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Mediterranean Voices: Oral History and Cultural Practice in Mediterranean Cities

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There is no shortage of information on the rich historic heritage or colourful local customs for those with an interest in the Mediterranean region. Yet much of it is often biased towards a romanticised past rooted in antiquity and/or the Renaissance. In contrast, Mediterranean Voices offers a fresh and innovative approach to this cultural heritage, as witnessed through the daily lives of ordinary citizens in the present and recent past. It offers examples of the intangible cultural heritage which animates these historically-cosmopolitan Mediterranean cities and particular spaces within them, and reflects an ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity, of which many visitors remain unaware.

The Mediterranean Voices project reflects a growing interest on the part of state and non-state institutions alike in the celebration of cultural identity and the protection of cultural heritage, both monumental and non-monumental - as evidenced by the recent adoption of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.  But the Mediterranean Voices project is innovative in a number of ways, starting with the size and extent of the collaboration, which is based on a partnership with a number of different institutions, including universities, non-governmental organisations and independent research agencies, in the cities of Alexandria, Ancona, Beirut, Bethlehem, Chania, Ciutat de Mallorca, Granada, Istanbul, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Marseille, Nicosia North, Nicosia South, and Valletta .
 
The project has five principal aims. These are, firstly, to work collectively within a network of partners in order to carry out the research; secondly, to interrogate the basis of the Euro-Mediterranean's 'common heritage' from an ethnographic and oral history perspective; thirdly, to challenge the customary emphasis given to 'monumental' heritage and to emphasise its relationship to intangible cultural heritage; fourthly, to promote an awareness of cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic aspects of Mediterranean urban cultural heritage; and finally, to further understanding and encourage respect for pluralism, tolerance and peaceful co-existence between the many peoples who inhabit the Mediterranean urban environments.

The cities represented in our network offer a range of situations and issues: 
  • Marseilles, Ancona and Alexandria, all port cities which are important transit zones for the Mediterranean, despite the declining importance of maritime links for mobility around the Mediterranean;
  • Nicosia, Beirut and Bethlehem, just emerging from, or still deeply embroiled in, long years of conflict; 
  • Istanbul, Chania and Granada, whose cosmopolitan pasts, reflected in the multi-layered heritage of the built environment, are at odds with the dominant mono-ethnic public culture of the present and the attempts of new 'ethnic minorities' to find a place within it; 
  • Ciutat de Palma, in Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Valletta, in Malta, where tourism legitimises efforts to 'gentrify' sections of the city at the expense of the marginalized communities who live there; and, finally, 
  • London, a major centre of Mediterranean diaspora communities, and nourished by enduring close links with the region. 

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