Cosmopolitanism and Mediterranean cities

Abstract

What place is given to foreigners and migrants in the cities of the Mediterranean basin? At a time of radicalism and withdrawal, rethinking common values on the different shores is becoming an urgent necessity. In this context, the urban space as a place for deciding the place of the "Other" within society appears to be the best possible laboratory for mixing. In order to envisage the future, this article proposes a reflection on the past of Mediterranean cities and their real or supposed cosmopolitanism. This memory of cities with mixed and variegated populations, linked together by a common culture that is sometimes fantasized, can serve as a reference point for implementing tolerant urban policies capable of moving away from restrictive state management. Between reality and representation, we question the specificity of cosmopolitanism in Mediterranean cities, which, in spite of systems of domination sometimes difficult to support like the colonization, can be.