Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly (Space and Place)

Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly (Space and Place)

by David Clark (Editor), TomSelwyn (Editor), Maria Kousis (Editor)

Synopsis

It is well known that Charles Tilly left scholars of big structures, large processes, and huge comparisons a tall research agenda. It is less acknowledged that he also left political ethnographers an impressive and provocative set of tools. In the skilled hands of the contributors to this insightful volume, the 'Tilly toolbox' is put to good work in the service of a theory-driven and empirically-grounded exploration of Mediterranean contentious landscapes. * Javier Auyero, University of Texas, Austin; Editor, Qualitative Sociology Contested Mediterranean Spaces rescues a cultural geography from the essentialist circularities to which it was once often reduced. These authors examine how circum-Mediterranean identities, at every level from the clan to the nation-state, exhibit the complex impact of ideological and political manipulation. They show how this hothouse of Europe's self-ascribed cultural origins has been characteristically prey to spatial cleansing, gentrification, and bigotry; they also document a regional activism that seeks more tolerant and environmentally benign futures. By problematizing the political and intellectual manipulations as well as the ideological tensions that inform such revivals of the Mediterranean as category and concept, they persuasively refurbish a tired regionalism with refreshing critical and comparative interest. * Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University; Author of Evicted from Eternity: The Restructuring of Rome

$158.17

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 364
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 30 Sep 2010

ISBN 10: 0857451324
ISBN 13: 9780857451323

Media Reviews
It is well known that Charles Tilly left scholars of big structures, large processes, and huge comparisons a tall research agenda. It is less acknowledged that he also left political ethnographers an impressive and provocative set of tools. In the skilled hands of the contributors to this insightful volume, the 'Tilly toolbox' is put to good work in the service of a theory-driven and empirically-grounded exploration of Mediterranean contentious landscapes.A - Javier Auyero, University of Texas, Austin; Editor, Qualitative Sociology Contested Mediterranean Spaces rescues a cultural geography from the essentialist circularities to which it was once often reduced. These authors examine how circum-Mediterranean identities, at every level from the clan to the nation-state, exhibit the complex impact of ideological and political manipulation. They show how this hothouse of Europe's self-ascribed cultural origins has been characteristically prey to spatial cleansing, gentrification, and bigotry; they also document a regional activism that seeks more tolerant and environmentally benign futures. By problematizing the political and intellectual manipulations as well as the ideological tensions that inform such revivals of the Mediterranean as category and concept, they persuasively refurbish a tired regionalism with refreshing critical and comparative interest.A - Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University; Author of Evicted from Eternity: The Restructuring of Rome
Author Bio
Maria Kousis is Professor of Sociology (Development and Environment) at the University of Crete. Her publications include a two volume special issue of American Behavioral Scientist on Mediterranean Political Processes in Historical-Comparative Perspective (with Charles Tilly and Roberto Franzosi, 2008), Economic and Political Contention in Comparative Perspective (with Charles Tilly, 2005), Environmental Politics in Southern Europe: Actors, Institutions, and Discourses in a Europeanizing Society (with Klaus Eder, 2001), as well as articles in social movement and environment journals; they focus on Mediterranean and Southern European regions. She has coordinated or participated as partner in European Commission projects including EuroMed Heritage II, Environment and Climate Research Programme, and the 6th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technology. Tom Selwyn is Professorial Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London) where he teaches the Anthropology of Travel and Tourism. His publications include The Tourist Image (1996), (with Jeremy Boissevain) Contesting the Foreshore (2004), (with Julie Scott) Thinking Through Tourism (2010) and many journal articles and book chapters on tourism, development, and the Mediterranean. He has directed/co-directed projects (in the MED-CAMPUS, MEDHERITAGE, and TEMPUS Programmes) for the European Commission in the Mediterranean region, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Palestine. He is Honorary Librarian and Council member of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and was awarded the RAI's Lucy Mair Medal in 2009. David Clark completed his doctoral work at London Metropolitan University and has undertaken research on community organisation in Nairobi, housing and employment of ethnic minorities in Britain, Jewish museums in Europe. His current research interests include a study of European expatriates in Crete. He is on the editorial committee of Exiled Writers Ink, a magazine devoted to the writings of refugee writers currently living in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. He teaches part-time at London Metropolitan University.