The Mediterranean is a "system" that rejects the simplifications and, among others, that terrible clash of civilizations, from large horizons to everyday scenarios. Here there has never been a wall to divide Christians, Muslims and Jews ... The Mediterranean is the world of complexity ... of globalization before its time. (Andrea Riccardi)

This volume contains the proceedings of the international conference The City wants to live. Struggles and hopes in the Mediterranean, which was held in May 2014 in Livorno.

The Tuscan city seemed an appropriate forum, wanting to enhance the role historically played by its port, to host exchanges and relations between men and nations.

The meeting was sponsored by the Community of Sant'Egidio in order to open a space for dialogue and confrontation between the cities of the Mediterranean, considering the upheavals taking place in this unique corner of the world.

Just cities appear, in the era of globalization and the crisis of the nation-states, an important subject and a crucial player in the global future. Over 50% of the world population, in fact, live in urban environments and currently, for the first time in human history, the urban population surpassed that of rural settlements.

The cities of the Mediterranean, also, are now collectors of the hopes of life and future, that concern all who arrive on the shores through flows of people and exchanges, from at least three continents. "

The authors

Nagwan El Ashwal

Egyptian activist, researcher of political science at Cairo University.

Jaume Castro

Chemical, works with the DREAM program, prevention and treatment of AIDS in Africa. Head of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Barcelona, ​​is the coordinator of several programs and initiatives of solidarity, dialogue between cultures and religions. He has collaborated in the organization of the International Meetings for Peace that took place in Barcelona in 2001 and 2010. He recently curated Holocaust, a book-length interview with Jaime Vandor, jew eminent Hungarian Holocaust survivor and now settled in Spain.

Remi Caucanas

Doctor of History, is coordinator of the Institute of Catholic Mediterranean "Le Mistral" in Marseille, where he works in programs and activities for the reception and integration of migrants. The Institute also promotes intercultural activities and proposes a reflection on religious versus pluralism and secularism.

Antoine Courban

He is professor emeritus of Epistemology of Science and Director of the Department of Medical and Human Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of St. Joseph in Beirut. Humanist, dedicated his vast scientific production, in particular pluralism and humanism Mediterranean.

Nedim Gursel

Turkish writer and novelist, winner of numerous international awards, is the new generation of writers and Turkey. He is director of research of comparative literature at the CNRS in Paris and professor of Turkish language at the Institute of Oriental Languages. Among his best known novels The country of the fish prisoners, the Novel of the Conqueror, The Woman in Red.

Jeremie Hoffmann

Architect, Director of the Department for the Preservation of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and the Focal Point on the site "White City", recently declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is also responsible for major projects - especially on conservation and design of urban spaces - in keeping with the history, the urban strata, the characteristics and needs of a modern Mediterranean city.

Vittorio Ianari

He is interested in relations between Arab-Islamic world and the West and the Christian presence in the context of the Middle East, in particular in terms of contemporary religious history. Published Church, Settlers and Islam (Turin 1995), the Catholic presence in Libya Italian, and The boot in the Sea. Italian, Mediterranean and Islam: the origins of a policy (Milan 2006), about Italy and Italians in the Mediterranean Arab-Islamic in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He taught Islamic studies at the Lateran University and Urban and was head of the Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

Mohamed Jouili

Sociologist, is director general of the National Observatory on Youth in Tunis. The Observatory, which supports the activities of the Ministère de la Jeunesse, des Sports, de la femme et de la famille, deals with studies and research on youth and education programs of the younger generation to participate in public life.

Vasilios Koukousas

Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the Faculty of Theology - University "Aristotle" Thessaloniki; studied the relationship between the Eastern and Western churches, especially with regard to attendance and relationships of the Christian communities in the Mediterranean. Among the significant figures of the Orthodox Church, which he has devoted particular attention, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and his commitment to interreligious dialogue.

Andrea Riccardi

He is the founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, known not only for the social commitment in more than 70 countries around the world and numerous development projects in the South, for his work in favor of peace and dialogue. He has taught as a professor, Contemporary History at the University of Bari, the Sapienza University and at the Third University of Rome. Scholar of the history of Christianity and the contemporary humanistic thought, is an authoritative voice on the international scene. He has received numerous international awards, including the 2004 Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among peoples and in 2009 the Charlemagne Prize. In November 2011 he was appointed Minister for International Cooperation and Integration.

Emanuele Rossi

Professor of Constitutional Law is Director of the Institute of Law, Politics, Development of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa. It deals in particular of fundamental rights and freedoms, of constitutional, parliamentary law. He is a member of the Italian Association of Constitutionalists. Among the topics of interest in its scientific activity: the protection of the principle of pluralistic, constitutional justice, the parliamentary law, social rights, the legal regulation of political parties and the third sector, the construction and reconstruction of citizenship in local contexts.

Marco Rossi

Teacher, secretary general of Ce.Di.Rec (Center for Religious Dialogue and the Ecumenical) of the Diocese of Naples and the author of numerous essays on the history of Naples and the Mediterranean. It is one of the leaders of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Naples, so, for over thirty years, care paths promotion and integration of the weakest sectors of the population, particularly young people and migrant workers.