Abstract
This chapter evaluates how the increasingly active diaspora and transnational philanthropy have influenced the mission, governance and the financial means available to three types of beneficiaries of such philanthropy in Greece: (a) state organisations under the control of central government and led by civil servants; (b) municipalities under the leadership of elected mayors; and (c) private non-profits under the leadership of boards of directors or trustees. The focus is on these three beneficiaries specifically in the time of Greece’s economic crisis. The chapter, by focusing as much on the grantor as on the grantee, explores whether the crisis has meant that policy experimentation and/or norms diffusion, rendered possible by diaspora and transnational philanthropy, have proliferated within the state and civil society. It consequently explores whether we should think of the state and civil society not in terms of a binary, bilateral relationship, but rather of cohorts of organisations, both public and private, which might share similarities depending on their aptitude to engage with diaspora and transnational philanthropy. Further, the chapter engages with the impact of diaspora and transnational philanthropy on the evolution of pluralism in Greece.
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Notes
- 1.
On how dependence on state funding shaped dominant media and societal perceptions of NGOs in Greece see Frangonikopoulos and Pouladikakos (2016).
- 2.
For analysis of how the impact of EU funding and novel quality of life concerns facilitated the evolution of Greek civil society see Botetzagias and Koutiva (2015).
- 3.
For a thorough discussion of Greece’s civil society before and after the crisis, see Sotiropoulos (2017).
- 4.
For an analysis of the impact of the crisis on the revenues’ streams of civil society grantees, see Tzifakis et al. (2017).
- 5.
For an overview of diaspora philanthropy see, Johnson (2007). For the impact on philanthropy on a homeland’s developmental trajectory see, Newland et al. (2010). For the normative influence exerted by a diaspora’s engagement with the homeland see Levitt (1998). For transnationalism as a distinct category, within the diaspora and homeland interaction canon, see Lessinger (1992) and (2003).
- 6.
For an analysis of the diaspora’s positioning in public life post Greece’s EC entry see, Kamaras (2017).
- 7.
For analysis of Greece’s problematic relationship with FDI, see Bitzenis et al. (2009).
- 8.
For an analysis of resistance by domestic stakeholders to diaspora engagement in Greece’s educational institutions, private and public, see Kamaras and Anastasopoulou (2019).
- 9.
For an account of Board of Trustees frustrations with the hostile regulatory environment facing these organisations see, Kamaras (2019).
- 10.
The growing involvement of Greek-American philanthropists and volunteers in the governance of leading US non-profits operating in Greece is traced in McGrew (2015).
- 11.
For a discussion of how these two diaspora communities compare in their philanthropic engagement with their respective homelands, see Kamaras (2017).
- 12.
Greek shipowners’ transnationalism, which encompasses multinational business operations as well as mutual interdependence with the Greek state and involvement in Greece’s economy, has been well documented, see Harlaftis (1993). Indicatively, the two leading transnational foundations, the Stavros Niarchos and Onassis Foundations, were endowed by respectively Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis. In their business trajectories they exemplified transnationalism, being prominent shipowners globally while also investing in leading sectors of the Greek economy, namely ship construction and air travel.
- 13.
For example, one of Mayor Boutaris’ elected municipal councillors, who was appointed Deputy Mayor of Finance, was the first Jewish-Greek councillor to be elected in the Municipality of Thessaloniki after the 1930s and had a track record of engagement in the affairs of the Israelite Community of Thessaloniki. Likewise, Mayor Kaminis appointed deputy mayors with prominent track records in civil mobilisation and the environment and with no past affiliation to Greece’s ruling parties.
- 14.
See diaNEOsis’ self-description, as well as the composition of its advisory board, which is a mixture of centrist, reform-minded Greek resident and diaspora academics, leading public intellectuals and prominent businessmen, at: https://www.dianeosis.org/en/about
- 15.
See THI’s self-description and board composition at, respectively, https://www.thehellenicinitiative.org/ and https://www.thehellenicinitiative.org/leadership/
- 16.
- 17.
For an identification of some of the leading donations of SNF to Greece implemented or announced during the crisis years see, https://www.snf.org/en/about/history-mission/
- 18.
Well-informed reporting points to the Ministry of Education which has been seeking ways to mitigate resistance to reforms in the governance of state universities that would re-catalyse diaspora engagement, see Lakasas (2021).
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Kamaras, A. (2022). Diaspora and Transnational Philanthropy During the Crisis and the Shifting Boundaries of State and Civil Society. In: Anastasakis, O., Pratsinakis, M., Kalantzi, F., Kamaras, A. (eds) Diaspora Engagement in Times of Severe Economic Crisis. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97443-5_4
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