Arampatzi, A (2018) Constructing solidarity as resistive and creative agency in austerity Greece. Comparative European Politics, 16 (1). pp. 50-66. ISSN 1472-4790
Abstract
Recent scholarship on the global financial crisis and its geographical underpinnings has highlighted its macro-economic causes and variegated effects in Europe and beyond. Drawing on the case of Greece, this paper contends that these discussions fall short in uncovering the social impact of the European crisis and austerity politics introduced since 2010. In adding to debates that call for nuanced approached to crises, through the very forms and means people and communities contest and subvert these ‘from below’, the paper discusses solidarity, its meaning and practices, in constructing resistance to austerity and grassroots creativity. In particular, it shows how solidarity initiatives and networks have acted as survival means in the face of a social reproduction crisis for vulnerable social groups and, at the same time, opened up spaces for political struggle against austerity to unfold. Furthermore, it interrogates the formation of a social/solidarity economy as an alternative platform for re-instituting socio-economic relations in an era of austerity. Finally, through reflecting upon the role of the solidarity movement, the paper critically assesses their potential in foregrounding a political project of social transformation, in-the-making and still at stake. The article draws on engaged ethnographic research, conducted in Athens, Greece, between 2012 and 2013.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper published in / accepted for publication in Comparative European Politics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | austerity; crisis; Greece; solidarity; social economy |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Oct 2016 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 24 Apr 2018 13:29 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-016-0071-9 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan |
Identification Number: | 10.1057/s41295-016-0071-9 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:106590 |