Abstract
The multifaceted crisis that has hit Greece in the past years has had severe consequences on people’s everyday lives. In an attempt to cope with, and also resist dramatic changes in lifestyles, incomes and welfare, several initiatives have sprung up all over the country at many different scales, with diverse targets, varying actors and outcomes. Many people have abandoned their privacy to participate in public actions of solidarity, in initiatives that often involve new or alternative uses of urban space. It seems that practices of solidarity and claims around material spaces are becoming an important “laboratory” for shaping a different public sphere. The paper aimed to reflect on the ways in which such practices and claims arise and develop; how different types of rights and forms of doing politics are enacted in situations of crisis and deprivation; and finally how such practices reconfigure public space. We draw from relevant examples of initiatives in Athens, in order to discuss acts of coping and resistance and to reflect on the extent to which the concept of social innovation may provide fruitful insights into our discussion.
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Notes
High hopes have arisen in this direction with the advent of the Left in government (January 2015). The crisis, however, is deep, and austerity measures have a long way to go given the ongoing negotiations with the EU, the ECB and the IMF.
Between 20 April and 20 May 2015, 261,423 households applied for support under the auspices of this law (newspaper Avgi, 24/5/2015).
However, lowering salaries and pensions is one of the major areas of pressure of the IMF, EU, ECB to the new government in the context of the current negotiations.
EL.STAT publishes only aggregate data by region, according to which the rate of unemployment in Greater Athens is 28 % in 2013 (www.statistics.gr).
For a discussion of the rise of the extreme right in Greece and particularly Golden Dawn, see Psarras 2012.
Material has been drawn from the Internet postings of the party itself (www.cryshavgh.com) which has a special page on women. There is a noticeable reduction in such postings, as well as cancellation of most aggressive ones since summer 2014 when many of the leaders of Golden Dawn are brought to trial.
EL.STAT reports 33 % increase in deaths due to suicide between 2009 and 2013 (from 391 reported cases in 2009 to 533 in 2013), which makes suicide the second most significant cause of “violent death” after car accidents.
However, after extensive debates and a broad Assembly of the Initiatives in November 2012, many initiatives are networked through and supported by the “Solidarity for All” hub, which is set up by the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), whose deputies in the Parliament contribute part of their salary to this purpose (www.solidarity4all.gr). With SYRIZA in government since January 2015, the relationship of solidarity initiatives with the hub is a matter of intense debate.
The municipality of Athens is administratively divided into seven Municipal Communities.
The upcoming sale of the former airport, along with the change of leadership in the municipality of Hellinikon, poses problems for the operation of the Social Clinic, despite the dire needs and the full support of its beneficiaries.
Since the establishment of the ‘Mavili Collective’, many artist groups have reactivated abandoned industrial buildings, proposing an alternative model to the market-led culture scene of Athens (see, for example, newspaper Avgi, 12/10/2014, www.avgi.gr).
It is uncertain, however, how the political change in the leadership of the municipality after the 2014 municipal elections will affect this relationship.
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Vaiou, D., Kalandides, A. Practices of collective action and solidarity: reconfigurations of the public space in crisis-ridden Athens, Greece. J Hous and the Built Environ 31, 457–470 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-015-9468-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-015-9468-z