La Friche la Belle de Mai worked in partnership with Iméra, the Institute for advanced atudies of Aix-Marseille University, as part of the Mawjaat project to launch a joint call for applications focusing on creative hubs, third places and transitions. Linked to Iméra’s research programmes Mediterranean and Arts & Sciences: Undisciplined Knowledge, this call led to the identification of Lieve Wijman as the associated researcher of the Mawjaat project.
The research-action forms one of the core pillars of the Mawjaat project. Developed through a partnership between La Friche la Belle de Mai and Iméra, it aims to foster a reflection on the contribution of creative hubs, hybrid spaces, third places to cultural, social, and economic transformations in the Mediterranean region, while producing recommendations that may help contribute to the regional public policy development.
The political, social, economic and climatic challenges facing the Mediterranean region have given rise to new forms of reflection, action and commitment within cultural communities, making these civil society players the spokespeople for change. Commonly referred to as third places or creative hubs, these collectives are accompanying the changes in societies by taking up often sensitive issues relating to youth, education, gender, innovation and the environment. Outside the institutional channels that favour a more traditional vision of culture, they are moving into new areas and bringing with them a community of players and users who share practices that illustrate a different vision of the social role of culture. These creative hubs, thirs places whether already established or in the process of being set up, are home to a host of initiatives and are becoming multiform and hybrid focal points, enabling a cultural offering to exist and social and entrepreneurial support to take root in these areas.
Creative hubs are places for mixing and mingling, reinventing ways of passing on knowledge, fostering collective intelligence and encouraging citizen participation – places that are playing an increasingly important role in the cultural, social and economic transformation of a region. The research-action will combine field surveys in the six partner countries from January 2026 to January 2027, an observation and analysis of the regional ecosystem of creative hubs and the production of a deliverable presenting the results of the research. The research will culminate in a 5-month residency at Iméra (Marseille), scheduled from February to June 2027.
Following the call for applications publication in July 2025, the selection process led to the identification of Lieve Wijman as the associated researcher for the Mawjaat project. Lieve is a researcher in philosophy, conflict studies, and human rights. Her work focuses on culture as a space of power, resistance, and social transformation, based on fieldwork conducted especially in Egypt, Turkey, and Europe. She has studied underground cultural scenes, migration dynamics, and urban social hubs, and has collaborated with cultural and research institutions such as the Center for Arab West Understanding in Cairo and Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. Alongside her research practice, she is a writer, photographer, and actively involved in editorial projects and human-rights debates.
Her research for Mawjaat موجات التغيير (Mawjaat al-Taghyeer | Waves of Change: Creative Hubs in the Mediterranean) examines creative hubs in Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, and Morocco as everyday laboratories of cultural, social, economic and ecological transformation, and as “third spaces” within their local contexts. Drawing on theories of nonmovements, third spaces, superdiversity, and creolisation, the research highlights how these hubs function as sites of belonging, solidarity, and innovation. Grounded in feminist and intersectional perspectives, the project explores how such spaces challenge established power structures and contribute to more inclusive models of social and cultural life.
