Thirty Years Later: Homage (and Criticism) to Mediterranean Cities

Thirty years after the seminal book entitled “The Mediterranean city in transition” by Lila Leontidou, a Greek scholar whose work in the urban arena is well known, the present contribution re-formulates a narrative framework interpreting the medium-term evolution of Southern European cities and generalises this frame to the analysis of other metropolitan areas with similar morphological and functional characteristics worldwide. Going beyond traditional Mediterranean discourses grounded on economic backwardness, social secularism and demographic mix, an original interpretation of Mediterranean urbanities is proposed to the local governance, real estate bubbles, land-use mix and deregulation in urban expansion. Focusing on socio-economic development processes in the Northern Mediterranean, the lost opportunity to reduce regional disparities and to give value to scenic and cultural values of the cities and the surrounding countryside are additional issues considered in this vision. Basing on a narrative analysis of ecologically fragile and socially fragmented Mediterranean contexts, the pervasiveness of a structural crisis – affecting both national and regional economic systems while infiltrating in the institutions, local governance systems and the society – is finally debated as a contribution to a better understanding of complex urbanities. Suspended between Europe and the Mediterranean, this work concludes with a discussion on the future development of 'Southern' cities, highlighting the intrinsic divergence over short-term and long-run, shared destiny.