as apostasy by the Deuteronomistic historian. However, it should have been understood as an insertion of a leap month to adjust to the difference between the lunar calendar (roughly 355 days) and the actual seasons based on the solar calendar (365 days). (4) The Book of Amos and Psalm 46 can be understood better in light of a tectonic earthquake (ca. 750 BCE). This earthquake of 7.8-8.2 magnitude probably occurred north of the kingdom of Israel, or today’s Lebanon (Austin-Franz-Frost 2000) and devastated many anti-Assyrian coalition countries. The epicenter’s location and estimated magnitude are very helpful when analyzing historical mysteries, such as the rapid decline of the northern kingdom after Jeroboam II’s most glorious period, or how the Assyrian king was able to conquer enemies through short Blitzkrieg, how weaker Judah survived longer than stronger Israel, and so on.
These case-studies above could motivate Hebrew Bible researchers to pay greater attention to the Eastern Mediterranean’s environmental and geographical setting.

Velvets are one of the most luxurious textile materials and were frequently used in furnishings and costumes in the Middle East, Europe and Asia in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Owing to many valuable studies on Ottoman and Italian velvets as well as Chinese and Byzantine velvets, we have learned the techniques and designs of velvet weaves, and how they were consumed. However, it is not well-known where and when velvets were started to be woven. The study will shed light on this question and focus on the origin, the historical background and development of velvet weaving, examining historical sources together with material evidence.

In contrast with the failure of 1538 – the end of Christian supremacy on the sea – the Knights of St. Stephen easily took the fortress of Preveza in 1605 and illustrated how to do it successfully!1 The comparison of two apparently similar events provides new keys to understand them, althought the circumstances as well as the objectives of the two campaigns were drastically different.

Forthcoming April 2017

http://upers.kuleuven.be/en/book/9789462701052

Chapters by:
Simon Jusseret (The University of Texas at Austin, Université catholique de Louvain)
Manuel Sintubin (KU Leuven)
Jan Driessen (Université catholique de Louvain)
Susan E. Hough (U.S. Geological Survey)
James P. McCalpin (GEO-HAZ Consulting Inc.)
Christoph Grützner (RWTH Aachen University, University of Cambridge)
Thomas Wiatr (RWTH Aachen University, German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy)
Charalampos Fassoulas (Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete)
Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos (National Observatory of Athens)
Jack Mason (RWTH Aachen University)
Klaus Reicherter (RWTH Aachen University)
Clairy Palyvou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Eleftheria Tsakanika (National Technical University of Athens)
Jeffrey S. Soles (University of North Carolina – Greensboro)
Floyd W. McCoy (University of Hawaii – Windward)
Rhonda Suka (Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii)
Colin F. Macdonald (The British School at Athens)
Tim Cunningham (Université catholique de Louvain)

Dans un environnement semi-aride et aux saisons contrastées, l’Occident musulman médiéval s’est adapté tant bien que mal aux contraintes liées à la disponibilité de sols fertiles suffisamment arrosés et aux irrégularités des récoltes d’une année à l’autre, afin de répondre aux besoins les plus vitaux de ses populations. Ainsi, la question de l’ensilage et de la conservation des produits alimentaires revêt une importance capitale à la fois pour le pouvoir, afin d’éviter toute contestation sociale et révolte de nature à ébranler son assise, et pour les particuliers, soucieux de réaliser leur autosuffisance alimentaire pendant les disettes et les famines.
Outre l’importation de céréales en périodes de pénurie, notamment de Sicile, grenier de la Méditerranée, les pouvoirs andalous et maghrébins ont entrepris l’aménagement de grandes aires de stockage des grains. Cet intérêt constant trouve un écho dans la littérature agronomique andalouse, qui accorde une large place aux méthodes de construction et d’aménagement des silos, afin de garantir une conservation saine et durable des céréales.

In most Mediterranean countries the main source of water for domestic use are surface waters, with the exception of Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. In the case of Palestine, it is because of its absence of control of surface waters, and Cyprus and Malta because of their insular character. In most countries the main use of water is for agricultural purposes, except in France, Slovenia, Croatia, and Palestine where urban and industrial use is dominant. A clear trend is the diversion of water uses from agriculture to industry and urban development. However, a mix of policies is needed to provide alternatives to the actual use of water for agricultural purposes, taking into account the demographic displacements to the Mediterranean shores, but also the enormous fraction of population dedicated to agriculture in many Mediterranean countries.
The waste water treatment situation is very uneven among countries and the related data corresponding to urban and industrial waste water production in most case has not been properly identified and differentiated. Waste water in France, Malta and Cyprus are treated to a tertiary level, while it is treated to a secondary level in the majority of Mediterranean countries. In several countries, such as Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Morocco and Palestine, most of the waste waters receive no treatment. Except Slovenia, the level of waste water treatment has increased for the last ten years in most countries, but with varying percentages ranging from 100% in the case of Malta to 1% in the case of Croatia.
Only few Mediterranean countries have implemented wastewater reuse within their water plans, and farmers often irrigate with untreated or partially treated wastewater.
Regarding desalination, most of the countries are nowadays using this technology, although only a few of them have done it within a planned integrated framework, and none has a clear strategy for the management of the resulting brines.

"In his recent book „The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean“ (Cambridge 2012), Ronnie Ellenblum argues that a series of climatic disasters in the 11th cent. led to the decline of polities in the Near East and prepared the ground for both the advance of the Seljuks and of the Crusaders into the region. Focused on the Byzantine case during the „Comnenian period“, this paper will critically review this hypothesis on the basis of both textual and natural scientific evidence and propose a more nuanced picture of the interplay between society, climate and environment in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 11th to the 13th century. As will become clear, neither the complexity of natural phenomena nor the complexity of medieval societies should be reduced to mere linear lines of causation.
This research was made possible with support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit-Foundation during a stay at the Institute for Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens.
The following pages provide a first short overview over some material to be presented and discussed in this lecture.
Contact: Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at
"

Dernier ouvrage de défense construit sur l'île de Porquerolles, la batterie haute des Mèdes (1928-1944) est un élément représentatif et exemplaire du système de défense de la base navale de Toulon. Son organisation, sa construction, son armement et son équipement de conduite de tir furent étudiés par la CEPAC. Son camouflage expérimental fut l'œuvre du peintre de la Marine Pierre Gatier.

In modern and contemporary literature and in art in general, humour is perceived as a social feature, usually derived from undesired or unconformist behaviour, frequently even related to the
unconscious. It is attributed to humans, rather than to animals or objects and, as pointed out by
Bergson, there are some suggestions, that humans are animals which laugh. Also, Montaigne,
Flaubert and Derrida, among others, implied an inverse possibility, that of animals laughing at us.
Humour could undoubtedly be seen as a feature with important cultural, and/or cathartic impact.
This conference undertakes to explore the anomalies that humour challenges by opposing the
conventions and tradition, and/or political power or by overzealously observing the common ground rules. The conference is interested in the comic expressed in language and created by language, in various manifestations of humour, and especially in finding out if the comic exists outside of what is strictly defined as human (posthuman).
The conference shall challenge some traditional theories (Freud, Bergson, Pirandello etc.) and will welcome proposals which differentiate geographically where/if possible, ranges or types of humour, with special emphasis on the Mediterranean basin, seen as an area characterized by a special, hard to define, yet intuitively perceived type of humour. The conference is interested in answering thequestion if there are any literary and cultural patterns in highlighting the comic as opposed to solemn, and sober.
The conference welcomes submissions exploring any and all questions concerned with humour, and all its manifestations and features. The conference is particularly interested in finding out more about cultural implications and reflections of humour in literature, primarily in Mediterranean authors.

THEMES AND PERSPECTIVES

CLAUDIO STAITI, “The ocean is bridged”. The Italian Great War in the diary of Gino C. Speranza (1915-1919)

Chiara PULVIRENTI, The myth of planning. The Allied Control Commission and the UNRRA in the Italian laboratory

ELEONORA BELLONI, The “American Way of Mobility”. The influence of the American model on traffic and mobility planning in Italy (1920-1960)

CRISTOBAL PADILLA TEJEDA, North African migration in the Colombian Caribbean: political and commercial influence in the city of Barranquilla


COMMENTS AND DEBATES

ROSAMARIA VITETTA, Between local and general history. On the writings of Luigi Staibano (1822-1877)

ERMINIO FONZO, Historiography and Covid-19. Some considerations

Performance evaluations are a critical tool in evaluating tourism development of countries where the tourism industry provides a significant share of the GDP. One of the measures used in performance evaluation of the financial decision-making units is economic efficiency. This study aims at measuring tourism-related technical efficiency performance of six European countries: Spain, Greece, Turkey, France, Italy, and Portugal. Tourism revenue and visitor numbers are referenced as output variables. Within the model, the natural and sociocultural index and substructure index were formed. Data envelopment analysis was applied for these datasets. Considering tourism revenues, Spain, Italy and Greece managed to use their natural and cultural resources efficiently. In contrast to these countries, inefficiency level scores were measured for Turkey, Portugal and France. In the model based upon the number of visitors, all other countries apart from Turkey and Portugal achieved the most efficient score. As for substructure index, the score of decreasing returns to scale for the countries of Italy and Spain in terms of tourist numbers is noteworthy. The implementation of efficient tourism policies and strategies hold great importance in terms of tourism efficiency. Even though Portugal and Turkey are rich in both natural and cultural assets, low scores seem to stem from failure to realize their potentials. Strategies should be developed to diversify tourist products. This study differs from other studies in the literature with regard to the composition of the wide input components.

In the wide geopolitical context encompassing local as well as regional and international dimensions, what the research does is provide a modest yet novel and required contribution to the analysis of the dynamic between cultural influence and cultural relations
across the South Mediterranean. It focuses on the impact of primarily British and French influence on cultural relations in four cities and their respective countries, namely Algiers in Algeria, Beirut in Lebanon, Casablanca as well as Rabat in Morocco and Valletta as the cultural capital of Malta. The research focuses on Britain and France because of the dominant imperial roles they held in the Mediterranean as well as beyond and the influence they still yield in cultural affairs on the basis of this past.

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE IN THE EURO-MEDITERRANEAN REGION: A FOCUS ON YOUTHS AS ACTIVE AGENTS FOR CHANGE Karen Mamo, M.S., M.A. George Mason University, University of Malta, 2012 Dissertation Director: Dr. Monika Wohlfeld This thesis analysis focuses on the levels of interaction in the EuroMed region. Intercultural dialogue is the main frame of analysis and levels of interaction are translated from opinion poll surveys carried out in a 10 year time frame. Subsequently youths are individuated as the pivotal component for the successful spread of values: of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding. Theories of intercultural dialogue are analysed vis-àvis opinion poll results and on-going youth programs. The argument presented in this research project rests on the notion that the intermingled relationship between education, training and employment has a direct influence on the role of misperceptions and the future peaceful transformation of the region.

Ideato da Giuseppe Bellini –direttore dal 2000 al 2016– insieme a Clara Camplani e a Patrizia Spinato, il Notiziario è concepito come uno strumento agile ed immediato che si prefigge di divulgare le attività della sede CSAE, in seguito ISEM, di Milano, consolidato punto di riferimento per la comunità di ispanisti e di ispanoamericanisti nazionale ed internazionale.
Il primo numero esce nel dicembre 2000 ed è rivolto a studiosi, docenti, biblioteche, centri di ricerca italiani e stranieri, per informare sulle iniziative scientifiche del locale gruppo di ricerca e sulle novità editoriali afferenti o direttamente promosse. Con il tempo si affina la veste grafica, grazie alle nuove competenze del personale della sede, e si regolarizza la periodicità, tanto da meritare l’International Standard Serial Number. Il bollettino esce con cadenza bimestrale e la sua distribuzione è elettronica, attraverso un indirizzario di posta dedicato, l’omonimo blog su WordPress, il profilo e le pagine Facebook della sede milanese.
Il Notiziario è articolato in diverse sezioni che variano a seconda dei numeri e spaziano dalla presentazione delle attività organizzate dal centro di ricerca alle iniziative in cui è coinvolto, dalle pubblicazioni interne alle segnalazioni bibliografiche che evidenziano gli apporti scientifici italiani e stranieri di particolare interesse per le specifiche aree disciplinari. In chiusura, la rubrica «La Pagina» approfondisce temi di carattere letterario e di attualità, di ambito mediterraneo ed atlantico.
Attualmente diretto da Patrizia Spinato, il Notiziario coinvolge nella redazione ricercatori e tecnici della sede di Milano, nonché collaboratori esterni, su invito della Direzione.