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