From crisis to crisis: emergencies and uncertainties in large metropolitan areas and cities of Southern Europe

The 21st century has provided social sciences with various opportunities for a re-examination of Southern European territorial and social dynamics. Since 2008, multiple aspects of the economic crisis, the migrant “crisis” and the SARS -CoV -2 pandemic – as well as the current geopolitical and energy crisis related to the Russian - Ukrainian war – have affected in particular these territories and societies more than other macro-regional areas. Likewise, policies adopted to tackle the crises at a European level have had peculiar impacts on Southern European countries and have often fallen short of expectations. Hence the importance, given their special characteristics and needs, of re-examining the (sometimes brutal) effects of globalisation on the distinct socio-economic, cultural and territorial fabric of these areas.