Far right – To Archeio https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:50 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 Urban panics and black holes. Ambiguities of deceleration in the time of financialization https://toarcheio.org/items/urban-panics-and-black-holes-ambiguities-of-deceleration-in-the-time-of-financialization/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:50 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/urban-panics-and-black-holes-ambiguities-of-deceleration-in-the-time-of-financialization/ Continued]]> In the text I embark upon an effort to ground the possibility of a presence and new forms of fascism of our times in the process of financialization and to the ambiguities of the deceleration as a form of the tactics of resistance (or/and lines of flight) in the permanent acceleration of financialization (financialization as a procedure of permanent crisis). The work of the process of deceleration is ambiguous: on the one hand it is relates to the desire for another governmentality –“not to be govern like this” to the limit of non-governmentality, and on the other a blockage is possible, the capture of this desire in the black holes of fascism.“This temporal discontinuity of resistance, its unexpected acts, the vulnerability of its potential, and recently, its reterritorialization in parliamentary procedures, puts the critical project in a permanent starting position, or as if it is in a permanent starting position. As a result of this, the practice of critique remains constant while at the same moment it is constantly in a position of emergence. A position, which we can conceive in contiguity to the financial capital (as a “Body Without Organs”), and which is related to the production of a post-crisiac, fluctuated subject, in a position of impotent prudence and prediction of its life events. […] But we probably have to avoid this unanswered, questioning of unifying principle. Maybe it’s now time to accept the ambiguous power of the obscure position where the body as a victim of financial capital is a body of strength where capital anchors itself. Because this obscure position is the power and the weakness of the poor. Maybe now it is time to accept that the critical attitude of our time demands or presupposes inconsistency, the rupture with reasons and outcomes of action.”

]]> Surplus citizens struggle and nationalism in the Greek crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/surplus-citizens-struggle-and-nationalism-in-the-greek-crisis/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:25 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/surplus-citizens-struggle-and-nationalism-in-the-greek-crisis/ Continued]]> The crisis in Greece has elicited the full spectrum of responses – from optimism for a left parliamentary politics inspired by Syriza’s electoral victory, to pessimism about the intransigence of the EU and calls for the reinstatement of full national sovereignty in Europe. In Surplus Citizens, Dimitra Kotouza questions the terms of the debate by demonstrating how the national framing of social contestation posed obstacles to transformative collective action, but also how this framing has been challenged. Analysing the increasing superfluousness of subordinate classes in Greece as part of a global phenomenon with racialised and gendered dimensions, the book interrogates the strengths, contradictions and limits of collective action and identity in the crisis, from the movement of the squares and neighbourhood assemblies, to new forms of labour activism, environmental struggles, immigrant protests, anti-fascism and pro-refugee activism. Arguing against the strategic fixation on unified identities and pointing instead to the transformative potential of internal dispute within movements, Surplus Citizens highlights the relevance of a discussion of Greece to collective action beyond it, as we continue to traverse a global financial crisis that has provoked conflicts over nationalism, immigration and the rise of neo-fascism.

]]> Greece in Crisis: Combining critical discourse and corpus linguistics perspectives https://toarcheio.org/items/greece-in-crisis-combining-critical-discourse-and-corpus-linguistics-perspectives/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:49 +0000 http://arc.local/items/greece-in-crisis-combining-critical-discourse-and-corpus-linguistics-perspectives/ Continued]]> Since its onset, the Greek crisis has given rise to an abundance of relevant text and talk. This volume offers an insider’s view of the discursive manifestations of the crisis, focusing on discourses in the Greek language and by Greek social actors. The contributions investigate the diverse ways in which the crisis has been communicated to the public by domestic policymakers or debated by elite, non-elite and resistant participants. Crisis discourses are also examined in the light of the rise of neo-nationalism and the extreme Right in both Greece and Cyprus. All contributions seek to meaningfully combine critical discourse and corpus linguistics perspectives for a better understanding of the Greek crisis as a socio-economic episode and as a discourse construct. Discourse-driven quantification and corpus-driven quantification complement each other in the critical examination of textual data as diverse as official government communications, party leader speeches, newspaper articles, public assembly resolutions, song lyrics, social media commentary and terrorist proclamations.

]]> Critical Times in Greece: Anthropological Engagements with the Crisis, https://toarcheio.org/items/critical-times-in-greece-anthropological-engagements-with-the-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:47 +0000 http://arc.local/items/critical-times-in-greece-anthropological-engagements-with-the-crisis/ Continued]]> This volume brings together new anthropological research on the Greek crisis. With a number of contributions from academics based in Greece, the book addresses a number of key issues such as the refugee crisis, far-right extremism and the psychological impact of increased poverty and unemployment. It provides much needed ethnographic contributions and critical anthropological perspectives at a key moment in Greece’s history, and will be of great interest to researchers interested in the social, political and economic developments in southern Europe. It is the first collection to explore the impact of this period of radical social change on anthropological understandings of Greece.

]]> Protest elections and challenger parties: Italy and Greece in the economic crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/protest-elections-and-challenger-parties-italy-and-greece-in-the-economic-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:45 +0000 http://arc.local/items/protest-elections-and-challenger-parties-italy-and-greece-in-the-economic-crisis/ Dangers of an Urban Crisis within the European Union: Fueling Xenophobia and Undermining Democracy https://toarcheio.org/items/dangers-of-an-urban-crisis-within-the-european-union-fueling-xenophobia-and-undermining-democracy/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:45 +0000 http://arc.local/items/dangers-of-an-urban-crisis-within-the-european-union-fueling-xenophobia-and-undermining-democracy/ Continued]]> The global economic and financial crisis of 2007-08 has further intensified a social and urban crisis that undermines democracy and economic institutions internationally. Specifically, the economic crisis and the consequent austerity measures have resulted in greater exploitation in the labor market and job discrimination, in capital flight and undermined political and social institutions that provide for citizens. Xenophobia becomes again a burgeoning problem that is plaguing the European Union (EU) and needs to be addressed thoroughly for it can again undermine the democratic tradition of the region. This article concentrates on perspectives on the current migration crisis within the region of the EU that has spurred a spiral of xenophobic tendencies and a neo-liberal nationalist narrative. Particular emphasis is placed in the situations in Greece (the much attested “guinea pig” of the democratic experiment) and Italy.

]]> The Digital Golden Dawn: Emergence of a Nationalist-Racist Digital Mainstream https://toarcheio.org/items/the-digital-golden-dawn-emergence-of-a-nationalist-racist-digital-mainstream/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:44 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-digital-golden-dawn-emergence-of-a-nationalist-racist-digital-mainstream/ Continued]]> Eugenia Siapera and Mariangela Veikou examine the rising fascist and racist political online networks in Greece. They demonstrate that the kind of online presence that the Golden Dawn and its affiliates have acquired is the result of a mutual accommodation and adjustment amongst the Golden Dawn, digital corporations, the Greek state and civil society. Far from having been excluded or marginalised, Golden Dawn rhetorics, practices and discourses have adjusted to and infiltrated the digital mainstream.

]]> Violence and Extreme-right Activism: The Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn in a Greek Rural Community https://toarcheio.org/items/violence-and-extreme-right-activism-the-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-in-a-greek-rural-community/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:43 +0000 http://arc.local/items/violence-and-extreme-right-activism-the-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-in-a-greek-rural-community/ Continued]]> After years of marginal appeal in the electorate, Golden Dawn (GD), a hitherto minor grupuscule of the neo-fascist right, has experienced impressive and continuous electoral success in Greece since 2010. Ιn this paper, we focus on the micro-scale of local communities and explore how violence is used by a local activist in ways that attract sympathisers to GD. Employing ethnographic research in a rural community we observe an everyday rhetoric that gives GD a privileged position in the circulation of violence. We argue that, rather than being a collateral symptom of neo-fascist mobilisation, violence may under certain conditions be one of the strengths of extreme-right movements.

]]> Governmentalities of Urban Crises in Inner-city Athens, Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/governmentalities-of-urban-crises-in-inner-city-athens-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:42 +0000 http://arc.local/items/governmentalities-of-urban-crises-in-inner-city-athens-greece/ Continued]]> Through the notion of “conjuncture” this paper explores the interplay of urban crises that have been unfolding in the city of Athens during the past 7 years (2008–2014). By focusing on specific “critical moments” that have significantly influenced the narratives, discourses and subsequent policies concerning “Athens in crisis”, it examines a number of intertwined approaches and tactics that shaped the governmentality of such crisis. These approaches and tactics, that work in tandem, include emergency‐driven policies and politics; politics of fear that occasionally transform into geographies of fear; processes of defining the “public” and “public enemies”; and redefinitions of (il)legalities. Yet, they have repercussions on people, places and politics. In this context, certain issues are deemed critical or urgent while others do not or are even obscured.

]]> Understanding the populist shift: Othering in a Europe in crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/understanding-the-populist-shift-othering-in-a-europe-in-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:42 +0000 http://arc.local/items/understanding-the-populist-shift-othering-in-a-europe-in-crisis/ Continued]]> During the European elections of 2014, one of the main issues raised by the media was the electoral performance of so called ‘populist parties’. The electorate confirmed its deep dissatisfaction with mainstream political parties, voting for far right parties in parliamentary elections in Northern Europe (Austria, Denmark, Sweden), Eastern Europe (Hungary, where the deeply anti-Semitic Jobbik party gained votes) and in France (where the French National Front won about a quarter of the vote), while in the Southern European countries, battered by austerity policies, it was the radical right and left in Greece (Golden Dawn and Syriza) and the radical left in Spain (Podemos) that obtained excellent scores.

This book examines the growing trend towards far and extreme right populism that has emerged prominently in Northern (Finland), Western (Austria, Denmark, France, the UK), Southern (Greece, Italy) and Central/Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Bulgaria) since the 1990s. Providing a critical understanding of current European trends and analysing the complex phenomena covered by the notion of populism, this book will be of interest to students and scholars researching right-wing politics, as well as European politics more generally.

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