Itinerari algerini, scenari urbani: esempi di emancipazione e di deterritorializzazione

Autore: Michel Péraldi
In: Meridiana. 49, 2004
doi:10.1400/78360
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Abstract

Algerian Routes, urban spaces. Examples of emancipation and deterritorialisation of middle classes in global market
Based on fieldwork in some Mediterranean and North-european cities (in particular Marseilles and Istanbul) this paper wants to describe how the process of globalization fragments and shapes the urban social space. The development of market places and transnational trade connecting South, East and North, the combination of migration routes, disaporic establishment of migrant minorities (Moroccan in Italia and Belgium, Turkish and Libanese in Germany, Algerian and Sephardic in France, Kurdish and Armenian in Istanbul….), in connection with the delocalised industrial areas (Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey) and the old «industrial districts» in Italy and Spain, compose an economy which it is impossible to describe just with notions like «informal economies». Taking account of the ability of entrepreneurs to make money with products, no doubt that these economies are capitalistic, but we are dealing with a capitalism without firms, without financial capital, without states, just organised on the base of local, social and personal arrangements. It is what we could call a bazaar economy, according to the Geertz explanation of the Moroccan suk: a bazaar economy is an integrated economical structure based on managing strategical informations as an interactive process. Face to face and personal networks are the key of the division of work, to the quality appreciation and «the best price» making. It is in this way that some big and «modern» Mediterranean towns take part to the globalisation process: it would be impossible to appreciate and describe the forms of their local spaces without considering their intimate connections with much wider spaces.