Migration, Mobilities and the Arab Spring
Spaces of Refugee Flight in the Eastern Mediterranean
Edited by Natalia Ribas-Mateos,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Cover artwork by Ralph Bernabei
Edward Elgar publishing.
‘Natalia Ribas-Mateos has produced a brilliant analysis of the consequences of the Arab Spring in terms of new and ongoing mobilites, migratons and displacement of populatons – an essental component to understanding current global changes in the region and beyond.
Empirically grounded and theoretcally innovatve, this book is a wonderful
example of comparatve interdisciplinary scholarship on an issue with both
local and global resonance.’
– Russell King, University of Sussex, UK
Confronting questions of globalizaton, mobilites and space in the Mediterranean, and more specifcally in the eastern Mediterranean, this book introduces a new type of complexity and ambiguity to the study of the global. In this theoretical frame an increasingly urban articulation of global logics and struggles, and an escalating use of urban space to make political claims, not only by citzens but also by foreigners, can be found. By emphasizing the interplay between global, regional and local phenomena, the book examines new forms and conditons, such as the transformation of borders, the reconfiguration of transnational communities, the agency of transnational families, new mobilities and diasporas, and transnational networks of humanitarian response.
The contributions from a variety of disciplines demonstrate that the reconfiguraton of mobilites and the accompanying problem of inhospitable politics towards refugees at different levels, as well as humanitarian responses to it, is one of the major impacts, globally speaking, of the Arab Spring. Through the reconfiguraton of such new mobilites there is an urgency to properly map the space of the many trajectories of those transnational connections. The editor concludes that there is, however, great dificulty in doing so as it is constantly disconnected by new arrivals, constantly waiting to be determined by the confguraton and reconfguraton of both historical and contemporary relations.
This exploration of migraton, mobilites and the Arab Spring, is essental reading for scholars across a multtude of disciplines. The book’s themes are of major interest and importance for policymakers and administrators at national and internatonal levels.
Contributors:
H. Afailal, R. Al Akash, C. Beaugrand, K. Boswall, C. Denaro, K. Doraï, V. Geisser, L. Navone, N. Ribas-Mateos, S. Sassen, S. Schmelter, C.H. Schwarz
ribas-mateos 