Spatial Bonds and Boundaries of Minorities in the Ottoman Mediterranean

10th International Conference on Urban History  – City & Society in European History

Ghent (Belgium), September 1-4 2010

I would like to raise your attention on this panel:

Migrant Communities and Urban Space in the Mediterranean ports, 17th-19th centuries

Migrant Communities and Urban Space in the Mediterranean ports, 17th-19th centuries
Recent research on migrant communities has witnessed a clear shift towards a more sophisticated understanding of the variety of bonds that link minority groups to the society they live in, as well as to their places of origins. Yet, when it comes to the understanding of past migrations, historical discourse still depends in many ways on traditional categories of analysis, that often poorly reflect the profound originality of the situations under study.

This session is an attempt to challenge traditional and “ready-to-go” views on the organization of community life among migrants who lived in the Mediterranean port-cities during the late modern period (17th to 19th centuries). To this effect, the session will address the key issue of “minority spaces”, namely of urban spaces that were socially, architecturally or culturally formed and shaped by the presence of migrants and foreigners. It will also consider the way such spaces were perceived by the local population, as well as the role played by urban space as a stake within broader patterns of social coexistence or exclusion.
Following the idea that routes of commerce were also the major routes of emigration, the session will focus primarily on Mediterranean port-cities, but will also consider cities located on other types of commercial crossroads. Conceived as minorities, foreigners’ groups may include the so-called Diaspora groups such as the Jews, the Greeks, and the Armenians, but also the other “nations”.

Favoring principally papers with a comparative approach, the session aims to approach the theme of “migrant spaces” from the point of view of both the community studies and the urban studies. Comparison can in turn be approached both on a theoretical level and through different case studies.

Session info

Papers

Cosmopolitanism, minorities and urban spaces in Mediterranean port-cities, 17th to 19th centuries: research questions and theoretical approaches

Harboring the Infidel: Urban Accommodations for Ottoman Turks in Early Modern Venice and Livorno

Jewish Minority (Community) in Ottoman Port of Izmir during 17-19th Centuries

Jewish Minority (Community) in Ottoman Port of Izmir during 17-19th Centuries

JEWISH URBAN SPACES – SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND SETTLEMENT MODELS IN FRANCE AND ITALY BEFORE AND AFTER EMANCIPATION

Les « nations » européennes à l’épreuve du cosmopolitisme : quelques réflexions à partir du cas des Italiens d’Alexandrie au XIXème siècle.

Mediterranean Port Cities and Institutions (XVIIth century). A Physical Description.

Spatial Bonds and Boundaries of Minorities in the Ottoman Mediterranean

The Qrāna Italian Jewish Community of Tunisia: An example of Transational Dimension