https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Thu, 30 Apr 2020 16:46:01 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/economic-nationalism-and-the-cultural-politics-of-consumption-under-austerity-the-rise-of-ethnocentric-consumption-in-greece-2/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:50 +0000 http://arc.local/items/economic-nationalism-and-the-cultural-politics-of-consumption-under-austerity-the-rise-of-ethnocentric-consumption-in-greece-2/ Continued]]> By nuancing the politics of consumption in the context of austerity, this article highlights the rise of economic nationalism and the reconfiguration of consumer cultures at the aftermath of the global financial crisis. As it argues, in the context of Greece, three types of consumer culture have manifested; these are evoking consumption as resilience, resistance or reinforcement. This work focuses on the latter through the phenomenon of ethnocentric consumption, which is part and parcel of economic nationalism. Economic nationalism can be explored through promotion of ethnocentric consumption and is demonstrable both in the inception and constitution of nation states, but also in times of crisis. This article critically appraises ethnocentric consumption as consumption based on ethnocentric criteria (natural resources, ownership, production, manufacturing, distribution and labour force). In the context of the crisis in Greece, economic nationalism has become manifest as a solution to the national economy. The specific case chosen is a citizens’ movement and its campaign for the promotion of ethnocentric consumption. A close examination of the campaign (We Consume What We Produce) reveals the historical alignment of the state’s and citizens’ economic interests, the reverberation of state narrative from the 1980s and exclusionary nationalism which is also used by fascists. Campaigns for ethnocentric consumption limit the creativity of consumer politics. First, this phenomena appears to be an alternative vehicle for political parties. Second, it is tied around a normative narrative of economic recovery, which is particularly mythological. Third, its overall target is to maximise competitiveness on a global scale, and finally, it demonstrates a densely dangerous relationship with economic nationalism. Yet, it is important to situate this phenomenon within the context of consumer cultures under austerity, especially as more creative modalities of social economy initiatives by grassroots groups have been re-socialising the market.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/revisiting-the-nationalism-populism-nexus-lessons-from-the-greek-case/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:49 +0000 http://arc.local/items/revisiting-the-nationalism-populism-nexus-lessons-from-the-greek-case/ Continued]]> This article explores the relationship between people and nation by focusing on the Greek case, which has attracted considerable political and media attention throughout the last few years. The article traces the ways in which populism and nationalism have been related within Greek political culture diachronically, inclusive of the current crisis conjuncture. We follow this trajectory from the 1940s and the Greek Civil War up until today in order to capture the unexpectedly dynamic and ambivalent relationship between the two and account for its multiple mutations. The conclusions drawn from this country-specific exploration are expected to have wider implications for populism research internationally.

]]> 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.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/economic-nationalism-and-the-cultural-politics-of-consumption-under-austerity-the-rise-of-ethnocentric-consumption-in-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:34 +0000 http://arc.local/items/economic-nationalism-and-the-cultural-politics-of-consumption-under-austerity-the-rise-of-ethnocentric-consumption-in-greece/ Continued]]> By nuancing the politics of consumption in the context of austerity, this article highlights the rise of economic nationalism and the reconfiguration of consumer cultures at the aftermath of the global financial crisis. As it argues, in the context of Greece, three types of consumer culture have manifested; these are evoking consumption as resilience, resistance or reinforcement. This work focuses on the latter through the phenomenon of ethnocentric consumption, which is part and parcel of economic nationalism. Economic nationalism can be explored through promotion of ethnocentric consumption and is demonstrable both in the inception and constitution of nation states, but also in times of crisis. This article critically appraises ethnocentric consumption as consumption based on ethnocentric criteria (natural resources, ownership, production, manufacturing, distribution and labour force). In the context of the crisis in Greece, economic nationalism has become manifest as a solution to the national economy. The specific case chosen is a citizens’ movement and its campaign for the promotion of ethnocentric consumption. A close examination of the campaign (We Consume What We Produce) reveals the historical alignment of the state’s and citizens’ economic interests, the reverberation of state narrative from the 1980s and exclusionary nationalism which is also used by fascists. Campaigns for ethnocentric consumption limit the creativity of consumer politics. First, this phenomena appears to be an alternative vehicle for political parties. Second, it is tied around a normative narrative of economic recovery, which is particularly mythological. Third, its overall target is to maximise competitiveness on a global scale, and finally, it demonstrates a densely dangerous relationship with economic nationalism. Yet, it is important to situate this phenomenon within the context of consumer cultures under austerity, especially as more creative modalities of social economy initiatives by grassroots groups have been re-socialising the market.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/queer-responses-to-austerity-insights-from-the-greece-of-crisis/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:32 +0000 http://arc.local/items/queer-responses-to-austerity-insights-from-the-greece-of-crisis/ Continued]]> During the last years, Greece has implemented an unprecedented number of austerity measures affecting every domain of social, economic and political aspect of the population’s life. Together with several social movements acting during this time against austerity, queer groups found a fertile ground to explore their discourses and practices by adopting an enlarged agenda of claims, attacking simultaneously gender hierarchizations and the rise of neo-Nazism, both accentuated after austerity measures. This article focuses on ‘sexual politics of austerity’ seen from the side of queer anti-authoritarian groups in the country’s biggest cities. Based upon an empirical exploration of queer groups’ discursive production, this article shows how these groups attempt to create their own, autonomous space as a response to the politics of austerity and how this queer discourse adapts to new reconfigurations of the austerity-driven Nation based upon a Marxian reading of ‘totality thinking’.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/muslim-immigrants-and-the-greek-nation-theemergence-of-nationalist-intolerance/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:22 +0000 http://arc.local/items/muslim-immigrants-and-the-greek-nation-theemergence-of-nationalist-intolerance/ Continued]]> Faced with claims for recognising religious diversity, liberal European democracies have shifted in the last 10 years towards a more restrictive view of integration. This paper seeks to make a contribution to this line of research on how European countries deal with migration-related ethnic and religious diversity today by investigating the case of a southern country, notably Greece. Greece is an interesting case to study: it has by now 20 years of experience as a host country, but still its migrant integration policies are under-developed. In addition Greece it is currently experiencing an acute economic crisis while irregular migration towards the country is on the rise. These developments have contributed to bringing migration on to centre stage in political discourse with a concomitant rise of racist and xenophobic discourses against migrants. This paper takes, as a case study, the public Muslim prayer that took place in several squares of Athens on 18 November 2010 as a peaceful protest against the fact that Athens still does not have a formal mosque. We use this event as an opportunity for interviewing social and political actors directly or indirectly involved in it on their views regarding migration, religious diversity and their accommodation in the Greek public space. We analyse their discourse on whether and under what conditions religious diversity, Islam in particular, should be tolerated or accepted in Greek society. We propose here the notion of ‘nationalist intolerance’ to make sense of Greek discourses and propose a dynamic understanding of tolerance and intolerance as concepts that do not emanate from abstract norms but are rather negotiated in specific contexts.

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