https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:23 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/anger-management-and-the-politics-of-crime-in-the-greek-crisis/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:23 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/anger-management-and-the-politics-of-crime-in-the-greek-crisis/ Continued]]> In 2008, Greece was plunged into recession. A full-blown financial crisis developed in 2009, from which point onwards the Greek economy shrank with persistence unmatched by current comparisons. The onset of financial crisis triggered a major realignment in the configuration of political power in the country, with a collapse in support for the left pillar of a centrist two-party system that had been in place for over 30 years, and the entry to Parliament of an extreme far-right group with a reputation for engaging in physical violence. The political ramifications of the crisis have continued to evolve under the socio-economic pressures of the ongoing recession, the austerity measures adopted to meet the conditions of successive bailouts, and the asymmetrical impact of both upon the country’s citizenry.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/crime-and-economic-downturn-the-complexity-of-crime-and-crime-politics-in-greece-since-2009/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:20 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/crime-and-economic-downturn-the-complexity-of-crime-and-crime-politics-in-greece-since-2009/ Continued]]> Description and explanation of the relationship between economic downturn and crime have to date been limited by the narrow scope of criminal activity characteristically selected as a focus by pertinent criminological scholarship. Efforts to examine the relationship have overwhelmingly approached it through the prism of common property and violent offences, or, and to a lesser degree, white-collar crime. As a consequence, appreciation has been impeded of the existence and heightened political significance of diverse and complex connections between a wider array of forms of criminality during times of economic downturn. To demonstrate the value of such connections to the study of the relationship between economic downturn and crime, we draw on the contemporary experience of crisis-hit Greece, where the political importance of associations between corruption, common property and violent offences, and illicit political violence, has made them indispensable components of any account of the linkages between economic downturn and crime in the Greek context.

]]> 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.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-indignant-citizen-anti-austerity-movements-in-southern-europe-and-the-anti-oligarchic-reclaiming-of-citizenship/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:48 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-indignant-citizen-anti-austerity-movements-in-southern-europe-and-the-anti-oligarchic-reclaiming-of-citizenship/ Continued]]> This article discusses the change in political vision of anti-austerity movements in southern Europe in comparison with previous protest movements. It focuses on the emergence of a discourse of citizenship at the core of the new protest wave, as seen in frequent references to ‘citizens’, ‘citizenry’ and ‘citizenship’ in movement manifestos, and the resolutions and declarations of popular assemblies. I investigate the meaning and motivations of this ‘citizenism’ and how it reflects the change in economic conditions and popular perceptions in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. The analysis draws from movement documents, and in-depth interviews with 40 protest organisers and participants from the Indignados movement in Spain and the Aganaktismenoimovement in Greece. I argue that within these movements, the idea of citizenship has acted both as a source of popular identity interpellating a diverse set of demographics, and as a central demand, organising calls for greater popular participation in decision-making, freedom of expression and against corruption. Anti-austerity movements put forward an anti-oligarchic view of citizenship, which is different from the liberal, civic-republican and social democratic approaches, in its understanding of citizenship as the power of the dispersed ‘citizenry’ against the concentrated power of economic and political elites. This grassroots re-appropriation of citizenship highlights how anti-austerity movements in southern Europe have departed from the anti-statism of autonomous movements and have developed a more positive view of the state as a basis of social cohesion and a possible means of ‘people power’.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-metaphysics-of-the-greek-crisis-visual-art-and-anthropology-at-the-crossroads/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:46 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-metaphysics-of-the-greek-crisis-visual-art-and-anthropology-at-the-crossroads/ Continued]]> During times of uncertainty and ‘crisis’, the religious and the metaphysical may acquire particular resonance and be employed to explain experiences of deprivation and insecurity which cannot be accounted for in rational terms. Using a montage of YouTube videos, the author together with a visual artist have drawn attention to “the metaphysics of the Greek crisis” and the power of its visual cultures. This article gives an account of the history of the montage’s making and of some of the issues that arise from a work such as this that stands at the crossroads of anthropology and contemporary art.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-effect-of-unemployment-on-self-reported-health-and-mental-health-in-greece-from-2008-to-2013-a-longitudinal-study-before-and-during-the-financial-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:40 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-effect-of-unemployment-on-self-reported-health-and-mental-health-in-greece-from-2008-to-2013-a-longitudinal-study-before-and-during-the-financial-crisis/ Continued]]> The current study uses six annual waves of the Longitudinal Labor Market Study (LLMS) covering the 2008-2013 period to obtain longitudinal estimations suggesting statistically significant negative effects from unemployment on self-reported health and mental health in Greece. The specifications suggest that unemployment results in lower health and the deterioration of mental health during the 2008-2009 period compared with the 2010-2013 period, i.e., a period in which the country’s unemployment doubled as a consequence of the financial crisis. Unemployment seems to be more detrimental to health/mental health in periods of high unemployment, suggesting that the unemployment crisis in Greece is more devastating as it concerns more people. Importantly, in all specifications, comparable qualitative patterns are found by controlling for unemployment due to firm closure, which allows us to minimize potential bias due to unemployment-health related reverse causality. Moreover, in all cases, women are more negatively affected by unemployment in relation to their health and mental health statuses than are men. Greece has been more deeply affected by the financial crisis than any other EU country, and this study contributes by offering estimates for before and during the financial crisis and considering causality issues. Because health and mental health indicators increase more rapidly in a context of higher surrounding unemployment, policy action must place greater emphasis on unemployment reduction and supporting women’s employment.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/financial-crisis-and-higher-education-policies-in-greece-between-intra-and-supranational-pressures/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:38 +0000 http://arc.local/items/financial-crisis-and-higher-education-policies-in-greece-between-intra-and-supranational-pressures/ Continued]]> The current financial crisis is blamed for the proliferation of neoliberal policies in Greek universities. However, this article argues that the imposition of relevant policies has wider causes linked to contradictions observed during the democratization and modernization of universities over the last 40 years. At the same time policymakers are seeking ‘external’ support to mitigate the doubts of pressure groups, such as academic staff, students, and mass media, regarding the need to implement unpopular reforms in Greek universities. Set against this political backdrop, the present article argues that the references of the Greek political leadership to European discourse about universities are a strategy to build alliances within the country for the promotion of neoliberal reforms in the field of tertiary education. The implementation of these reforms has been facilitated through the financial crisis, which has pressured the Greek governments to take immediate measures for the sake of the ‘national economy’.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/crisis-management-and-the-institutions-of-austerity-a-comparison-of-latin-american-and-greek-experiences/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:36 +0000 http://arc.local/items/crisis-management-and-the-institutions-of-austerity-a-comparison-of-latin-american-and-greek-experiences/ Continued]]> The proliferation of debt crises around the world since the 1980’s has generated debtrepayment negotiations prioritizing austerity in debtor countries. This forty-year history of debt crises in the Global South and North now allows comparison of these negotiations and their impacts. We examine the distinct and historically specific trajectories in Latin American and Greece, highlighting the foundations of each experience of debt crisis. We focus on the institutions responsible for managing crisis and their reliance on similar austerity strategies to compel debtor countries into a neoliberal restructuring of their economies. This paper examines the similarities and differences in austerity policy through a comparative-historical analysis of Latin American and Greek experiences of debt crisis. The results of such policies and the political actors involved in implementing austerity are also examined. © The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Leiden, 2015.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-cuts-have-been-made-what-now-a-look-into-current-impressions-and-future-developments/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:31 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-cuts-have-been-made-what-now-a-look-into-current-impressions-and-future-developments/ Continued]]> This themed issue poses questions concerning financial cuts and their impact on contemporary society and the arts. It presents a collection of perspectives, in particular from Greece, in order to examine artistic and aesthetic practices. It explores how society is being transformed into a post-democracy and how citizens are becoming post-citizens. These transformations will have implications in the redefinition of both post-democracy and post-citizenship as two oppositional forces, which may no longer be reconcilable and could lead to insurrectional and repressive politics. The role that art plays and will play in shaping these discourses by presenting alternative imaginaries to the narratives of the body politic will have to be evaluated in a context of aesthetic concurrence and conspiracy of art. But if the artists are transformed into post-citizens – it may be safe to assume that as post-artists their contributions will be more free – or totally freed – from the restraints and bonds of national and supranational institutions, leading de facto to the production of counter narratives and imaginaries that will be perceived by the post-democracies’ body politic as insurrectional art.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-cultural-bodys-death-by-a-thousand-cuts-why-society-is-no-longer-a-body-and-why-it-can-be-cut-to-pieces/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:31 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-cultural-bodys-death-by-a-thousand-cuts-why-society-is-no-longer-a-body-and-why-it-can-be-cut-to-pieces/ Continued]]> This essay explores the British, Russian and Greek pavilions at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and a marginal event that took place at the foundation Prada di Ca’ Corner della Regina during a visit to the exhibition opening of the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. The author examines the relationships between art, money and power as indicators of the tensions of post-democracy, post-citizenship and the increasingly fraught representations of the cultural and social body. The Inhalt (latent content), in an Adornian aesthetic interpretation, is a tool by which to understand the contemporary dismantling of society and the concurrence of art in the sanctioned representations of the body politic. The ‘cut’ becomes the definition and defining element of a contemporary Heideggerian Seinsfrage (the Being), creating the premise for an aesthetic and social discourse that is based on mutilation of the cultural and social body and a re-feudalization of democratic societies.

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