Memories of Place/Politics of Place at the Island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01185
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 04020:Human geography-related
• Research Institution: Mie University
• Principal Investigator: Kitagawa Shinya 三重大学, 人文学部, 准教授 (10515448)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 地中海 / ランペドゥーザ島 / 場所の政治 / 移動性 / 境界 / 批判地政学 / ロジスティクス / 地理的想像力

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research focused on a politics of place on the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean, known as the island where migrants from the south arrive. The original plan was to address this issue by uncovering and clarifying the local memories of the place in particular through interviews with many islanders. But, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, we changed the purpose and the method of research. Therefore, we analyzed various processes unfolding on a broader scale through the theories of critical geopolitics and logistics, and from there, examined the meanings of cultural and social practices expressed in the politics of place at Lampedusa. It became clear that while the desire to be subordinate to the “center” (the Italian state) was hegemonic in the island as “periphery", autonomous desires and geographical imaginations to open oneself to the sea, or, the Mediterranean, were being formed.

Free Research Field

人文地理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ランペドゥーザ島に焦点を当てた本研究は、きまって領土の周縁として認識される国境・境界の支配的な理解に再考を迫るという点において、学術的かつ社会的な意義があると考える。国境は単なる分割のラインではなく、逆説的にも、多方向からの様々な人やモノを、抗争を含む仕方で結びつける場所でもある。加えて、そうした過程で生じる場所の政治のなかに、また住民によるローカルな地理的・歴史的・文化的文脈を掘り起こす実践のなかに、国家と資本の論理に収斂することのない地理的想像力の生成を見出す本研究は、固定的・静態的にみえる既存の地理が、実際にはより複雑でたえず争われている過程を明らかにするという点でも意義があるだろう。