Ibridi urbani. Città mediterranee alla ricerca di nuove identità

Contemporary society stresses its multicultural and multiethnic character. The comings and goings of humankind are becoming more important than ever before, affecting cities and metropolises, exposing them to global risk and causing them to search for nervous and confused responses to the global challenge. In order to understand this current transmutation, it is necessary first to adopt a cosmopolitan outlook and to perform “sopralluoghi” ( over-places). In other words, it is necessary to go beyond the methodological nationalism which is a constituent of the social sciences, and, by using on-the-spot inspections, to detect the places of contact where the present cosmopolitan processes are manifesting themselves. Mediterranean cities are, in this sense, the best places to explore this phenomenon, because new cultures and identities continue to spring up there, thanks to the duration and the intensity of human mobility, the frequency of contacts, the variety of cultures and the stratification of a shared cultural heritage.