Issue 19(1)/2024 of Nordicum-Mediterraneum comprises eight new articles—all of which underwent the standard process of double blind peer review—, five conference papers, and four book reviews.
In keeping with the journal’s canonical lines of geo-cultural emphasis and linguistic versatility, one such new article focusses on the exquisitely Nordic-Mediterranean conceptual axis deriving from the pioneering, highly original, and almost foretelling imaginary developed by the famed 20th-century ethnologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879–1962), while another is a quite rare example of Italian-language philosophical scholarship written by two Norway-based specialists. In addition, the journal includes: a study about oncological care in contemporary Iceland; three Icelandic-language essays on recent Icelandic juridical, legal and police-related affairs; an insight into an unusual and intriguing early-20th-century Oriental account of the Mediterranean region of that time; and a careful methodological and ontological reflection on the uses and abuses of mathematics in today’s sciences that, as such, should be of interest to many of our academic readers.
For their part, the conference papers arise from two very different events held along the Nordic-Mediterranean axis, i.e., the “Policing and Society Conference – Violence” that took place at the University of Akureyri, Iceland, in October 2023, and the public meeting entitled “Cum-Fine – Il senso del confine tra eresia, speranza e individuazione” that was organised by Rete 100 Passi at Palazzo Brunaccini in Palermo, Italy, in November 2023. As regards the contributions based on the latter event, two of them were translated into English in view of the present issue of our journal, while two more appear here in the original Italian. It should be highlighted that two of these papers were penned by as many longtime protagonists of Italy’s ongoing and dramatic fight against organised crime. They are Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of Palermo, and Luigi Patronaggio, chief prosecutor in Sicily and Sardinia. It is an honour for Nordicum-Mediterraneum to be able to circulate internationally their thoughts and experiences.
The book reviews cover the usual broad spectrum of subjects that has come to characterise this section of the regular annual issues of Nordicum-Mediterraneum. Among them, the English-language review of Lára Kristín Pedersen’s Veran í moldinni should make this compelling autobiographical account of food addiction by an Icelandic professional footballer known also outside the sole confines of our island-nation, where it has received considerable attention. Warm and deep thanks are hereby extended to all reviewers, whose texts make it possible for our journal to be a continuing source of information about recent books that can be of significant interest to our readership as well as to all researchers involved in Nordic and Mediterranean studies.