This book studies the change in Mediterranean port cities, from the nineteenth century when they flourished as a result of international economic relations and advances in transportation technology, through the twentieth century when the nation-states were at their prime time. This trajectory with two distinct parts belongs as a whole to what we call the modern times. Whereas in the first phase, Mediterranean port cities became hubs of spontaneous urban complexity and social diversity thanks to reciprocal relations that made them the places of cultural exchange, where people from different parts of the Mediterranean met one another, during the second, because of the interruption of such connectivities and major demographic changes the same cities experienced by way of massive migration, they became less and less unlike other cities with which they shared the same geography in general and the nation-state territory, in particular. Over the last few decades, with a new round of globalization, port cities increasingly find themselves facing new opportunities and connectivities, the realization of which would make them once again different, albeit in variegated ways and to degrees. Our narrative foregrounds contexts and connectivities with specific attention paid to mobility, fragility, and precarity. The purpose of this book is to highlight commonalities of and differences among the select Mediterranean port cities, with a focus on the role of social actors, changing economic relations and spatial characteristics and practices.
Author(s): Eyüp Özveren, Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu, Tülin Selvi Ünlü
Series: Cities, Heritage and Transformation
Publisher: Springer-Silk Cities
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 263
City: London
Preface
Contents
List of Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction: The Mediterranean, and the Port Cities in Modern Times
1.1 In the Beginning Was the Sea
1.2 Visible Cities: The Modern Port City
1.3 Lessons from the More Recent Mediterranean ‘Port Cities’ Literature
1.4 Structure of the Book
1.5 Overture: Barcelona as a Double Counterpoint
1.6 Part I: A Mediterranean Tour d’Horizon with the Port City Articles as the Ports of Call
1.7 Intermezzo: A View from the Bridge of Volos Collapsing into Infinity
1.8 Part II: Fragments of Connectivity
References
2 Overture: Urban Planning in a Mediterranean Port City: The Contested Nature of Urban Redevelopment in the El Raval Neighborhood in Barcelona
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Original Urban Growth and Evolution
2.3 The Social, Economic, and Planning Struggles in the Post-Franco Period
2.4 Actors and Policy Dynamics of Downtown Redevelopment
2.4.1 The Institutional Consensus Building
2.4.2 The Public–Private Partnership Strategy
2.4.3 The Limited and Conflicted Nature of Community Participation in the Planning Process
2.5 The Contested Urban Transformation
2.6 Final Remarks
References
Part I A Mediterranean Tour d’horizon with the Port City Articles as the Ports of Call
3 Alexandria: A Glorious Past, Troubled Present and Promising Future
3.1 Introduction
3.2 A Glorious Past
3.3 Troubled Present
3.3.1 Land Infill
3.3.2 Pollution
3.3.3 Unplanned Development
3.3.4 Urban Planning Violations
3.3.5 Destruction of Architectural Heritage
3.4 Bright Future
3.4.1 Accomplished Projects
3.4.2 Future Projects
3.5 Conclusions
References
4 Beirut—Forever on a Tightrope: The Search for a Fragile Modernity in Travelogues, Memoirs, and Archives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Competitive Context
4.3 The Far-From-Certain Rise of Beirut
4.4 Beirut’s Trajectory I: Port City—Port-City—Port and the City
4.5 A Digression: Beirut Contrasted with Damascus
4.6 Beirut’s Trajectory II: Port City—Port-City—Port and City
4.7 Conclusion
References
5 The Character of Mersin as an Eastern Mediterranean Port City
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Urban Identity and Character
5.3 The Eastern Mediterranean in the Nineteenth Century and Eastern Mediterranean Port Cities
5.4 The Eastern Mediterranean Port City and Its Urban Form Components
5.5 Urban Structure and Form Components of Mersin as an Eastern Mediterranean Port City
5.6 Dynamics of Urban Development in Mersin and Their Impact on Urban Space
5.6.1 Activities That Depend on Maritime Trade and the Organization of Urban Space
5.6.2 Distinctive Local Administration and Organization of Urban Space
5.6.3 Demographic Structure and the Organization of Urban Space
5.7 Evaluation
5.8 Conclusion
References
6 Izmir, the Port City that Will Follow You No Matter Where You Go
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Emergence of the Port-City
6.3 Bearing the Burden of the Past During the First Half of the Twentieth Century
6.4 The Fifties with Less-Than-A-Magic Touch
6.5 Coping with the Normalization Forced upon the City
6.6 Izmir, Lost & (yet to Be) Found?
References
Part II Intermezzo: A View from the Bridge of Volos Collapsing into Infinity
7 Volos in the Network of Mediterranean Cities: Comparative Mapping of the City’s Spatial Evolution Through the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
7.1 Introduction: Urban History Between the Global and the Local
7.2 A Brief Outline of Volos’s Evolution
7.3 Identifying the Networking Themes
7.4 Transport Networks: Railway Building—Evaristo de Chirico’s Works in Volos, 1881–1905
7.5 Transport Networks: Harbour Building—Edouard Quellenec’s Works in the Mediterranean, 1888–1925
7.6 Diaspora Networks, 1825–1950: From the Pelion Villages to Egypt and Back to Volos
7.7 Financial Networks: The Branches of the Bank of Athens, 1911–1920
7.8 Manufacturing and Trade Networks: Hermann Spierer Tobacco Company
7.9 Cultural Networks: The Schools of the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition
7.10 Architectural Networks: The Formative Period, 1880–1935
7.11 Conclusion
References
Part III Fragments of Connectivity
8 Transnational Trajectories: From Chios to London Through Alexandria, a Family Story
8.1 Introduction
References
9 City, Fathers, and Sons: Life Trajectories of Salonican Sabbatians in the Nineteenth Century
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Salonica in the Nineteenth Century
9.3 Landowners
9.4 Merchants
9.5 Civil Servants
9.6 Conclusion
References
10 Ex-Changing Houses in Rethymno After the Treaty of Lausanne
10.1 Introduction
10.2 An Unusual Blend: The Architecture in Rethymno
10.3 Rethymno Refugee Rehabilitation Committee Documents
10.4 A Case Study in P. Koroneou Street in Aksaray Mahalle
10.5 Conclusion
References
Index
