Identity, Change and Sustainability: Towards Post-Mediterranean Cities?
Luca Salvati

Abstract
Going beyond the traditional Mediterranean discourses centered on economic backwardness and social secularism, an interpretation of southern urbanities was proposed in the present study as related to local governance, weak urban planning and peculiar socio-demographic spatial structures. By discussing the weak strategies to reduce regional disparities and the failed opportunities to promote the scenic and cultural heritage of peri-urban areas, an interpretative framework to the long-term dynamics of expanding Mediterranean cities was illustrated as applicable to other urban areas with similar morphological and functional characteristics. The proposed framework is based on the analysis of ecologically-fragile and socially-unstable Mediterranean contexts in view of the persistence of a structural crisis affecting the economic base, the institutions and the governance system. The article concludes with a discussion on future development paths of the Mediterranean cities, stressing important divergences in the short term and the common destiny in the long run.

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