The Marseille mosaic: a Mediterranean city at the crossroads of cultures

Intro -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on Texts and Translations -- Introduction - The Marseille Mosaic -- Part I - The Presence of the Past in Contemporary Marseille -- Chapter 1 - Epidemics, Disinformation, and Financial Meltdown: Lessons from the Great Plague of Marseille of 1720 -- Chapter 2 - Belle Époque Marseille in the Twenty-First Century: Jean Contrucci's Les nouveaux mystères de Marseille Series -- Chapter 3 - Clientelism, Discrimination, and Adaptation in Marseille's Housing System (1960-80) -- Part II - Scenes of Marseille Myth-Making -- Chapter 4 - Marseille's Algerian Side in Visual Arts: A Cultural-Historical Approach -- Chapter 5 - Contentious Cosmopolitanism: Transnational Circulations in the Life Trajectories of Reggae/Ragga Artists in Marseille -- Chapter 6 - The Pitfalls of "Marseillology" and How to Avoid Them -- Part III - Visibility and Invisibility in Marseille's Social Fabric -- Chapter 7 - Muslims in Marseille's Public Space: Belated Recognition, Ambivalent Visibility -- Chapter 8 - True Grit: Representing the Quartiers Nord of Marseille in Karim Dridi's Films -- Chapter 9 - Political and Civic Engagements of Women from Postcolonial Immigrant Backgrounds in Marseille -- Part IV - Current Interventions in Urban Space -- Chapter 10 - Justification of Renewal as a Long and Winding Road: Discrediting the City to Better Transform It -- Chapter 11 - Marseille as Privatopia: The Collapsing City, the Gated City -- Chapter 12 - "Publicizing" Urban Space: The Outreach Work of Marseillais Theatres Hors les Murs -- Chapter 13 - La Friche La Belle de Mai: Future Third-Place Arts District of Marseille? -- Part V - Afterwords -- Chapter 14 - Marseille, from the Global to the Provincial -- Chapter 15 - The Forty-Ninth Wilaya: The Marseille Mosaic and Algerian Accents -- Index.

Formerly the gateway to the French empire, the city of Marseille exemplifies a postcolonial Europe reshaped by immigrants, refugees, and repatriates. The Marseille Mosaic seeks to address the city's past and present, exploring the relationship between Marseille and the rest of France, Europe, and the Mediterranean. Proposing new models for the study of place by integrating approaches from the humanities and social sciences, this volume offers an idiosyncratic "mosaic," which vividly details the challenges facing other French and European cities and the ways residents are developing alternative perspectives and charting new urban futures