Europe in the Mediterranean or “town-culture”
L'Europe en Méditerranée ou la ville-culture
Résumé
In the Mediterranean realm, culture and urbanity have been intimately connected and can be conceptualized as consisting of three different phases. In an initial stage, culture generated urban development. This article concentrates on a second phase in which culture benefits territory as a source of added value. In a third phase, urban trajectories are virtualized. As their value increases in a knowledge economy, artistic activities and creativity ventures have been integrated into managing urban spaces. The ties between city and civilization are thus brought up to date, in which culture is hence forth placed at its economic center through the notion of « symbolic capital. »