Health & well-being – To Archeio https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:49 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 The ‘Crisis Generation’: the effect of the Greek Crisis on youth identity formation https://toarcheio.org/items/the-crisis-generation-the-effect-of-the-greek-crisis-on-youth-identity-formation/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:49 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/the-crisis-generation-the-effect-of-the-greek-crisis-on-youth-identity-formation/ Continued]]> This study aims to explore the impact of the Greek Crisis on the ways young Greeks form their identities. The prolonged effects of the Greek crisis (2008-today), have been undoubtedly experienced by all Greeks (regardless of class, age, gender, location, occupation). However, older adolescents/younger adults (born between 1995 and 2000) constitute the first generation (termed Crisis Generation) to be raised during the Crisis and form their identity within this district social, political and economic reality. This study focuses on the subjective experiences of 20 participants born during this period, in an attempt to reveal their perceptions of how the crisis has contributed to their own identity formation. This study proposes that the Crisis Generation is characterised by a unique process of identity formation consisting of: a misleading passiveness, profound lack of apathy, misread and hopefully ephemeral sense of being trapped in a social and political reality which was not formed by them and explicit ability of planning a future identity away from the crisis through personal and social accounts of action.

]]> Dispatches from the Greek lab: Metaphors, strategies and debt in the European crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/dispatches-from-the-greek-lab-metaphors-strategies-and-debt-in-the-european-crisis/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:16 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/dispatches-from-the-greek-lab-metaphors-strategies-and-debt-in-the-european-crisis/ Continued]]> This field note is a first attempt to reflect on the choreography of the European crisis from a psychosocial perspective. It focuses on the situation as it has been unfolding in one of the debtor countries of the South, namely Greece. After mapping a variety of metaphors, repertoires and strategies used to energise blame and guilt and thus legitimise the neoliberal policies implemented, it elaborates on the multiple functions of debt, articulating a biopolitical approach with Freudian and Lacanian theorisations of the superego. It also inscribes within this framework the current mutations in political domination.

]]> Vicissitudes of emotions and political action during the Greek crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/vicissitudes-of-emotions-and-political-action-during-the-greek-crisis/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:02 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/vicissitudes-of-emotions-and-political-action-during-the-greek-crisis/ Continued]]> Action readiness is considered a central property of emotions in most psychological theories. Emotions are the engine of behavior. They are the motivating, directing, prioritizing function of the brain, and impel to an immediate reaction to challenges and opportunities faced by the organism. Nevertheless, under sociopolitical malaise, emotions do not always lead to action. People leave in societies characterized by particular emotional cultures, climates, and atmospheres that set the background to what emotions are felt under which circumstances. The impact of an emotion depends on how relevant, that is, emotionally significant is the event for the individual; on the implications of the event for the person’s well-being and immediate or long-term goals; on the individual’s capacity to cope with or adjust to the consequences of the event; and on the significance of the event with respect to individual and collective self-concept and to social norms and values. Although emotions trigger action, events with high emotional intensity may mobilize defense mechanisms that distort facts, so that the event may appear distant or not concerning the individual personally. In such cases action is hindered because the meaning of the emotive event, although fully intellectually understood, does not have personal emotional reality. If the defense mechanisms prove inefficient or collapse, the event may be experienced as traumatic, that is, as a shocking occurrence that brings about a rupture in the continuity of existence, numbing of senses and mental faculties, and inability to think about what happened for periods that may last from days to years, although individuals and collectives may appear quite normal in carrying out everyday routines. Interpretative “emotion work” in formal or informal contexts may change emotions from immobilizing to mobilizing, or from destructive to constructive, as the traumatic event is being “worked through” and a cohesive narrative about it develops. But even then, action and in our case, political action, depends on the individual’s available repertoire—political efficacy and resilience—built up from past recoveries and a sense of support from social networks, and hope in assessing the costs and benefits from the harms brought by acting and the harms brought by non-acting.

]]> Who is going to rescue the rescuers? Post-traumatic stress disorder among rescue workers operating in Greece during the European refugee crisis https://toarcheio.org/items/who-is-going-to-rescue-the-rescuers-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-among-rescue-workers-operating-in-greece-during-the-european-refugee-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:52 +0000 http://arc.local/items/who-is-going-to-rescue-the-rescuers-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-among-rescue-workers-operating-in-greece-during-the-european-refugee-crisis/ Continued]]> PURPOSE:
During the European refugee crisis, numerous Greek and international rescue workers are operating in Lesvos, offering search, rescue, and first aid services. Exposure to stressful life events while engaging in this rescue work can result in developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The study aimed to assess the prevalence of PTSD and explore potential differences between different categories of rescuers.

METHODS:
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 217 rescue workers. Participants were grouped according to affiliation: “Greek Professionals Rescuers/GPR”, “International Professionals Rescuers/IPR” and “Volunteer Rescuers/VR”. The PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) was utilized. All tests were two-tailed (a = 0.05). Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and multivariate logistic regression were performed.

RESULTS:
Overall probable PTSD prevalence found was 17.1%. Rates varied significantly per rescuer’s category; 23.1% in GPR, 11.8% in IPR, and 14.6% in VR (p = 0.02). GPR demonstrated the highest risk compared to IPR and VR (p < 0.001). Females had approximately two times higher risk. Other significant risk factors included marital status, age, and number of children. Lack of previous experience, longer operation period, longer shift hours, and handling dead refugees and dead children were also considered major risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS:
Rescue workers providing substantial aid to the refugees and migrants at Lesvos experience significant psychological distress. The present findings indicate the urgent need for targeted interventions. Further studies are needed to address long-term effects of the refugee crisis on rescuers, and explore effective measures to prevent PTSD.

]]> The golden ‘salto mortale’ in the era of crisis : Primitive accumulation and local and urban struggle in the case of Skouries gold mining in Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/the-golden-salto-mortale-in-the-era-of-crisis-primitive-accumulation-and-local-and-urban-struggle-in-the-case-of-skouries-gold-mining-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:52 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-golden-salto-mortale-in-the-era-of-crisis-primitive-accumulation-and-local-and-urban-struggle-in-the-case-of-skouries-gold-mining-in-greece/ Continued]]> As formulated by Marx ([1867] 1990. Capital. Vol. I. London: Penguin, 200), ‘the leap taken by value from the body of the commodity into the body of the gold is the commodity’s salto mortale’. Following autonomous Marxist literature (De Angelis 2007. The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital. London: Pluto Press; Federici 2011. ‘Feminism and the Politics of the Commons.’ The Commoner, other articles. Accessed January 28, 2017, http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=113; Hardt and Negri 2009. Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), the circulation of capital could be interrupted by social, class, gender or ecological struggles. In order to unsettle this view, we build on recent critical scholarship on new enclosures, land-grabbing and the permanence of primitive accumulation and we explore the inter-articulation of gold mining projects and neoliberal policies in the era of crisis. In this effort, we examine the case of Greece, a country at the epicenter of the recent financial and social crisis. During the last decade, the Canadian company Eldorado has undertaken a gold mining investment in the environmentally sensitive area of Skouries. A fruitful social struggle has emerged against this project, both in the rural site and in the urban Greek metropolis. Through this examination we investigate how the financial crisis provides an opportunity for multinational mining corporations to expand their zones of exploitation and how social resistance can reclaim common resources.

]]> Infrastructural disorder: The politics of disruption, contingency, and normalcy in waste infrastructures in Athens, Environment and Planning https://toarcheio.org/items/infrastructural-disorder-the-politics-of-disruption-contingency-and-normalcy-in-waste-infrastructures-in-athens-environment-and-planning/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:49 +0000 http://arc.local/items/infrastructural-disorder-the-politics-of-disruption-contingency-and-normalcy-in-waste-infrastructures-in-athens-environment-and-planning/ Continued]]> This paper considers infrastructure from the point of view of disorder. During the last few years, waste management controversies have proliferated in Greece, reflecting a generalized feeling of mistrust towards the authorities. In this context, and in relation to the socio-economic crisis that erupted there in 2010, a set of diverse and even antithetic practices, imaginations, and circulations of flows have (re)emerged around waste treatment processes. By looking at the intermingling of formal and informal practices around waste flows and landfill processes in Athens, the paper asks how uncertainty, contingency and instability shape the governance and everyday experience of waste infrastructures. Examining the ways in which the normalization of regular disruption and instability plays out in waste treatment in Athens, it makes the case for understanding disorder as inherent to infrastructure.

]]> 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.

]]> Practices of collective action and solidarity: reconfigurations of the public space in crisis-ridden Athens, Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/practices-of-collective-action-and-solidarity-reconfigurations-of-the-public-space-in-crisis-ridden-athens-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:45 +0000 http://arc.local/items/practices-of-collective-action-and-solidarity-reconfigurations-of-the-public-space-in-crisis-ridden-athens-greece/ Continued]]> 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.

]]> Survey of medico-legal investigation of homicide in the region of Epirus (Northwest Greece) https://toarcheio.org/items/survey-of-medico-legal-investigation-of-homicide-in-the-region-of-epirus-northwest-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:41 +0000 http://arc.local/items/survey-of-medico-legal-investigation-of-homicide-in-the-region-of-epirus-northwest-greece/ Continued]]> This study analyzed the forensic features of homicides in North-West Greece (Epirus) from 1998 to 2013, a borderland area between Greece and Albania. Although Greece is critically influenced by both the increasing flow of refugees and the current socioeconomic crisis, very little information has been published regarding the patterns of homicide in the country. Fifty-eight autopsied victims (36 males; 22 females) were investigated. The median age was 37 years old. The average annual homicide rate was 0.85 per 100,000 inhabitants and showed remarkable fluctuation, with largest increase during Greek financial downturn. Sixteen victims were not Greek citizens. The most common method of commitment was the use of firearm (40%). The main motives were economical causes (26%) and passion (14%). Four cases were categorized as matricide (7%), 3 as homicide-suicide (5%), 2 as patricide (3%) and 1 as infanticide (2%). Toxicological analysis proved negative for ethanol and other psychotropic substances in the majority of the victims (50%). There is an urgent need for public actions both in Epirus and in Greece, with the application of effective strategies against criminality.

]]> Challenges and redefinitions of birth in the maternity landscapes of volos, Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/challenges-and-redefinitions-of-birth-in-the-maternity-landscapes-of-volos-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:40 +0000 http://arc.local/items/challenges-and-redefinitions-of-birth-in-the-maternity-landscapes-of-volos-greece/ Continued]]> Childbirth is in recent years regarded as a complex phenomenon, not only as a biological fact but as a social and spatial process that interacts with the physical and symbolic environment in which it takes place. Through its social definition as a pathological event and its positioning in medical institutions, birth and reproduction have been placed under the jurisdiction of medical experts in most of the West in the 20th century. The medicalisation of birth, however, is being challenged actively in the last decades, both by birthing women and health professionals, while less interventionist methods of birth care are becoming more popular together with the creation of more intimate birthing territories. In Greece in particular, in this period of economic recession it is going through, maternity care practices, birth spaces and related conceptualisations of reproduction appear to be undergoing a transformation. The downgrading of medical services caused by the crisis seems to have affected the quality of maternity care. At the same time the universal medicalisation of childbirth is being questioned because of the high rates of interventions and their negative consequences on the health of mother and baby. Hence nowadays less interventionist alternatives have started to emerge, such as ʼnatural’ birth in the maternity hospitals or birth at home. Birth care practices, arrangements and uses of birthing spaces are undergoing changes too. Together with women’s new attitudes, these developments constitute a trend to redefine childbirth as a normal physiological event and mothers as active birth-givers. This essay aims to contribute to the discussion on the present and future of the maternity care system by presenting the interaction of space and maternity practices with new significations of birth and birth care in the maternity landscape of a provincial town in Greece.

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