RICERCA ITALIANA     

Mediterranean Spaces and Cultures. Measurement, Analysis, Comprehension, Evaluation and History for the Knowledge and Monitoring of Transformative Processes in the Mediterranean Area.

Università degli Studi "Mediterranea" di Reggio Calabria

Abstract

The research concerns the study of spaces and cultures of the Mediterranean area, through the measurement, analysis, assessment and comprehension useful for the knowledge, proposal and management of transformative processes. The research aims at contributing to define the interdependence between some Mediterranean countries in order to document, from a disciplinary point of view, their identity values, as well as to understand and give shape to charming hypotheses tied to the concept of Mediterranean character. For over a decade, some cognitive paths on the different Mediterranean countries have been developed in the different research centres starting from the hypothesis of a common cultural origin and of a common belonging to a "Mediterranean continent". Such paths are evidence of similarities, assonances, phonemes of one vocabulary, words of one language. They have identified the possible definition of a common Mediterranean culture in the central importance of exchange and in social and cultural interactions. The Mediterranean Sea is a place of relationships par excellence. A place where various and manifold forms of thought, knowledge and civilization intersected, blended and integrated more than in any other part of the world.
The Mediterranean area was already the object of PRIN (National Research Programme) 2003 of which this proposal represents a continuation. Actually, such an area offers a wide range of cases useful to experiment and improve survey >>>

Principal Investigator

Massimo GIOVANNINI Università degli Studi "Mediterranea" di REGGIO CALABRIA

Research Objectives

The research concerns the study of spaces and cultures of the Mediterranean area, through the measurement, analysis, assessment and comprehension useful for the knowledge, proposal and management of transformative processes. The research aims at contributing to define the interdependence between some Mediterranean countries in order to document, from a disciplinary point of view, their identity values, as well as to understand and give shape to charming hypotheses tied to the concept of Mediterranean character. For over a decade, some cognitive paths on the different Mediterranean countries have been developed in the different research centres starting from the hypothesis of a common cultural origin and of a common belonging to a "Mediterranean continent". Such paths are evidence of similarities, assonances, phonemes of one vocabulary, words of one language. They have identified the possible definition of a common Mediterranean culture in the central importance of exchange and in social and cultural interactions. The Mediterranean Sea is a place of relationships par excellence. A place where various and manifold forms of thought, knowledge and civilization intersected, blended and integrated more than in any other part of the world.
The Mediterranean area was already the object of PRIN (National Research Programme) 2003 of which this proposal represents a continuation. Actually, such an area offers a wide range of cases useful to experiment and improve survey >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The members of the Research Units have a long experience in the field of survey, analyses and assessments for recovery, as well as in the field of infrastructures and transport systems and in the field of economy and business management.
All the Units will contribute to a multidisciplinary thematic research facing the complexity of themes of the "Mediterranean Sea", in order to:
- compare its common invariants determining its "diffused" qualities;
- assess its state of the art;
- foresee its transformations and projects.
Therefore, the research will aim at promoting an activity of analysis for the control of a sustainable development of the territory, that is at discretizing and measuring its material and immaterial values through a multicriteria analysis of the natural and built environment.
The research will focus on Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, minor islands and all Maghreb countries – areas being rich in history, culture and local traditions – in order to contribute to provide new economic stimuli through the proposal of a cultural and environmental model encouraging the development of the whole studied area.
Some aspects of the disciplinary identity of those places will be examined through the representation of the natural and built environment, experimenting with a working methodology supporting the professors dealing with representation with other scholars dealing with economy and transports and able to develop >>>