Austerity and Socio-Spatial (In)justices in Athens (original) (raw)
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Austerity versus democracy: a local perspective from Exarchia neighborhood (Athens, Greece)
Austerity versus democracy. Increasingly the contemporary urban landscape seems to be inscribed in this dialectical sphere, which is harshly scarring the present of our cities undermining their future as well. On the one hand, public policies originated by loan programs planned, decided and managed at a supranational level by financial Troika; on the other hand, a large variety of urban practises and participatory processes that have been raised at the local level to address the crisis, embody a significant critique to the representative democracy model. The debate between these two opposite parts are shaping the urban space in terms of conflict, revealing at the same time the political nature of the crisis as a sovereignty issue. Consequently even the perspective of global cities that are interconnected on multi-levels (as described by Saskia Sassen in 1997) needs to be fully rewritten. Although global cities can be still conceived as hubs for trans-national processes, since the neoliberal system collapsed in 2008 an unprecedented function has been assigned to them in the view of a global power reorganization. The previous decentralization has been carried to the extreme of a new polarization, marked by the spatial inequality and social injustice increase. From this perspective, the debt politics seem to represent a new model of governance that has been translated both in a global and in a local scale. Actually we can’t consider the crisis a historicized process yet, at the same time we need to outline a first short-medium period analysis. Back to territories: starting from a specific spatial narrative this paper will examine its potential influences on a global urban discourse. According to this, the aim is to give an ethnographic account of Exarchia, the radical and anarchist neighborhood based in the city center of Athens (Greece), from to the identities and practices passing through it up a metropolitan macro scale contextualization.
Austerity and Democracy in Athens. Crisis and Community in Exarchia
2018
This book, based on an empirical form of narration, outlines a short-medium term analysis of the social impact of austerity politics on urban life.. Set in Exarchia, a radical and anti-authoritarian neighbourhood located within the city centre of Athens, Greece, this is an ethnography examining the social struggles and grassroots mobilizations that emerged locally during the crisis. Based on over two years of fieldwork between November 2012 and early 2014, the author brings together participant observation and a period of research-action in one of Exarchia’s stekia. One particular pedestrian street is used as a case study – ‘Odos Tsamadou’ is located near Exarchia Square and here multiple social centres and political activity converge to allow the neighbourhood’s climate of solidarity and reciprocity to fully emerge. This book is specifically targeted at academics specialized in the social sciences, ethnography, cultural anthropology and urban studies and more generally at anyone interested in contemporary urban and social development.
Région et Développement, 39, 149-166, 2014
Following a brief introduction to the impact of globalization and economic restructuring on urban social structures, the paper depicts the for-mation of the socio-spatial structure of Athens in recent decades, the problems accumulated by the traditional regulation of urban sociospatial issues, and concludes with a discussion of the impact of the Greek sovereign debt crisis on these issues. The discussion focuses on the rather weak social polarization and segregation resulting from global forces until the mid 2000s, and on the sub-sequent change of socioeconomic and demographic conditions forming a new social and political environment in which the socially dividing impact of the current crisis is potentially becoming deep.
Learning from Athens: Austerity and Crisis Urbanism(s), 2008-2016 | 2016
In "Journal of Architectural Education" | Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2016
How can an architecture and urbanism academic discourse approach the issues of austerity and crisis in the context of the contemporary city? To which degree and success has this been attempted? What would be paths of action in the face of the current crisis for architecture and urbanism academics and practitioners? This review for the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) attempts to engage these questions by following the narrative of post-2008 austerity and crisis, as it entered, impacted, and drastically altered the socio-urban space of Athens, Greece. The review engages three recently published volumes in order to trace the breadth and width of engagement with the effects of (the) crisis on (the) city. The volumes discussed are "Remapping ‘Crisis’: A Guide to Athens," edited by Myrto Tsilimpounidi and Aylwyn Walsh (London: Zero, 2014); "Crisis-Scapes: Athens and Beyond," edited by Jaya Klara Brekke, Dimitris Dalakoglou, Christos Filippidis and Antonis Vradis (Athens: Crisis-Scapes, 2014); and "Urban Austerity: Impacts of the Global Financial Crisis on the Cities of Europe," edited by Barbara Schönig and Sebastian Schipper (Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2016).
The Urban Governance of Austerity in Europe
The 2008 financial crash and ensuing austerity have brought critical perspectives on political economy into academic debates in democratic theory and public administration. One important area of contention regards " collaborative " and " network " forms of governance. Advocates argue that these comprise an epochal shift that resolves many pitfalls of state and market oriented governance, a consensus that was especially popular during the 1990's and early 2000's. This chapter reports research carried out in five cities in Europe (Athens, Barcelona, Dublin, Leicester, Nantes) exploring the impact of austerity politics on the ideology and practice of collaborative governance – would it endure, or be unravelled by, post-crash exposure to austerity and distributional conflict? The chapter concludes that severe austerity erodes the foundations for strong collaborative governance. The inability to survive the return of distributional conflict leads us to conclude that collaborative governance is fully functional only in times of growth.
Athens revisited: Bottom-up initiatives in spatial and organizational terms
Athens revisited: Bottom-up initiatives in spatial and organizational terms , 2017
The first years of the crisis in Greece were marked by the emergence of an unprecedented number of initiatives. Those came to be known as bottom-up 1 initiatives. In reality they represent a spectrum of motivations, areas of activity, methods and political inclinations which could be broken down into various categories such as reactionary, revolutionary, visionary, participative, proactive and retroactive, among others. After five ongoing years of crisis the "bottom-up" landscape is entirely different. Many have seized to exist, several others dwindle, and some have transformed into something different. What caused such an unprecedented emergence of initiatives, a short span of life for some, and forged resilience for others? This paper examines the underlying links between bottom-up vis a vis space, participation, and social identity. It argues that bottom-up resilience and social participation reflect qualities of society and of the Athenian urban landscape. It draws data from fieldwork which occurred during the years of 2011-2013, and compares them to findings from recent revisiting of several initiatives. It interrogates what lies behind bottom-up, and the cultural and political origins of participation.
The neoliberal myth of austerity: Debt and solidarity in the forefront of public space
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
A multitude of crises have ravaged Greece during the past six years. The ensuing austerity policies, imposed as antidotes, appear to have impacted people's lives gravely. The collapse of a failing social and political system led to the establishment of social solidarity initiatives. One of these initiatives is the Somateio Allilovoithias Ofeileton Rethymnou (SAOR-Network for the Mutual Assistance of Rethymno's Debtors). SAOR offers comradeship by activating citizens to build collective strength and to resist foreclosures actively. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study focusing on the lives of the people who are members of the network and are involved in deterring foreclosures. Eleven interviews and a focus group discussion provided by coalition members were analyzed using phenomenologically informed thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: 1) Living on the precipice: Shocked, hoodwinked and debt-ridden; 2) Mutual anger against the...
This master's thesis focuses on grassroots citizens' groups founded in Athens in the wake of the so-called debt, economic and social crisis that has become prevalent in Greece since 2009. There, civil society has seen a historical growth in recent years which is particularly significant as scholars have considered civil society and volunteering in Greece less developed compared to other Western countries. By means of 29 ethnographic interviews and participant observation and drawing on theories of (urban) social movements, identity and economical anthropology, seven citizens' groups active in multiple fields of activity were selected via theoretical sampling for this thesis. They all depend on voluntary work, are participatory, with non-profit focus and founded by private persons. Activities include urban regeneration and cultural interventions, the provision of food or health services (solidarity groups), citizens’ participation and political remodeling, media work and oral history research. In particular, I examined why members founded grassroots citizens' groups, investigated the role of the post-2009 crisis on these processes and studied the discourses that were decisive for having become active and that were articulated and negotiated within the initiatives' activities. Within these initiatives, civic engagement is mostly influenced by the economic crisis and experiences directly or indirectly tied to it. However, inherent problems of Athens and Greece existing already before 2009 are strong motivations as well, like an urban crisis of Athens that has been evolving already since the 1970s. Moreover, many interview partners have contextualized their grassroots activity in opposition to the traditional political and social system in Greece but also to recent nationalist or openly racist tendencies. The work within the groups boosts agency, empowerment and control over a feeling of political peripheralization against external forces (such as Greece's international lendors or recent media representations that have often been incorrect or stereotype-based) and the state. The activity enables to reconfigure collective identity both on a local scale but also in regard to national identity which has been shattered in recent crisis years. The voluntary work as a gift of time and effort creates strong social bonds, for members amongst themselves as well as with their beneficiaries. A majority of the respondents contextualized their actions within solidarity discourses reaching well beyond the immediate actions as such, in contrast to a philanthropic approach. Thus, these groups embody a high degree of morality and post-materialistic qualities and endorse the value of meaningful relationships, trust and new social relations.