Stagno europeo, lago cinese o bacino globale? Cronache dal futuro del Mediterraneo

The future of the European countries washed by the Mediterranean Sea is articulated along two axes of “essentialisation”. On the one hand, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe has relegated the European Mediterranean, “oleographically” represented as a set of backward, parasitic, and corrupt economies, to a rogue role within the framework of the European Union hegemonised by the interests of frugal and “virtuous” countries. On the other hand, the Mediterranean European regions seems to be able to offer an alternative model of sustainable development to that of ecocidal industrialism. National governments and international public and private agencies, in fact, are increasingly investing in the symbolic value of environmental sustainability, quality food and historical- cultural heritage as high added-value tourist attractions for the global urban classes. From this perspective, it seems that the “pigs” of yesterday are now in a position to exploit the advantage of backwardness to redefine old geopolitical and economic relations in the governance of the European Union. In our view, both representations are deeply rooted in the new centrality of the Mediterranean Sea in the value streams of the economy, international investment and intra-European competition to become a strategic node of global logistics and a hub in global supply chains. In this contribution we discuss the future of the European Mediterranean as a semantic battleground of political, cultural and symbolic appetites and conflicts in the construction of the new global division of labour. Analysing the essentialisation of Greece and Italy in the post-financial crisis decade, this article offers a critical and undisciplined reading of the renewed role of the shores of the European Mediterranean in the political projects of transnational elites in the ongoing restructuring of the global division of labour.