Contained in:
  • Eirene e Atena
  • Edited by Fulvio Attinà, Luciano Bozzo, Marco Cesa, Sonia Lucarelli
Book Chapter

Il Mediterraneo, tra unità, frammentazione e oblio

  • Federica Bicchi

In academic and/or cultural debate, the word «Mediterranean» elicits mixed reactions and is revealing of normative considerations and the role of politics. This chapter explores two different perspectives that emerge from the extensive literature on this subject, and suggests a third, inspired by the contemporary trend of the debate (or rather, its absence). First, the chapter examines conceptions of the Mediterranean as a unitary entity or political actor in and of itself. The Mediterranean as a «cradle of civilization», originally described by Braudel, has been taken up more recently by Horden and Purcell, who emphasized the central role of connectivity between local communities, and by the Italian school of geo-philosophy headed by Bassano, for whom the Mediterranean is a specific value system to be respected. A second perspective emphasizes instead the Mediterranean as an area of conflict, characterized by deep fault lines. Huntington's position, captured by the expression «clash of civilizations», has been taken up and reworked by the post-colonial perspective, which sees the Mediterranean as an area characterized by permanent tensions. The chapter suggests a third option, however, noting that the word «Mediterranean» is disappearing from political vocabularies.

  • Keywords:
  • Mediterranean,
  • Mediterranean Sea,
  • cradle of civilization,
  • clash of civilizations,
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Federica Bicchi

LSE, London School of Economics, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0003-0897-489X

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  • Publication Year: 2022
  • Pages: 153-165
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2022 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2022
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2022 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Il Mediterraneo, tra unità, frammentazione e oblio

Authors

Federica Bicchi

Language

Italian

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-595-0.13

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2022

Copyright Information

© 2022 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Eirene e Atena

Book Subtitle

Studi di politica internazionale in onore di Umberto Gori

Editors

Fulvio Attinà, Luciano Bozzo, Marco Cesa, Sonia Lucarelli

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

208

Publication Year

2022

Copyright Information

© 2022 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-595-0

ISBN Print

978-88-5518-594-3

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-5518-595-0

Series Title

Studi e saggi

Series ISSN

2704-6478

Series E-ISSN

2704-5919

254

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