BRAUDEL’S DONKEY
HISTORIANS AND THE MEDITERRANEAN AS A POLITICAL PROJECT
WOUTER VANSTIPHOUT
A publication by WWW.DESIGNASPOLITICS.NL
This text was originally published in New Geographies 5: The Mediterranean, Harvard Graduate school of Design. Edited by Antonio Petrov. Cover image: Joos de Momper, Mountainous Landscape with figures and a Donkey, 1630 page 2
BRAUDEL’S DONKEY
HISTORIANS AND THE MEDITERRANEAN AS A POLITICAL PROJECT
WOUTER VANSTIPHOUT
page 3
Braudel’s Donkey Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
academic hives of left- wing thought and hipster activism. Both dons of the new left-wing urban theorists, the sulphurous Mike Davis and the prophet-like David Harvey, have written spirited and excited analyses of the events on
“The wind of rebellion has swept across the
both sides of the Mediterranean, identifying
Mediterranean from
towards
echoes of the revolutions of the nineteenth
Southern Europe.” So says Belgian political
century. Mike Davis calls the Arab Spring an
scientist Eric Toussaint, who writes for the left-
Arabian 1848, Harvey the Occupy movement a
wing blog International Viewpoint. His assess-
twenty-first century Commune, repeating the
ment is far from unique — hundreds of similarly
events of Paris 1871, when the citizens seized
enthusiastic appraisals of the Arab Spring and
the city from the imperial troops and declared
the anti-austerity demonstrations of the past
them “Commons.” Both try their utmost to link
year can be found in books, magazines, blogs
the regimes of Mubarak, Qaddafi, Ben Ali, and
and Twitter accounts in Europe and the United
Assad to the same predatory capitalism that
States, by the superstars of neo-Marxism Mike
caused the financial crisis, which in turn caused
Davis and David Harvey and their myriad fellow
the anger against Wall Street, which triggered
travelers.
Occupy, but which also led to the Euro crisis,
North
Africa
It seems that the Mediterranean has be-
which then caused the austerity measures by
come a zone of promise for the end of capi-
Southern European governments, which led to
talism. The images of demonstrations by angry
the demonstrations by the Indignados in Spain
youths in Syntagma Square in Athens, Puerta
and their Greek brothers and sisters in Syntag-
del Sol in Madrid, Habib Bourguiba Avenue in
ma Square in Athens.
Algiers, and Tahrir Square in Egypt blend into
each other and become a single panorama of
cause in the demonstrations and riots on both
urban revolution. Everywhere we see the mon-
sides of the sea, there is in fact an ironic con-
umental squares dominated by huge bureau-
trast between the two. Occupy, the Indignados,
cratic buildings and normally congested traffic
and many of the other austerity and crisis-relat-
roundabouts filled with masses of flag-waving
ed demonstrations are fluid and flexible — not
citizens, who set up camp and refuse to leave
to say formless — in their agendas. Their one
until their demands are met.
point of consensus seems to be the wholesale
We have to ask, however, whether this
refutation of the politico-financial system of the
blending into each other really does signify a
World Bank, European Union, and the politically
common cause and really is the sign of a global
moderate coalition governments that are (mis)
urban revolution, or if this is not just a mas-
managing the crisis. The people on the streets in
sive global bout of wishful thinking within the
the Middle East, however, seem to ask for rights
page 4
While the Marxist left sees common
that to us have become undeniable, normal, ba-
right. The political and financial crisis about the
nal even: democracy; one person, one vote; free-
European Monetary Union has revealed a deep
dom of speech; good governance and the right
chasm between Northern and Southern Europe,
to do business, get educated, and practice your
with countries like France on the brink of be-
religion. In other words, the things that they are
longing either to the “good” North or the “bad”
demanding would seem utterly bourgeois to the
South. Countries that are nearly defaulting on
theoreticians of the cross-Mediterranean urban
their debt obligations — Greece, Spain, Italy,
revolt. To put it even more bluntly, they are de-
Portugal — are lumped together pejoratively as
manding the benefits of free-market constitu-
the “garlic economies.” The distrust between
tional democracy, the very system that Occupy
northern and southern countries has been fed
and many of the hard-left activists are trying to
by images of revolting youths burning cars on
pull down.
the streets of Athens — images easily associat-
But even if the revolts on either side of
ed and even confused with images of the Arab
Mare Nostrum are moving in opposite direc-
Spring. Xenophobic populist parties like that of
tions, the idea that the two sides of the Mediter-
Geert Wilders in the Netherlands have switched
ranean might be moving in each other’s direc-
from aiming at the immigrants from North Af-
tion is a strong one, entertained by the hard left
rica to attacking the parasitical EU members
as well as the xenophobic and Euro-skeptical
Greece, Spain, and Italy. On a policy level, split-
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
Indignados Occupation, La puerta de Sol Madrid, May 19th
page 5
ting Europe into a two-speed union is being dis-
on the trade routes of the old Western Roman
cussed, even with two different currencies: the
Empire, and that was until then oriented toward
N-Euro and the S-Euro.
the south, as it had been for centuries. Cut off
What unites the Mediterranean region at
from the trade-based Mediterranean economy,
this point is that it produces most of the politi-
Northern Europe went into a deep economic
cal, economic, and demographic issues that di-
slump and fell back on agriculture as its main
vide Europe, and even the world. It is the region
source of sustenance. The battle, however, built
where the European Union is breaking apart,
the foundation for the Carolingian empire that
the region the wave of immigration comes
dominated Northwestern Europe for the next
from, or passes through, fueling xenophobic
century. It was here, Pirenne claims, that the
populism; it is the region of the Israel-Palestine
feudal system was developed, and the medieval
conflict, and of civil war in the Balkans and in
civilization would grow. One of the most suc-
Syria. In a purely negative way, it still is Mare
cessful products of this originally agricultural
Nostrum — Our Sea — that defines who we are
and feudal medieval civilization was the city.
and around which the world revolves. Only this
Here the free burghers, capitalism, banking,
time it does not distribute goods, knowledge,
insurance, democracy, philosophy, art, and
culture, and wealth, as it did in antiquity, but
most of all, a ruthless and limitless hunger for
strife and controversy.
trade, were developed. It was these cities, as
The divisive role of the region in the con-
Pirenne stated in his seminal Medieval Cities:
temporary political imagination reinforces an
Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (1925),
old but controversial hypothesis that Europe
that would cause the comeback of Europe on
and the Mediterranean are mutually exclusive
the Mediterranean in the later Middle Ages. But
as coherent regions. It was put forward from
in the end, as the “Pirenne thesis” goes, without
the early 1920s by the Belgian historian Henri
having been cut off from the Mediterranean by
Pirenne. In 1922 he published a legendary arti-
the struggle with the Arab world, Europe would
cle called “Mahomet et Charlemagne” in which
never have become what it is. Pirenne’s version
he pushed forward the beginning of the Europe-
of events has been heavily criticized by histo-
an Middle Ages from 426 AC, the year the West-
rians since, but it does perfectly illustrate a
ern Roman Empire collapsed, to 732, the battle
conception of the Mediterranean Sea as a con-
of Tours, when Charles Martel stopped the con-
flict zone, the dominion over which defines the
quering armies of the Muslim Umayyad’s, who
identity and even the survival of its neighboring
in the century after Mohammed’s death had
peoples and regions.
conquered most of the Southern Mediterranean
and large parts of Spain.
such relief that one of Pirenne’s pupils would
For Pirenne, 732 marks the ending of a
be the one to come up with an entirely different,
European economy that was still mostly based
and much more hopeful and open, perspec-
page 6
It is therefore of such interest and even
Fernand Braudel - The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1949)
tive on the Mediterranean. Fernand Braudel,
personalities to a more scientific discipline,
who dominated postwar historiography just as
interested in the structural transformations on
Pirenne had dominated in the prewar period,
the social and economic level that underlie his-
published in 1949 The Mediterranean and the
torical events.
Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. The
title might seem to restrict the author to a few
taken to its logical end. Braudel identifies three
decades in the late sixteenth century (Philip
levels of time: the “longue durée,” being the
II was King of Castile, who lived from 1527 to
“time” of geography, the “moyenne durée,”
1598), but in fact the book exploded the whole
meaning the time of social and economic pat-
notion of time used by historians until then. The
terns and movements, and the “courte durée”
Mediterranean was the book that would make
being the time of individuals and events. This
the name of the Annales School of history,
approach was defined as the radical alterna-
founded in the 1920s by Lucien Febvre. Febvre,
tive to the history of events (“histoire evéne-
Braudel, and like-minded colleagues such as
mentielle”), which had been the rule until then.
Marc Bloch transformed history from a narra-
Strangely enough, this scientific, quantitative
tive-based science, with a strong focus on po-
method produced one of the most absorbing
litical power, warring nation-states and strong
epics of its time. Choosing a specific time in
In The Mediterranean, this approach was
page 7
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
Henri Pirenne - Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (1925
history, the late sixteenth century, Braudel
Turkish Mediterranean lived and breathed with
looks deep into the geographical structure, the
the same rhythms as the Christian, that the
economic flows and social patterns, the culture
whole sea shared a common destiny, a heavy
and stories of the Mediterranean, nearly as
one indeed, with identical problems and general
ahistorical qualities, belonging much more to
trends if not identical consequences.”
their space than to their time. The decades of
his title are merely the way into this amazingly
ed within the first series of chapters, where
complex and rich singular personality that is
Braudel describes life in the mountains, pla-
the Mediterranean region.
teaus, and plains that make up the peninsulas
Philip II was the king under whose reign the
sticking into the sea. He makes the fascinating
trade routes, and therefore the hub of worldwide
observation that people living in the mountain
relations, would finally shift from the Mediterra-
areas of the region have more in common with
nean to the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. It
each other, in the way they grow food, migrate,
was therefor somewhat of a twilight era for the
build, and trade — no matter that they might
Mediterranean, but a twilight pushed forward
live hundreds of miles apart — than with the
nearly a thousand years from Pirenne’s thesis.
people who live on the plains and the plateau a
In the foreword to the English edition of 1972,
few miles downhill. There is a typical section
Braudel repeats forcefully his claim, against the
that you could make all around the sea, going
analysis à la Pirenne, that the rise of Islam had
from the mountains down to the seashore, that
early on fatally “broken” the Mediterranean as
repeats the same pattern of groups of people
the sea that held the surrounding regions to-
living close by but in completely different ways,
gether: “I retain the firm conviction that the
with different patterns and flows governing
The “living and breathing” is illustrat-
The second edition of Fernand Braudel’s La Mediterranee (1966) featured an south oriented image to emphasize the importance of Africa to the Mediterranean with a relatively small Europe on the other side of the sea, much as this satellite image conveys this geographic relationship. (Image courtesy of NASA.)”
page 8
their lives. This sectional approach to the Med-
Mediterranean, once upon a time, stretched all
iterranean does a better job of describing the
the way to the Americas.
essence and coherence of the region than the
often politically defined maps, with zones of in-
the long waves of geographical history, the
fluences colored into a flattened representation
middle waves of human settlement and econ-
of geography.
omy, into the shortwave frequency of conflict
Another fascinating chapter is on the
and other “events,” Braudel turns the normal
boundaries that define the Mediterranean; it
historical description of the region on its head.
ironically recalls the “garlic economies” slur, as
He demonstrates how the conflicts of the Cru-
garlic consumption could have been a Braude-
sades, the struggles between the Turks and the
lian definition of what holds together the Med-
Venetians, the Genoese and the Venetians, the
iterranean. Braudel, however, favors the olive
Spanish, the Byzantines, the battle of Lepanto,
tree as an indicator. One of the first and most
the war of Granada, were all actually part of
obvious boundaries identified by Braudel is the
this one, living and breathing civilization — or
double one of the northern limit of the olive tree
history — machine called the Mediterranean.
and that of the palm grove, with everything in
War and peace, growing and shrinking empires,
between defined as “the Mediterranean.” Other
could all be absorbed into the middle waves of
boundaries are defined by the endings or be-
its economy and social development. The strug-
ginnings of the Saharan caravans, or more geo-
gles were symptomatic, short outbursts of ten-
logically by the great mountain ranges or the
sion, caused by the much slower movements of
straits of Gibraltar, or politically by the edges
people and goods, just like a volcano’s eruption
of the zones of influence of the Northern Euro-
or earthquakes are the result of the plates of
pean and Ottoman kingdoms and empires. But
the earth moving at a geological pace.
the chapter is mainly important not for defining
the boundaries but for endlessly stretching and
thesis of the Mediterranean falling apart as the
layering them, identifying how each border is an
result of the fortunes of one empire rising over
interface with another network of roads, pass-
those of another, Braudel does not counter this
es, sea routes, etc. In offering the idea that in
claim directly. He absorbs it, swallows it up
the sixteenth century, it was the Mediterranean
whole in his magnificent epic of the slow histo-
that shaped the Atlantic and Asian trade routes,
ry of the Mediterranean. The temporary retreat
Braudel moved one historian, when reviewing
of Europe into itself, and the development of
the first edition of the book, to regret the fact
capitalism out of the feudal Carolingian Empire,
that the donkey had not been given more space
while the Arab world rules the Mediterranean,
in the colonization of the West and East Indies,
is just one wave, on the middle frequency, that
because the image of a peasant riding his bur-
serves to underline the centrality of the Mediter-
ro in Mexico made him realize that indeed the
ranean to all things human, until the coloniza-
Moving gradually through the book, from
page 9
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
So if we bring this back to Henri Pirenne’s
tion of the Asian and American shores made the
Braudel’s book through the lens of the conflict
world exponentially bigger, that is. Civilizations,
between the “complementary enemies” of the
economic connections and political unions, are
Algerian liberation forces and France’s army, or
made subservient to slower and deeper move-
between the French colonist Pieds-Noirs and
ments of people and settlement patterns, which
the Algerian natives, or between France’s claim
in turn are the result of an excruciatingly incre-
to a special role in the Mediterranean and the
mental adaptation to landscape, climate, and
pressure from America for the country to let go
geography.
of its colonies. In that context, Braudel’s book
Braudel does not simply absorb the con-
reads like a spell, woven to absorb the conflicts,
flicts between the Islamic world and the Chris-
tensions, and controversies of its time, into the
tian world in the longue durée of Mediterranean
epic sweep of the historical annals. Braudel was
history; he defines the conflict as that which
certainly reformulating “the idea of the Medi-
keeps the regions together. To this end, he em-
terranean”, and thereby indirectly redefining
ploys the term “complementary enemies,” pow-
France’s role in the region for the twentieth and
ers condemned to living together and sharing
twentyfirst centuries.
the Mediterranean Sea, with the wars and battles
as the courte durée incidents in centurieslong
when French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled
periods of cohabitation. He sees conflict and
his plans for a Mediterranean Union at a posh
competition as fundamental parts of coexis-
event in the Parisian Grand Palais on July 13,
tence and shows how the conflict caused by in-
2008, Le Monde had as headline: “The Medi-
vading outsiders always results in assimilation,
terranean and the Mediterranean World in the
though not assimilation by the dominant party
Age of Nicolas Sarkozy,” sarcastically echoing
but assimilation in the deeper geographical and
Braudel’s title. In both supportive comments
economic logic of the Mediterranean. About
from the French press and critical observations
the role of the competing powers in Braudel’s
from the German, North African, and even Is-
model of the region, the historian Daniel Purdy
raeli press, references were made to Braudel’s
writes: “In order for either to assert a structural
nearly sixty-year-old masterpiece. Suddenly, the
continuity that survives major wars, they must
ideological force of the historical study of trade
have an idea of the Mediterranean that exists
relations in the late sixteenth century came
independent of sovereign states, institutions,
to the fore. Haaretz even accused Sarkozy of
religions and armies.” Purdy also points at the
following up on the “poetic daydreams” of Fer-
relationship between the writing of The Medi-
nand Braudel, and in an extensive analysis Die
terranean and the increasingly contentious and
Welt connected the anti-German feelings behind
problematic theme of France’s colonial pres-
Sarkozy’s union with the fact that many histo-
ence on the other side of the sea, in Algeria. He,
rians of the Annales School to which Braudel
with many more contemporary historians, reads
belonged, including himself, had suffered at
page 10
It did not come as a total surprise then that
the hands of German occupiers in World War
number of subsidy streams for depolluting the
II.
Also, the connection was made between
sea anddeveloping solar energy, for a Euro-Med-
Braudel’s work as the intellectual basis for
iterranean university in Slovenia, and for some
France’s Mediterranean interest and the brutal
institutions, all surviving on a pittance. Sar-
colonialism of the French. All the while, Sarkozy
kozy’s union is a bureaucratic version of many
talked of a deeper bond between the civiliza-
other plans of the past hundred years that proj-
tions of the Mediterranean, absolving France
ect enormous European ambitions on the Med-
from its sins in the colonial wars and waxing
iterranean and then flounder without any effect
romantically about a common future.
on the ground whatsoever. The brief moment of
In the end, the Mediterranean Union’s cli-
excitement over another doomed collective vi-
max was its beginning, and soon after it was
sion is added as a fourth time scale to the three
“assimilated” into the deadening bureaucratic
scales introduced by Braudel: longue durée,
mazes of the European Union, with all mem-
moyenne durée, courte durée, and non-durée.
ber states also belonging to the Mediterranean
One of the strangest plans in this tradition of
Union (Sweden, Lithuania, the Netherlands,
failure was Herman Sörgel’s Atlantropa proj-
etc.), and with the southern and western Medi-
ect for the reengineering and colonization of
terranean members sending third-tier represen-
the entire Mediterranean region. Damming the
tatives to the Grand Palais. Now it consists of a
straits of Gibraltar and lowering the sea level page 11
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
In July 2008, the Euro-Mediterranean Heads of Government met in Paris in order to improve the balance and the joint ownership of their cooperation. The Union for the Mediterranean is made up of 43 countries; all 28 EU member states, the European Commission and 15 other Mediterranean states. The League of Arab States also participates in the meetings of the Union.
would create new Lebensraum for the Europe-
Another, more recent example that seems
an countries and land bridges between Spain
ironically aware of its tradition is the “Roadmap
and Morocco, Italy and Tunisia. Hydroelectric
2050” plan by the Office for Metropolitan Ar-
dams in the Sea of Marmara and a landlocked
chitecture, for the total redesign of Europe and
Venice would be some of the results. The aim
North Africa on a grid of renewable energy, sub-
of Atlantropa, a movement that managed to ex-
stituting nation-states with regions specialized
ist for three decades between 1922 and 1952
in one particular energy source: the Alps, the
— exactly the timeframe in which Braudel de-
Pyrenees, and other mountain ranges become
veloped his methods as a historian and wrote
“Hydropia” because of the water energy; the
his masterpiece — and to attract enough funds
North Sea becomes “The Isles of Wind;” Central
to hire world-famous architects to design the
Europe becomes “Enhanced Geothermalia;”
engineering projects and to lobby politicians
and the Mediterranean coast and sea become
and investors, was to conjoin Europe and Africa
“Solaria.” Essentially the same hysterico-colo-
around the Mittelmeer as the hub of their new-
nialism as Sörgel’s was projected on Europe
found collective prosperity.
and the Mediterranean, but this time not fueled
Roadmap 2050 was commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, and the full report, published in April 2010, includes extensive technical, economic and policy analyses conducted by five leading consultancies: Imperial College London, KEMA, McKinsey & Company, Oxford Economics and AMO.
page 12
by the desire for economic power and Leben-
and OMA.
sraum, but by the dream of renewable energy
and continental autarchy. Also interesting is
tic Mediterranean: the violent decolonization
the fact that just as there is a historical — or
not only dramatically increased the distance be-
at least a chronological — resonance between
tween Europe and the southern Mediterranean,
Braudel’s Mediterranean (1949) and Sörgel’s
creating a new border straight through the
Atlantropa (1928–1952), there is one too be-
middle of the sea; it also collapsed distances
tween Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union (2008)
and broke down borders between colonizer and
and OMA’s Eneropa (2010). The plan was com-
colonized, while creating new divisions in the
missioned by the European Climate foundation
heart of our own territories. After losing Algeria,
and was last heard of being under consider-
French cities saw the arrival of a wave of immi-
ation by the EU Council of Ministers for their
gration from former French colonies and other
possible endorsement.
North African countries. Attracted and actively
There is a connection between the repeat-
sought after by the French industrial boom, they
ed attempts by European politicians, visionary
came as guest workers. During the 1970s, when
engineers, and architects to “take back” the
the size of the immigrant population again in-
Mediterranean and Braudel’s grand historio-
creased, immigrants repopulated the enor-
graphical vision of the wholeness of the region.
mous housing estates built in the 1950s and
Probably the connection lies not so much in the
1960s, now abandoned by the first generation
deep memory of “losing” the Mediterranean to
of French middle classes who started to pre-
the Muslims, as Pirenne would have it, but in
fer a suburban lifestyle. The French banlieues
the painful postwar period of decolonization
of cities throughout the entire country became
in the 1950s and 1960s. Especially in France,
more “Mediterranean,” and less French, with
losing Algeria and having to repatriate the hun-
Spanish, Greek, and Yugoslav guest workers
dreds of thousands of Pieds-Noirs to France, in
mixing with the immigrants from the Maghreb
the aftermath of a brutal war, created a national
and eventually also from Africa. Similar pro-
trauma. This trauma, however, was not unique;
cesses happened in other parts of Europe as
it resonated with similar feelings of resentment
well, where the first wave of Spanish, Italian,
in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
and Greek guest workers were replaced by a
over the loss of their East and West Indian colo-
second wave of Turks and Moroccans. In similar
nies, and in Belgium and Portugal with respect
ways, they arrived in the popular prewar work-
to their African colonies. But the proximity and
ing-class neighborhoods of Brussels, Antwerp,
historical meaning of the Mediterranean made
Berlin, Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam,
this particular loss all the more dramatic and
during (or sometimes causing) the exodus of
prone to inspiring emotional recastings of co-
the white working classes to the new suburbs.
lonial ambitions like those by Nicolas Sarkozy
Later, during the 1980s, they also started to page 13
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
But to put it in Braudelian terms of an elas-
move into the postwar housing estates, replac-
even the same type of accentuations of the
ing the white working and lower-middle classes
local language. Kreuzberg seems much closer
who had lived there for decades.
to the Rotterdam Afrikaanderwijk than it does
Similar geographies were the result, joining
to the adjacent center of Berlin. The 99 per-
together cities that were otherwise completely
cent immigrant estate of Gellerup near Aarhus
different, with thousands of miles, borders, and
seems much closer to Le Mirail, the Candilis
languages between them. The contested space
& Woods–designed satellite town of Toulouse,
of the Mediterranean now reached the borders
than to the medieval center of the Danish city.
of the historical town centers all over Europe,
We recognize not just the mosques, the doner
from cities on the Mediterranean coast all the
kebab outlets, or the headscarves; we recognize
way to Scandinavia. We see the same basic
a similar hybrid culture where the immigration
structure of a relatively prosperous inner city
from the Mediterranean sphere has come to-
surrounded by a patchwork of neighborhoods
gether with the ruins of the welfare state from
that have either been gentrified or are dominat-
the 1950s and 1960s. This has produced an
ed by poor immigrant populations. Around the
alloy between western postwar systems, either
beltway we see the postwar housing estates,
physical or socioeconomic, and cultures from
first the scene of an uneasy arrangement be-
far-flung reaches of the Mediterranean re-
tween the white lower-middle classes and the
gion and beyond. This strange combination is
immigrant families, now often dominated by
what nearly all Western European cities share,
the latter. And further out we find the suburbs,
squeezed in between their also increasingly
where the middle classes and the white former
uniform centers and suburbs, and which distin-
inhabitants of the working-class neighborhoods
guishes them from cities outside of Europe.
and the postwar housing estates have fled. This
is more or less the typical section of the Euro-
of an observation: that certain left-wing schol-
pean city.
ars have identified the urban struggles on ei-
Similar geographies also bring with them
ther side of the Mediterranean, from Syntagma
similar social and political shifts and contro-
Square to Tahrir Square, as signals of a new
versies. The political disaffectation of the white
coming together between the working classes
middle classes, the rise of anti-immigrant pop-
and rebellious youths of Europe, North Africa,
ulist parties, the crackdown by the political
and the Middle East. In a way this is a radical,
mainstream on immigration, on radical Islam,
revolutionary twin to the dreams by visionary
are phenomena shared by many if not most
engineers like Herman Sörgel, ironic utopians
Western European countries. What we recog-
like the Office for Metropolitan Architecture,
nize when we move from Toulouse to Antwerp
or Bonapartesque heads of state like Nicolas
to Rotterdam to Berlin, to Aarhus and back to
Sarkozy, to reunite the countries around the
Paris, is neighborhoods, street cultures, smells,
Middle Sea. They all share the vision of dissolv-
page 14
This essay started out with an observation
page 15
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
Afrikaanderwijk,in Rotterdam (top image) and Kreuzberg, Berlin (bottom image) .
ing the national borders into a shared culture,
would use the Braudelian tool of identifying
whether defined by trade routes, renewable en-
different “durées,” in describing how cities are
ergy grids, or ideological dogma.. Conversely,
not so much riding upon different economic
we have also seen how the European monetary
wavelengths but are the results of how the dif-
crisis, has caused northwestern countries to
ferent “durees” of politics, economics, culture,
assert their distance from the Mediterranean
and climate sometimes violently interfere. We
countries, and their cultures, describing them
have to develop a similar sectional approach to
as the “garlic economies” that do not possess
urban analysis, instead of the technocratic and
the fiscal rigor or political stability of northern
statist use of maps, in understanding their
Europe, implying that they belong more to the
socio-physical makeup. We have to develop a
Mediterranean region than to Europe. Here we
similar literary approach, incorporating the
see very clearly the legacy of Henri Pirennes’
streetwise and daily experiences in varied urban
“Mahomet et Charlemagne” being played out in
areas to demonstrate how they might be thou-
the cavernous halls of European politics.
sands of miles apart, but eerily alike.
In the end, however, the real pertinence of
Most of all, we could learn from Fernand
the Mediterranean is not that of a geopolitical
Braudel his amazingly layered and complex
zone, a grouping of nation-states with clear bor-
approach to conflict, difference, and shifting
ders around a sea, that may or may not have
boundaries. In The Mediterranean, the Mediter-
things in common. I think the Mediterranean
ranean is not a sea with countries around it, but
shows its real presence in our cities, in an ex-
a dynamic process of complementary enemies,
tremely condensed form, concentrating millen-
shifting boundaries, and common rhythms. This
nia of migration and conflict in urban memes
might be a very “French” structuralist, even ce-
that, precisely because of the copresence of so
rebral approach to the troubles of our urban
many non-European cultures, are quintessen-
and political environment. But do not forget
tially European — that is, Mediterranean.
that for Braudel, this framework made it possi-
To really grasp the richness and find a lan-
ble to organize the most concrete and empirical
guage to talk about it, we need something of
knowledge about daily lives in mountain villages,
a new Braudelian project for the twenty-first
geological formations, and climate change, up
century. Not one celebrating the Mediterranean
to political and economic policies on the grand
region to provide cover for empty institutional-
scale. Such a nondeterministic, even post-his-
ization or technocratic visions, but one creep-
torical attitude could inspire a much more con-
ing into the depths of our European cities,
textual and pragmatic approach to our urban
exposing their “common destiny,” “identical
problems. Current urban politics and planning
problems and general trends if not identical
is often determined by overly historicist think-
consequences,” demonstrating how they also
ing that sees cities as going through phases in
“live and breath with the same rhythms.” We
linear development processes, sometimes cy-
page 16
clical, sometimes not. This creates a discourse
we now use in rationalizing our urban policies
about certain areas that are “no longer up-to-
and our plans and designs, we would be able
date” or a view that sometimes progress, and
to react to the cities’ real demands in a more
therefore demolition for redevelopment, is un-
pragmatic and exciting way. To do that, however,
avoidable because of the “changing times.” It
we need to release the “Mediterranean of the
explains the frequent use of schematic models
mind” that lurks inside us and inside our cities.
and diagrams that demonstrate the “ideal” po-
We need to remember that Braudel chose as a
sitioning of services, densities, and infrastruc-
key moment — from which he catapulted him-
ture, such as the famous Christaller hexagons
self into the deep complexity of his book — a
that still determine planning. This clean, deter-
time when the Mediterranean as a central place
ministic, technocratic approach makes it hard
in human geography was waning in light of the
to account for the imperfections of cities. Their
discoveries in America and Asia. This moment
dark side, their opacity and idiosyncrasies, are
of waning provoked a thinking about the Med-
seen as failures to conform to the plans and
iterranean afterlife, how its former dominance
models, and thus a reason to intervene even
over the trade routes was reincarnated in an ar-
harder.
tistic, scholarly, and philosophical dominance,
Braudel can teach us to treat cities differ-
with the immense creative upsurge in Venice in
ently, without the use of metaphysical visions or
its powerless seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
technocratic models. A new Braudelian project
ries as an example.
for the city could be the analytical companion to
a highly contextualist, local, and pragmatist ap-
lian project for the twenty-first century. We have
proach to cities, which, however, does possess
a sense of the waning of the west, let alone of
a certain universality, because it can constantly
Europe as the dominant region of sensible pol-
profit from the spiderweb of connections and
itics, welfare-state services, religious tolerance,
resonances across the continent. Gellerup and
and equanimity and intelligence all around.
Le Mirail share many of their problems and pos-
We are also seeing our powers sapping to the
sible outcomes; indeed they “live and breathe
south and to the east. Our former ideologies are
with the same rhythm,” one that is very differ-
crashing, like the neoliberal market economy,
ent from the rhythm of central Aarhus or cen-
or desperately flailing about, like the neo-Marx-
tral Toulouse. Why then the constant attempts
ist belief in global workers’ revolution. In our
to force them into conforming to French or Dan-
cities, in the way that they seem to be ripping
ish standards, something that has produced
themselves apart alongside the boundaries of
nothing but failure and frustration in both cas-
inequality and intolerance, we also seem to be
es?
losing our grip. In that sense there is a double If we would only learn to dissolve the rig-
resonance, first with the highly uncertain times
id categories of history and geography that
when Braudel wrote his book, during and imme-
page 17
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
Something similar might inspire a Braude-
diately after World War II, and with the time he analyzed, the late sixteenth century.
Right now is the time to stop thinking about
Europe, or the Mediterranean, or our cities, as “a project.” Right now is the time to start thinking about Europe, the Mediterranean, and our cities as a vast system of conflicting wavelengths, unexpectedly resonant rhythms, and a mysterious coherence that will need a radical reformulating once again. In this retelling, we must reconcile our sometimes desperate sense of being beleaguered from outside, and our fear of the future, with a longer view of history, and with a fatalistic view of conflict, as the one thing that holds us all together. Most of all, we must give a central place in our narrative of urban Europe to all of the intimate, local, and small experiences because these are the ones that truly connect us to the world, just like the donkey in Braudel’s book, stretching the Mediterranean all the way to Mexico.
page 18
Notes and bibliography 1. MANDEVILLE, B. 1714. The Fable of the Bees, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Classics (1989), i.369. 2. JOHNSEN, B. 2011. The architect as developer. Conditions independant scandinavian magazine on architecture and urbanism. Issue 9. Oslo: Interpress. Pages 28 and 29. 3. Debate Architecture 2.0 at the NAi, Rotterdam, on the 28th of November, 2007. 4. See, for instance: RIEDIJK, M. 2011. Architecture as a Craft. Amsterdam: SUN Architecture; SENNETT, R. 2009. The craftsman. London: Penguin Books. 5. Hippocrates of Cos (460 BC – 370 BC) in HERMOSIN BONO, M.A. (Ed.) 1996. Tratados Hipocraticos. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. 6. “[...] There is a saying also, recorded by Androclides, which makes him [Lysander] guilty of great indifference to the obligations of an oath. His recommendation, according to this account, was to “cheat boys with dice, and men with oaths” [...]”PLUTARCH. 75 A.D. Lysander. Translated by John Dryden. Available at http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/lysander. html [Accessed 01 February 2012]
11. There is an award winning paper by Jon H. Fiva and Gisle J. Natvik for the Institut d’Economia de Barcelona (IEB) entitled Do re-election probabilities influence public investment? According to the authors’ findings, the answer is yes. Abstract: We identify exogenous variation in incumbent policymakers’ re-election probabilities and explore empirically how this variation affects their investments in physical capital. Our results indicate that a higher re-election probability leads to higher investments, particularly in the purposes preferred more strongly by the incumbents. This aligns with a theoretical framework where political parties disagree about which public goods to produce using labor and predetermined public capital. FIVA, J.H. & NATVIK, G.J. 2009. Do re-election probabilities influence public investment? (2009 CESifo Prize in Public Economics) [Online] Available: http://ieb.crealogica.eu/index. php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=93&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=60&lang=en [Accessed 04 March 2012]
7. LAWSON, B. 2005. How designers think. Architectural Press.
Wouter Vanstiphout Braudel’s Donkey - Historians and the Mediterranean as a Political Project
8. See following the chapter of this book: A new way of thinking. 9. This is calculated on the basis of an average price of € 150/m2. 10. According to the Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (UWV) in June 2012. Available:http://www.rotterdam.nl/Stadsontwikkeling/Document/Economie%20en%20 Arbeidsmarkt/Factsheet%20Rotterdam%20 totaal%20juni%202012.pdf [Accessed 11 March 2012]
page 19
www.designaspolitics.nl