The dossier of issue number 4 of Quaderns de la Mediterrània is devoted to ‘Comparative Visions of the Mediterranean' This is not, however, a dossier that highlights Mediterranean values, as might have been the case ten years ago. Instead, its contributions focus on the difficulties and challenges ahead. This issue is complemented by two new sections, ‘Overview of recent events' and ‘Cultural Overview'.

At the present time, in the opening years of the 21st century, the Mediterranean is not presenting its more harmonious colours, as described by the Romantic travellers of the 19th century, nor have we seen the re-emergence of the high political and economic hopes of the closing decade of the 20th century, as manifested in the Barcelona Process, which was set up in 1995. There are many reasons for this deterioration, including uncontrolled migration, the fierce turmoil of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the moral sentence on the Muslim world after 11 th September, firstly with the Afghanistan conflict, and more recently with the war in Iraq, and the difficulties of political processes in countries in the southern and eastern Mediterranean, none of which make it easy to use dialogues to the best advantage. Ever since the distant past, there have been conflicts between the peoples living on the shores of this sea, but there have also been important mutual cultural and genetic contributions made within the region. Hence the dual sense of unity and distance, which has on occasions led to bloody struggles. Despite the misunderstandings of the past and the difficulties of today, civil society on both sides of the sea is striving to achieve better results, to establish closer ties and to undertake joint projects. For this reason, we have to share dialogue, and we need to establish better relationships in order to achieve a better understanding of each other.

The Mediterranean is a long standing laboratory, as most of the authors in the dossier remind us, in which history and memory play a highly important role in our views of each other and in our neighbourly relations. The contributions by Edgar Morin on universal and original values, Salvatore Bono and José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec, from a historical perspective, and Josep-Antoni Ybarra, who takes the economist's view, remind us of the nature of the elements that need to be taken into account in considering the evolution of this complex geographical area. These contributions have also been of use outside of our geographical ambit. The Mediterranean family, a keystone in comparative studies by Anglo-Saxon anthropologists from the 1950s onwards, is also reviewed in our dossier. Stereotypes have been avoided, though some of their constants have at the same time been retained, as demonstrated by Enzo Mingione when talking about the welfare state in countries in southern Europe, by Philippe Fargues in his consideration of demographic change in Arab countries, and by Malika Benradi in her piece on the slowness of change in the family code in the Maghreb.

Three writers give us their views from their own country of origin: Mohamed Choukri, from Morocco; Predrag Matvejevic, from the Balkans; and Gamal al-Ghitani, from Egypt. All three explain in a prose full of vigorous images their fears and hopes in relation to the past, the present and the future of the Mediterranean. Tomás Alcoverro draws on his long experience living in the Near East and writes about the contrasting views that ultimately developed amongst Arab intellectuals from the initial impressions of 11 th September. Tassadit Yacine's interview of Pierre Vidal-Naquet establishes a fluid dialogue between the classical world and the present on interculturalism in the Mediterranean, while touching on themes that include food, love and rites of passage.

Published in ‘Overview of recent events' are views on the repercussions of 11 th September, the new proposals for peace in the Sahara, the Israeli-Palestinian war, the Euromediterranean process, the conference in Valencia and the most recent World Cup, events that have all been covered on the front pages of the press in the last year. ‘Cultural Overview' completes this comparative vision with articles on aesthetics, lifestyles and book reviews, as well as architecture, film and literature. It also offers a reflection on the 25 years of Edward Saïd's work Orientalism , as well as the contributions made by various other authors who have recently worked on the issue of food in the Mediterranean. This issue of Quaderns de la Mediterrània includes various bibliographical references and a series of useful Web sites for which Mare Nostrum , Our Sea, is a nexus.

Maria-Àngels Roque
Editor of Quaderns de la Mediterrània