NGO & voluntary sector – To Archeio

The Newcomers’ Right to the Common Space: The case of Athens during the refugee crisis

apostolos — Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:29 +0000

Contested Borderscapes, Transnational Geographies vis-à-vis Fortress Europe

apostolos — Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:28 +0000

In 2016, Oxford English Dictionary declared “post-truth” the word of the year. In this Orwellian moment, the movement of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants across the increasingly militarised borders of Europe have instigated a socio-spatial debate about the limits of human rights, national sovereignties, continental values, precipitating and contributing to the ongoing condition of European crises. Although in the era of globalisation borders constitute porous passages for capital and commodities, at the same time they have hardened and ossified as “new enclosures” seeking to immobilise migrant and refugee populations. Fortress Europe emerges as a complex of new state control mechanisms, freshly erected border fences, newly built detention centres and improvised refugee camps; together, these technologies of migration management aim at the criminalisation, classification, stigmatisation, and biopolitical control of moving populations, fomented by xenophobic politics, and managed by humanitarian subcontractors. In this hostile climate, people on the move contest European border regimes, peripheries, and cityscapes by claiming spatial justice and political visibility while creating a nexus of emerging common spaces. They are joined by activists defending their right to movement, who are engaged in efforts to “welcome refugees” into a shrinking and contested public sphere, into alternative and self-organised social spaces, responding to the humanitarian crises wrought by militarism, violence, and structural adjustment with solidarity, stemming from a larger vision of sharing in each other’s struggles for survival and social transformation.

“Refugee tv” and “Refugees got talent” projects. Affective and decolonial geographies of invisible common spaces

apostolos — Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:27 +0000

Reimagining a transnational right to the city: No Border actions and commoning practices in Thessaloniki

apostolos — Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:26 +0000

Although there is extensive literature on State migration policies and NGO activities, there are few studies on the common struggles between refugees and local activists. This article aims to fill this research gap by focusing on the impact of the transnational No Border camp that took place in Thessaloniki in 2016. The border region of northern Greece, with its capital Thessaloniki, is at the heart of the so-called refugee crisis and it is marked by a large number of solidarity initiatives. After the sealing of the “Balkan corridor”, the Greek State relocated thousands of refugees into isolated and inappropriate camps on the outskirts of Thessaloniki. Numerous local and international initiatives, with the participation of refugees from the camps, self-organized a transnational No Border camp in the city center that challenged State policies. By claiming the right to the city, activists from all over Europe, together with refugees, built direct-democratic assemblies and organized a multitude of direct actions, demonstrations, and squats that marked the city’s social body with spatial disobedience and transnational commoning practices. Here, activism emerges as an important field of research and this article aims to contribute to activists’ literature on migration studies after 2015. The article is based on militant research and inspired by the Lefebvrian right to the city, the autonomy of migration, and common space approaches. The right to the city refers to the rights to freedom, socialization, and habitation, but also to the right to reinvent and change the city. It was recently enhanced by approaches on common spaces and the way these highlight the production of spaces based on solidarity, mutual help, common care, and direct democracy. The main findings of this study point to how the struggle of migrants when crossing physical and social borders inspires local solidarity movements for global networking and opens up new possibilities to reimagine and reinvent transnational common spaces.

The Impact of Economic Crises on NGOs: The Case of Greece

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:53 +0000

The paper analyzes the impact of economic crises on organized civil society. A number of empirical studies have shown that a financial crisis can inflict a serious damage on the nonprofit sector—mainly through a sharp decline in revenues. However, the Greek case shows that a crisis can also have some positive effects on NGOs: many nonprofits introduced reforms that increased efficiency, the number of volunteers reached record levels, and there was a spectacular rise in funding by private philanthropic foundations. However, Greek NGOs continue to be dependent on external funding, unable to raise large sums from their members and the wider public. Organized Greek civil society continues to be turned upside down: dependency on EU and state funds is being replaced by dependency on private foundations.

Employees’ perspectives on strategic human resource development before and after the global financial crisis: evidence from the Greek banking sector

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:51 +0000

Constantly changing business and economic environments have challenged organizations to re‐think the crucial role of their human resource development (HRD) policies and practices in relation to individual and organizational competitiveness, change and growth. Being proactive/strategic, in HRD terms, corresponds to the concept of strategic HRD maturity, a state evidenced by a specific set of strategic characteristics, but research into this concept within the challenging context of the economic crisis is limited, as is research into employees’ perceptions of it. Previous research has been applied mostly within ‘static’ business and economic environments, with much of the existing strategic HRD models neglecting employees’ perspectives. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 42 bank employees in Greece, with the aim of examining their perceptions of strategic HRD before and after the global financial crisis. The study raises important questions for both HRD academics and practitioners because its findings indicate a setback in the development of HRD. Whilst there were a few contradicting perceptions, the dominant employee view was that strategic HRD was a theoretical notion rather than an organizational reality.

Crisis and transition of NGOs in Europe: The case of Greece

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:36 +0000

The ongoing financial crisis has globally impacted nearly every national economy in the world. Although its initial effects were concentrated purely in the financial sector, increased economic turbulence has gradually diffused into most sectors of society—including civil society and NGOs. One basic consequence has been the transformation of development assistance due to a decrease in available funding from the usual “suspects”, known as “old donors,” and a subsequent increase from so called “new donors” such as China and Brazil. Moreover, many of these “new donors” are negatively predisposed to working with NGOs and thus available funding to NGOs in the international level seems to be decreasing. A focus on the national level also reveals a similar case: countries that were greatly impacted by the aftermath of the crisis, such as Greece, have sharply decreased available public funding to NGOs.

This paper explores the effects of these developments. Its initial findings suggest that the “western model” of NGOs expansion is less viable than before. NGOs are being accused of losing their fundamental values and working mostly as ‘walking sticks’—covering states’ inefficiencies in specific sectors—thus their function as an unofficial public sector is being challenged. In practice, NGOs are transforming into dedicated contractors of national and international public agencies with limited to no real interconnection with society. This transformation is being rendered incompatible with the new environment, as available contracts are becoming less lucrative. As a result, many NGOs are rediscovering their idealistic past while new, less formal civil society actors are arising to cover the multiple needs created by the crisis. Focusing mainly on the Greek case study, this paper presents a seldom-studied effect of the financial crisis—the transformation of the NGO sector, culminating in informal networks overlapping with “old school” NGOs which find it difficult to adjust to the new economic situation. Evidence suggests that a dual trend currently exists where a small segment of existing “professionalized” NGOs are able to gain public funding through the usual public procurement procedures. Thus, they are able to survive and further expand in conjunction with the rise of small, grassroots organizations whose main strengths derive from their devotion to the practice of philanthropy, altruism, and voluntarism, in addition to their widespread acceptance from the general public.

Κράτος και εθελοντικές οργανώσεις την περίοδο της οικονομικής κρίσης

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:30 +0000

Σύμφωνα με in διεθνή βιβλιογραφία η οικονομική κρίση έχει περιορίσει τους πόρους των εθελοντικών οργανώσεων, έχει ενισχύσει τον μεταξύ τους ανταγωνισμό καθώς επίσης και τον ανταγωνισμό τους με τους κερδοσκοπικούς φορείς. Παράλληλα το κράτος διερευνά νέους μηχανισμούς ενσωμάτωσης του ιδιωτικού τομέα (κερδοσκοπικού και μη κερδοσκοπικού) στη χρηματοδότηση προγραμμάτων κοινωνικής πολιτικής. Η ανάλυση παρουσιάζει τις νέες τάσεις που καταγράφονται διεθνώς στον εθελοντικό τομέα για να διερευνήσει εν συνεχεία τις συνέπειες της οικονομικής κρίσης στη βιωσιμότητα και τον διεκδικητικό χαρακτήρα των μη κυβερνητικών οργανώσεων στην Ελλάδα.

Economic Crisis, Social Solidarity and the Voluntary Sector in Greece

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:30 +0000

After the onset of the economic crisis in Greece, owing to the government’s drive
towards fiscal consolidation, social protection became sparse. NGOs active in social
solidarity started catering to newly impoverished Greek citizens seeking social
services and basic consumer goods. In parallel, informal social networks and selfhelp
groups emerged and became active in exchange and distribution of goods and
services, healthcare, education, food and shelter provision, offering a more critical
view towards the state and seeking alternative forms of social organization. Field
research and interviews with representatives of NGOs and informal organizations,
conducted in 2013 in Athens, show that social solidarity has expanded,
organizations have developed and have adapted to the new social needs of the
population. The Greek welfare state has partly been supplanted by social solidarity
groups, but the crisis may have become a catalyst for the empowerment of the
erstwhile weak Greek civil society

The social aesthetics of eligibility: NGO aid and indeterminacy in the Greek asylum process

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:16 +0000

On the porous EU border of Greece, where both fiscal and migration management are said to be in a state of crisis, NGOs figure crucially in the provision of legal and social aid to asylum applicants. I explore the dialogical engagements underpinning the determination of client eligibility at one such NGO in Athens. As workers and aid candidates coproduce “pictures” of lives eligible for protection, profound uncertainties and indeterminacies emerge. I argue that this indeterminacy gives testament to an often overlooked form of agency: how aid candidates and service providers alike reshape and even refuse dominant images of deservingness, victimhood, and vulnerability from within systems of aid distribution.