The parties that have taken hold in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya have promised their electorate a democratic transition accompanied by economic and social reforms. Many wonder whether they will live up to the expectations they raised.
It is undoubtedly the urban dramas of the vast majority of cities in the area, with high levels of unemployment and extremely poor living conditions that has been one of the de facto catalysts of the revolutions.
For some years now Europe has been producing only dire news, and since early 2010 the euro crisis has gone from bad to worse.
The Arab revolutions have badly hit the tourism sector of Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries, which have all met with declining arrivals – over 20% in losses on average for the entire sub-region.
The countries in the region weathered the 2008 global subprime crisis. The Maghreb countries and Egypt were poorly integrated into international financial markets, which allowed them to considerably limit the financial spread of the crisis.
The problem of the integration of youth (15-24 years of age) into the labour market in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries (SEMCs) has grown worse over the past ten years.
Since 2010, the euro zone has suffered a sovereign debt crisis. Although its effects have been felt by all countries that share the single currency, the crisis has hit those in the south hardest.
To rise to these challenges, anticipate the economic, social and spatial development of cities and complement, many countries have been engaging in more global practices in their urban development for a decade now.
Italy today is an isolated, ageing and relatively impoverished country with no common horizon. The crisis that we have faced since the fall of the “Wall Street wall” is not only economic but also, above all, social and cultural.
Since the beginning of the uprisings in the Arab world much emphasis was placed on the political dimension and the social and media aspects of the revolts, but the economic consequences have received little attention.
We have all come to refer to it simply as the “Greek Crisis,” but it is a long-term, multi-actor national drama with important, even perilous, consequences for the EU and the euro zone.
Throughout the past two decades, neoliberal economic reforms were initiated forcefully in the development of the region. These economic reform projects have proven futile in the attainment of an equitable distribution of income.