And So Europe Dehumanized Itself.
Mediterranean Geographies in Action
Palermo, November 10-11, 2015
Call for Action
How does one lead a good life in a bad life? (…) we have two problems: the first is how to live one’s own life well, such that we might say that we are living a good life within a world in which the good life is structurally or systematically foreclosed for so many. The second problem is, what form does this question take for us now?
The opening words of Judith Butler at the Adorno Prize Lecture can be seen as key questions in the recent history of the Mediterranean. In particular, by recalling Adorno, Butler reminds how the ethical and moral issue is inevitably embedded in the organization of the world: it is therefore a social phenomenon.
In recent decades, the phenomenon of migration towards Europe has been constantly represented as an emergency that must be addressed each time with actions, rather than planned, dictated by “humanitarian” policies. The economic crisis of the last period, along with the variable geometry of Europe's borders and the geopolitical shocks of the southern Mediterranean, has intensified a cross-scale convergence of policies, actions and representations of the West. The result is that the migration issue has been entrapped in a plethora of rhetoric aimed at the construction of homogeneous spaces, marked by a clear dividing line between the other and us. In this context, the latest celebration of the 150° anniversary of the Italian Unification and the centenary of the First World War have performed a National tale with a very selective memory of the recent past: our territorial colonial project remains a story to pass on. This lapse of memory continues to show the Mediterranean mobility only in general terms of migration, by denying the diasporic condition.
In light of this, we have the feeling that the hegemonic discourse of the EU and Nation-States is a trick for which building an effective counter-hegemonic and critical discourse has so far proved impossible. To try to get out of these rhetorical cages, which have a strong impact on everyday life, we believe it is necessary to think critically about what happened and is happening in the Mediterranean. This means re-floating the memory of the Italian and European colonial past. In so doing, we are obliged to take a first step towards a repositioning, implying a form of resistance that "says no" to the status quo.
The purpose of the meeting is therefore a first step to create a network involving multiple voices of researchers and activists on the Mediterranean issue. The format will be a workshop, whose method is the practice of listening, to act in concert.
For this to happen, we do not want to propose topics but questions:
• Can geographical knowledge escape the grip of the border?
• Is it possible to transform the regimes of territoriality in which we live that influence, through complex transcalar convergences, migration processes?
• How has the colonial experience been removed from the Italian history and memory, and what are the effects of such removal?
• Which hierarchy of the human being underlies migration’s policies and rhetorics?
• Can the discourse on migrants escape both the violence of criminalization and the humanitarianism of solidarity?
• Which new spaces and forms of recognition can we imagine as a liveable condition of life?
Participants can contact Giulia de Spuches ([log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]) by 15 September 2015 to indicate the issue of their interest. Please include a proposed title and 200-word abstract.
Languages: everyone will speak the language (s)he can. This is a political positioning; however, since the practice of listening is a priority for us, we will put all in a position to understand each other.
Organizing committee
Giulia de Spuches [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Enzo Guarrasi [log in to unmask]
Marco Picone [log in to unmask]
Chiara Giubilaro [log in to unmask]
Laura Lo Presti [log in to unmask]
Francesca Genduso [log in to unmask]
Marcello Caruso [log in to unmask]
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