Circulations, Places, Regulations

IREMAM Contributors: S. Belguidoum, V. Berhault, N. Bulbul, K. Chachoua, A. Dusserre, J. Honvault, R. Jacquemond, C. Mussard, C. Parizot, C. Rhoné-Quer, I. Seri-Hersch, F. Siino, C. Vendryes

Since its creation, IREMAM has been especially interested in mutations in the movement of people (migrants, tourists, businesspeople, etc.), technology (policies, legal, security, etc.) and merchandise in North Africa, in the Middle East, and throughout the Mediterranean. This axis examines how changes in modern forms of mobility have contributed to reshaping spaces, regulatory mechanisms and the borders that they cross.

In the first decade of the 2000s, it is not only European countries that have given a political and security response to evolutions in migration routes and practices, to the point of throwing the established political, economic and social balances within the Schengen Area into doubt. In the southern and eastern Mediterranean, new border control technologies (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc.) have been implemented, and alongside them more restrictive legal and legislative frameworks. Furthermore, the widespread globalisation of exchanges, and the outbreak of conflicts following the Arab Springs have contributed to redirecting trade networks. Be it for the transportation of common consumer goods from China to the Middle East and the Maghreb, or for the exportation of clandestine oil to Asia, Europe and the Americas, these exchanges have resulted in a reorganisation of trade routes, economic areas, and the urban hubs of some countries in the region.

The research on circulations carried out at IREMAM has recently expanded to include the work of historians and cultural studies researchers. Since 2015, these historians have become involved in discussing recent historiographical theories on globalisation and “connected histories”, in light of their own research. Researchers have also questioned how connected histories – and exchanges in general – apply to spaces that are already connected, for example for the early modern Mediterranean. In this vein, they have begun to question how connected history, a notion invented by Early Modern History, can be applied to contemporary historical situations. This research is in constant dialogue with that of cultural studies researchers, who look at how the circulation of texts and publications, via translation trends in particular, has affected learning, and the transformation of national cultures in the Mediterranean.

The resolutely cross-disciplinary approach of this axis not only brings together the approaches of cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, geography, history, law and political science, but also those of artists and professionals (customs officials, soldiers, industrialists, NGO workers, etc.). Its aim is twofold: firstly, to use the complementary nature of this knowledge to identify an increasingly complex and dynamic research subject, and secondly, to play on the confrontation of these practices and perspectives to reveal potential new lines of research.

Research Programs

- antiAtlas des frontières – LabexMed, IMéRA, LAMES, LEST, Ecole supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence, Pacte (Universités de Grenoble/CNRS), coordination : Cédric Parizot
- MIGRINTERACT (La fabrique du droit des migrations au Maghreb), Action Marie Curie, Commission européenne, coordination : Delphine Perrin
- MONDISMAG – PHC Maghreb, coordination : Saïd Belguidoum, Olivier Pliez (LISST) poursuit le programme initié en 2016 sur la circulation des biens et des personnes entre Asie/Maghreb/Europe.
- Circulation des savoirs et des textes en Méditerranée coord. R. Jacquemond (IREMAM/Fondation Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud). 
- Traduction et circulation des idées en sciences sociales, coord. K. Chachoua (IREMAM/CNRPAH/CRASC).