Rete/Internet

The ‘Arab Spring’, facilitated by the recent large diffusion of new ICTs, favored the perception of the Mediterranean as a common area of cultural and social exchange and an opportunity for cooperation rather than a barrier against migration. After a first wave of innovation diffusion, that at the end of the last century seemed to increase the lifestyle and cultural differences between European and North African countries, the younger generations of the two shores of the Mediterranean now have more and more common tools to communicate and disseminate information. Data show the great spread of mobile phones, even in the Southern Mediterranean, and the tumultuous growth in the percentage of population connected to the Internet shows these new possibilities. In particular, it is important to note that figures are expressed for the entire population of every country, and so they are presumably even higher among young people. Our initial considering and mapping of activists’ mobilities in the Mediterranean call for, from this point of view, a new view on Mediterranean regionalization patterns. They are possibly designing in the Euro-Mediterranean area the ‘third layer’ of Castells’s space of flows, operating mainly but not exclusively by virtual communication channels, probably partially reversing features of fragmentation and supposed clashed of civilizations. The Mediterranean Internet has thus proven to be highly interconnected along an integrative path of active citizenship and open discourse, which appear increasingly interlinked and mutually recognized.