Crisis, Right to the City movements and the question of spontaneity: Athens and Mexico City

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:29 +0000

Mexico and Greece comprise typical cases of the so-called semi-periphery where neoliberal policies have been applied but also where social movements tried to resist the implementation of the policies in question. In the past, many Right to the City movements start to emerge, focused particularly on the right to the habitat. Recently, the most important RttC movements concerned the claims to public space and common goods, while at the same time opposing privatisations and big projects. Some authors called these movements spontaneous. Yet the relationship of politico-economic changes with the spontaneous is considerably complicated and related to what, by whom and why would be included in the discursive category of the ‘spontaneity’. This approach I will explore below. Nothing is entirely spontaneous in the world’s so-called spontaneous neighbourhoods and in the so-called spontaneous uprisings. The people participating in acts characterised as ‘spontaneous’ without rules enforced by any superior authorities, simply refuse to define their bodies as machines. The question is if the so-called spontaneous resistances became, or may become, under certain conditions, dangerous cracks. The right to the city is not the right to the impersonal urban space but the right to the polis. In these new movements, the right to the polis is exercised in the everyday life by many different actors and through different ways of action. The motto is: Changing values within spaces of encounters and experimentation. Let us all be rebel poets in the present.

Alternative networks of collectivities’ and ‘solidarity-cooperative economy’ in Greek cities: exploring their theoretical origins

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:21 +0000

This paper aims to explore the theoretical roots of some contemporary networks of creative
social resistance that contribute to local development through solidarity-cooperative economy.
In the beginning, the concepts underlying the research and the historical origins of solidaritycooperative economy are presented, and a brief historical overview is made. Then, the
research methodology is presented, and self-representations of collectives are explored
through discourse, that is, how these collectives are represented through the analysis of texts
and participant observation with informal interviews. It is found that daily practice is strongly
grounded in their respective and most pressing needs of people at times of crisis. The need
that generates these movements (as expressed through their own texts) is both material
(production and reproduction of life) and poetic (creation of new everyday life relations).
However, most interviews reveal that the interviewees seem to deny or, at least, seem not to
want to link their activity in the present time with any dream about future change of the social
system and any earlier corresponding historical effort (except for certain collectives inspired
by Latin American movements). In fact, the new feature of these movements can be
condensed in the statement: “we all together want to begin to plan the dream today”.
Eventually (in order to be effective in modern political-economic relations) modern ventures
of solidarity economy should be firstly and foremost social and solidary, and combine the
dream with daily practice.

Petropoulou, C. – To Archeio

Crisis, Right to the City movements and the question of spontaneity: Athens and Mexico City

Alternative networks of collectivities’ and ‘solidarity-cooperative economy’ in Greek cities: exploring their theoretical origins