Mediterraneanization

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term mediterranization describes various phenomena that are associated with a climatic change or with adaptation to southern living conditions.

Longing for everlasting summer

Palm House Vienna

Already Aristotle , Thomas More , Montesquieu and Kant found the “moderate” or “temperate zone”, where the optimally balanced climate prevails and people free from the constraints of extreme climates, to be ideal. The more radical utopian Charles Fourier , a pioneer of socialism, dreamed of a global reorganization of climate conditions. His “Théorie des quatre mouvements”, published in 1808, is the idea of ​​a reshaping of society and the sexes that takes place in connection with a profound climate change.

In the 18th century orangeries and winter gardens were built, which in the 19th century took on increasingly gigantic proportions in the form of passages and glass palaces. These “climate capsules” were first built in London, which was plagued by smog, fog and continuous rain, and then also in the other cool zones of Central Europe - wherever people longed for an everlasting summer.

Mediterraneanization of the climate

Hardly anyone denies that climate change is currently taking place. Climate researchers predict that the earth's climate zones will shift towards the poles and that one can speak of a mediterranization in the German-speaking area.

Mediterraneanization of the lifestyle

Heat wave in Krakow

Global climate change has specific regional effects, affecting natural areas as well as social and technical systems. The consequences of climate change have very different effects in the various sectors and regions and can be associated with both risks and opportunities. Changes in the consumption pattern and overall demand for energy can be observed in private households and industrial customers.

The so-called Mediterraneanization of lifestyle is associated with a shift in the load curve over the course of the day, because a general rise in temperature reduces the need for heat in winter and increases the need for cooling in summer. This also has an impact on the food industry, which has to adjust to new eating habits, as more lighter dishes, ice cream and cold drinks are in demand. The clothing industry also has to adapt to changes in the weather and is increasingly confronted with planning uncertainties.

Mediterraneanization of the food culture

Pizzeria in Weimar

At the time of the recruitment agreements of the Federal Republic of Germany, which began in 1955, around 12 million so-called guest workers came from recruiting countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia and later Turkey and Morocco. The idea was to replace the workforce in the form of a rotation principle, integration into the existing company was not wanted. The workers therefore prepared to return soon, their sense of home manifested in the "abandoned home". The hit "Greek Wine", in which Udo Jürgens sings about the homesickness of the Greek workers, reflects this never-being-there and the return options at that time, and it was the reality that many guest workers missed their country, their families and their reference points badly. They tried to create equivalents to integrate the old home into the new life. Many changes in local everyday life in our society go back to precisely those times in which the guest workers integrated their old homeland into the new one. Much of what we take for granted today - the Mediterraneanization of the everyday food offer or the differentiation in gastronomy - comes from those times. In this way, the immigrants contributed not only to the economic growth of the Federal Republic of Germany, but also to the cultural diversity of everyday lifestyles and forms.

The Mediterraneanization of the food culture is a social trend that is characterized by the popularization of Mediterranean cuisine or the postponement of meals into the late evening hours. Internationalisms such as B. Paella or fondue enriched the northern European kitchen languages ​​with the influx of guest workers from the Romance countries. Enjoying espresso or oven-fresh pizza at an Italian restaurant wasn't a matter of course about 40 years ago.

Since the 1970s, “Mediterranean-defined” kitchens have spread, in the slipstream of which local and traditional culinary forms are “reinvented”.

Reflexive Mediterraneanization

The cultural anthropologist Regina Römhild used the example of Crete to research that in the post-war period it was not only the Minoan high culture or the scenic and climatic features that contributed to the fact that tourism became the island's most important source of income. The resistance of the Cretans against their occupying powers in the course of history and the image of the wild archaic fighter flowed into a tourist imagination of Crete. Römhild also stated that Alexis Sorbas , the hero from the novel Nikos Kazantzakis ' published in 1946, had a strong influence on the tourist imagination of Crete. His fictional character combines idealized primitivism and non-conformist freedom, which made him the idol of the cultural critics of the Northwest and inspired their imagination. Travelers seek this spirit in the taverns and in the mountains of Crete.

The tourist vision is cultivated in vacation spots by showing and staging traditions in the service of tourist longings. Former guest workers return to their home countries and bring the experience and knowledge they have gained in the country of emigration to the local tourism economy. Many tourists take part in realizing their longings themselves, for example with a second home at vacation spots. Thus, the transnational migrants contribute to a reflexive mediterranization that has its origin in the fictitious Mediterranean area and which returns to its origin.

Mediterraneanization of public space

In relation to the inner city development, the dynamic development of the use of open spaces is referred to as mediterranization. This phenomenon has been observed all over Europe since the beginning of the 21st century; it has led to the expansion of outdoor catering, an increasing attractiveness of public open spaces and newer manifestations such as spontaneous open-air dance events. Palm trees, sandy areas or terracotta allude to a Mediterranean-style laissez-faire lifestyle. Wolfgang Kaschuba observes how spring in Berlin and other large cities begins with a veritable “palming” and “shielding” of the inner city, when cafes, shopping malls and city beaches are prepared for summer with tens of thousands of palm trees and parasols.

Kashuba describes the “Mediterraneanization” of the inner cities as a targeted attempt to “look” as an urban coastal and leisure landscape through aesthetic stagings, atmospheric arrangements and symbolic practices. The Mediterranean sees itself as an associative imitation of scenic, tourist, regional and mental motifs, which in cool Central and Northern Europe can of course only be experienced and lived as the urban “Côte d'Azur” with a good portion of imagination and self-irony. This “Mediterraneanization” is no longer just about traditional forms such as the beer garden, which is more remote from the street and which is visited more in the evening. Even Italian ice cream parlors offered their creations indoors in the 1980s, because such “dolce vita” outside and in the bright afternoon in northern European cities would have violated work ethics and civil conventions. Or the widespread picnicking or barbecuing in the park or city forest. Today it is rather the other way round about the demonstrative turning of the “Mediterranean” rooms and practices towards the street and the public, about the visual and physical presentation of urban enjoyment and leisure culture, which is often deliberately designed as a crossbar and stumbling block when the café tables that Deck chairs and bodies now block sidewalks, squares and passages.

Everyday life is touristized in staged adventure worlds, the many bistros, cafes, coffee shops, etc. As on vacation, time is spent contemplatively with other people free of stress and work, so that we can speak of an omnipresent Mediterraneanization of everyday life, which can also be seen in the light clothing, the outdoor dining and the architecture. These appearances are an expression of the possibility to generalize the other and to locate oneself in it and thus as a release from everyday life.

Side effects

Noise pollution

Berlin Marathon recreational runners

In the past, noise was perceived as less negative, as all functions of a city took place in the narrowest public space. This has remained so up to a point, except that earlier the night's rest was observed. Conflicts result because the different interests of the residents and the organizers collide: some demand their right to rest, others want to exercise their right to leisure time entertainment.

The good image of a city is increasingly characterized by a "Mediterraneanization", that is, an outdoor life and urban areas in which nightlife has priority. As a result, the different interests of the residents and the organizers collide, because some demand a right to rest, while others want to exercise their right to leisure time entertainment. The implementation of the legal regulations often reaches its limits in the inner cities, as the various legal norms and policies contradict each other (e.g. noise protection and freedom of trade).

Littering

Due to increasing mobility and on- the-go consumption, the littering of the environment has been observed since the end of the 20th century, but the Mediterraneanization of cities has made the extent of littering (from English: litter; German: waste) a new dimension. The use of the public parks, green spaces and waterfronts for barbecues etc. The like has a high level of littering from one-way , to-go and take-away packaging.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eva Horn: Future as a catastrophe . FISCHER E-Books, 2014, ISBN 978-3-10-401376-3 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ↑ Thomas Körner: Climate change in the Alps. Impact and importance for tourism . GRIN Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-656-89197-0 , pp. 27 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ a b M. Blesl, M. Wiesmeth, U. Fahl: Energy - and macroeconomic effects of climate change in Baden-Württemberg. (PDF) pp. 34, 35 , accessed on October 3, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Total demand and demand patterns for energy. (PDF) In: Stakeholder Dialogues: Opportunities and Risks of Climate Change. Umweltbundesamt, p. 60 , accessed on October 3, 2018 .
  5. ↑ What actually is home? (PDF) In: uni-kassel.de. Christiane Schurian-Bremecker, p. 21 , accessed on October 3, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Ueli Gyr : Interface of everyday life: Studies on everyday cultural research. Selected essays . Waxmann Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8309-7915-9 , pp. 316 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ↑ Johannes Kramer: Latin-Romance Word Stories: Edited by Michael Frings as a festive gift for Johannes Kramer on his 60th birthday . ibidem-Verlag / ibidem Press, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8382-5660-3 , pp. 34 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Angelo Maiolino: Political Culture in Times of Neoliberalism: A Hegemony Analysis . transcript Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8394-2760-6 , pp. 112 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ↑ Ulf Matthiesen: Culinary and regional development with special consideration of “Mark and Metropolis”. (PDF) In: edoc.hu-berlin.de. Retrieved October 3, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Claudia Benthien, Manuela Gerlof: Paradise: Topographies of Sehnsucht . Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20290-3 , p. 217 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ↑ Ramona Lenz: Mobilities in Europe: Migration and Tourism in Crete and Cyprus in the context of the European border regime . Springer-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-92287-4 , pp. 191 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  12. ↑ a b c Thomas Krüger, Jakob F. Schmid, Tanja Jauernig: Stadtnachacht Management der Urbanen Nachtökonomie. (PDF) HafenCity University Hamburg, accessed on October 3, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Sabine Knierbein: The Production of Central Public Spaces in the Attention Economy: Aesthetic, Economic and Media Restructuring through Formally Effective Coalitions in Berlin since 1980 . Springer-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-92370-3 , pp. 49 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Kaschuba: From Tahrir Square in Cairo to Hermannplatz in Berlin: Urban Spaces as “Claims” and “Commons”? Spatial anthropological considerations. Retrieved October 7, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Wöhler, Karlheinz .: Touristification of spaces: cultural studies and sociological studies on the construction of spaces . 1st edition. VS Verl. Für Sozialwiss, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-17539-3 , p. 40 .
  16. ↑ Nadine Marquardt, Verena Schreiber: Ortregister: A glossary of contemporary spaces . transcript Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8394-1968-7 , pp. 245 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  17. ↑ Thomas Steiner: Silent Society or Right to Leisure Entertainment? (PDF) In: www.umwelt.nrw.de. Institute for Sociocultural Development at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, p. 4 , accessed on October 3, 2018 .
  18. ^ Urban, Arnd I, Halm Gerhard: cleanliness sta (d) tt littering . kassel university press GmbH, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86219-780-4 , p. 40 ( limited preview in Google Book search).