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1 – 10 of over 1000The chapter is an auto-ethnographic account of the self-management of a chronic illness within the context of a participatory research project on Mediterranean Diet (MD). A group…
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter is an auto-ethnographic account of the self-management of a chronic illness within the context of a participatory research project on Mediterranean Diet (MD). A group of Italian women with type 2 diabetes is following a non-medical, personal interpretation of the Mediterranean-style diet. The research account is preceded by a critical appraisal of the scientific narratives of the MD.
Methodology/approach
Analysis of epidemiological research on MD examines some methodological aspects of gender blindness in its scientific approach. The ethnography concerns self-management of MD diet and redefinition of gender relations.
Findings
MD is analyzed as a case of transplantation of yesterday’s cultural and social capitals of the peasant classes, to today’s discourses on food considered as appropriate for affluent people suffering from satiety diseases. The ethnography highlights gender aspects of biographical work, examining in particular a “conversion” dietary model.
Research limitations
The ethnography must be amplified to include women and men from different social classes with various Mediterranean cooking habits, and family and gender patterns.
Practical implications
The chapter highlights cultural processes for women’s empowerment in self-managing type 2 diabetes.
Originality/value
This chapter may represent a seminal sociological work on chronic illness, gender and food studies in one of the “native” contexts of the Mediterranean-style diet.
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Filippo Grasso and Daniele Schilirò
Tourism is growing globally and expanding into increasingly differentiated thematic areas and places that have thus far been unknown. The Mediterranean region is one of the…
Abstract
Tourism is growing globally and expanding into increasingly differentiated thematic areas and places that have thus far been unknown. The Mediterranean region is one of the leading tourism areas in the world accounting for one-third of global tourism receipts and half of global tourism arrivals. However, the countries of this region, undoubtedly attractive for their natural and cultural sites, history and traditions, must face the continuous challenges that the highly competitive global market and the sustainability of the environment and resources pose.
This chapter aims to examine and discuss the relationship between tourism and economic growth in the Mediterranean region, specifically, the issue of economic growth led by tourism and its central focus in public policy. The tourism–economic growth relationship will also highlight the different challenges between the developed and the developing countries. The relationship between tourism and sustainability in the Mediterranean region is the second theme of this contribution. The concept of ‘slow tourism’ as an operational proposal for sustainable tourism is also discussed; specifically, the natural environment and the cultural heritage need to be preserved by all tourism stakeholders.
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This study examines the long-term trends in wages of skilled and unskilled construction workers in Constantinople-Istanbul, and to a lesser extent in other urban centers in the…
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This study examines the long-term trends in wages of skilled and unskilled construction workers in Constantinople-Istanbul, and to a lesser extent in other urban centers in the Near East and the Balkans from about 1100 until the present. It also compares long-term trends in eastern Mediterranean wages with those elsewhere in Europe. Two events had significant and long-lasting impacts on urban real wages around the eastern Mediterranean during the last millennium: the Black Death and modern economic growth. The available price and wage data also point to the existence of a gap in urban real wages between northwestern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean during the first half of the sixteenth century.
The Mediterranean has long been celebrated for the richness, diversity, and historical depth of its cultural heritage. However, in recent years heritage and heritage practice…
Abstract
The Mediterranean has long been celebrated for the richness, diversity, and historical depth of its cultural heritage. However, in recent years heritage and heritage practice could be said to have become a new mode of production in the region (Bianchi, 2005). There are a number of reasons for this; one has to do with the stagnation of the Mediterranean's traditional “sun, sea, and sand” tourism. As a result of this tour operators and national governments have started to push the packaging of “culture” and “heritage” for a more diversified “up-market” product to attract higher-spending tourists to the region's cities and rural hinterland. Another factor is the restructuring and liberalization of the regional economy since the closing decades of the 20th century. There has seen a shift from agriculture to services as the dominant economic sector in this region and the concomitant discovery of culture has become an economic asset for investors seeking an outlet for global capital flows (Bianchi, 2005; Daher, 2007; Nogués-Pedregal, 2002). The European Union (EU) has had an important role to play in these processes, both in driving the region's neoliberal market reforms, and in promoting the establishment of its cultural heritage economy. Cultural heritage has become a priority area in EU Mediterranean policy, with millions of euros earmarked for heritage related projects. This takes the form both of loans to private investors from the European Development Bank, and of grants for public sector cultural heritage initiatives, for example, through its Euromed Heritage programs, the fourth phase of which is underway at the time of writing (Bianchi, 2005; Euromed Heritage, n.d.).
Eladio Arnalte-Alegre and Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda
This chapter presents an overview of the ‘big’ data of Mediterranean agriculture, with a special focus on the four EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece), in order to…
Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of the ‘big’ data of Mediterranean agriculture, with a special focus on the four EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece), in order to provide a backdrop for the rest of cases analysed in the volume. In this regard, two thesis are discussed: the assumption that farming systems in the South have not followed the process of ‘productivist modernisation’ characterising post-war Northern European agricultural change, and that, precisely due to this reason, most holdings and regions from the South would have more possibilities to adapt to new approaches of multifunctional rural development.Thus, the chapter tackles both the static and dynamic structural traits of Southern agricultures and their differences with the North, as well as several aspects of the organisation of farming in the Mediterranean and other key components of productivist modernisation: farm intensification and specialisation. Later, the diffusion of multifunctional dynamics is addressed, in order to introduce some reflections about their meaning and scope in the Mediterranean regions. The chapter ends with a straightforward typology of Southern farming systems and a concluding section, which goes back to discuss the two initial theses.
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Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda, Ana Moragues-Faus and Eladio Arnalte-Alegre
This concluding chapter presents a transversal reading of some key elements of Mediterranean agriculture and its pathways of transformation, in part under the lens of main…
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This concluding chapter presents a transversal reading of some key elements of Mediterranean agriculture and its pathways of transformation, in part under the lens of main theoretical paradigms, where, as the first section discuss, it has had a peripheral character. In this regard, the chapter tackles the impure nature (where allegedly productivist and non-productivist dynamics coalesce) of some agricultural pathways, at both the farm and the territorial levels. As it is discussed later, this relates to the role played by policies and the way Mediterranean decision-makers mediate EU regulations. Subsequently, three interwoven dimensions of the recent evolution of Mediterranean agriculture are analysed: the dynamics of family farming and the role played by family networks, the position of migrants in the evolution of agriculture and some hypothesis and clues about the implications of the current economic crisis for Southern farming systems. In the two last sections, the chapter ends discussing the theoretical and policy challenges posed by Mediterranean small-scale farming systems.
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Anastasia Zabaniotou, Aigli Tsirogianni, Monica Cardarilli and Massimo Guarascio
Gender competence as part of engineering education can better prepare men and women to work on sustainable solutions that benefit entire societies. This chapter describes the…
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Gender competence as part of engineering education can better prepare men and women to work on sustainable solutions that benefit entire societies. This chapter describes the framework and lessons learned of a community of practice (CoP) for gender equality facilitated by the Mediterranean Engineering Schools Network. Faculty and students from Mediterranean European, North African and Middle Eastern countries came together in this CoP, which was supported by the TARGET project, to develop a practical plan using a reflexive approach. The transfer of knowledge between generations is achieved by using participatory learning processes, facilitating mindful awareness, widening experiences, deepening understandings and building a gender-sensitive mindset. Students embarked on the journey to become change agents. The process led to the consolidation of gender equality knowledge, competence building and the development of change agents for gender equality. This CoP can inspire other institutions to undertake a participatory path towards gender equality – at local, regional, or global level.
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Stefania Panebianco and Jean Monnet Chair Holder
This chapter explains the added value of learning the EU via interactive academic teaching and focused training provided by experts and practitioners. The EUMedEA Crash Course…
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This chapter explains the added value of learning the EU via interactive academic teaching and focused training provided by experts and practitioners. The EUMedEA Crash Course (CC) is an intensive training course mixing teaching, research and expertise funded by the European Commission via the EUMedEA Jean Monnet Chair. It was held for three editions (2016–2018) at the University of Catania. Based upon studying and sharing the expertise on crisis at the EU Mediterranean borders, this intensive learning experience allowed young and senior researchers to interact in a qualified academic context by looking at the on-field activities of the experts directly involved in the crisis management, in Italy or in other Mediterranean countries. The selected topic – crises at the EU Mediterranean borders and migration in particular – has involved an international group of instructors and researchers who profited of the expertise of those who experience practices on the ground. The EUMedEA CC tried to bridge the gap between academia and experts by providing excellence teaching, focusing on a various range of crisis managers willing to share their everyday business. New crises require new actors, strategies and instruments, thus new analytical tools to understand new and old practices to address crises in the Mediterranean area are needed. In sum, by providing an innovative teaching based upon experience on the ground, this CC has brought the EU as a crisis manager closer to European (young) researchers.
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Ana Moragues-Faus, Dionisio Ortiz-Miranda and Terry Marsden
This chapter aims to analyse the evolution of competing paradigms and theoretical frameworks that have pervaded the debates on the present and future of agricultural and food…
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This chapter aims to analyse the evolution of competing paradigms and theoretical frameworks that have pervaded the debates on the present and future of agricultural and food systems and their associated rural areas. From this global overview, we will extract common features of paradigms that are being reproduced over time as well as highlight the innovations introduced. Particular attention will be paid to discuss the responses and contributions inspired by European Mediterranean-based research, setting up the framework that underlines the subsequent chapters of the volume.
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