https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:39 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 https://toarcheio.org/items/the-biopolitical-border-in-practice-surveillance-and-death-at-the-greece-turkey-borderzones/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:39 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/the-biopolitical-border-in-practice-surveillance-and-death-at-the-greece-turkey-borderzones/ Continued]]> This paper examines biopolitical control practices at the Greece–Turkey borders and addresses current debates in the study of borders and biopolitics. The Greek and Frontex authorities have established diverse surveillance mechanisms to control the borderzone space and to monitor, intercept, apprehend, and push back migrants or to block their passage. The location of contemporary borders has been much debated in the literature. This paper provides a nuanced understanding of borders by demonstrating that while borders are diffusing beyond and inside state territories, their practices and effects are concentrated at the edges of state territories—ie, borderzones. Borderzones are biopolitical spaces in which surveillance is most intense and migrants suffer the direct threat of injury and death. Applying biopolitics in the context of borderzones also prompts us to revisit the concept. While Foucault posits that biopolitics is the product of the historical transition away from sovereign powers controlling territory and imposing practices of death towards governmental powers managing population mainly through pastoral, productive, and deterritorialized techniques, the case of the Greece–Turkey borderzones demonstrates that biopolitics operates through sovereign territorial controls and surveillance, practices of death and exclusion, and suspension of rights. This study also highlights the fact that, despite the biopolitical realities, migrants continue to cross the borders.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/debt-society-psychosocial-aspects-of-the-greek-crisis/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:16 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/debt-society-psychosocial-aspects-of-the-greek-crisis/ no abstract

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/left-wing-populism-in-the-european-periphery-the-case-of-syriza/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:14 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/left-wing-populism-in-the-european-periphery-the-case-of-syriza/ Continued]]> Due to its electoral performance in the 2012 general elections, SYRIZA, a previously unknown Greek political formation of the radical left, gained unprecedented visibility within the European public sphere. How is this strong showing and the political message articulated by SYRIZA to be interpreted? Utilizing a discursive methodology, this paper puts to the test the two assumptions predominating in most available analyses, namely that SYRIZA articulates a populist rhetoric, that it constitutes a predominantly populist force; and, given the near-exclusive association of populism with extreme right-wing movements, that SYRIZA constitutes a populist danger for Europe. Our analysis concludes that SYRIZA’s discourse is indeed a distinct articulation of left-wing populism. However, this by no means vindicates the second part of the prevailing wisdom: SYRIZA’s portrayal as a dangerous force threatening fundamental European values. If, however, this is the case, then mainstream research orientations in the study of European populism may have to be reviewed.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-return-of-the-people-populism-and-anti%e2%80%90populism-in-the-shadow-of-the-european-crisis/ Mon, 04 May 2020 23:24:13 +0000 https://toarcheio.org/items/the-return-of-the-people-populism-and-anti%e2%80%90populism-in-the-shadow-of-the-european-crisis/ no abstract

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-impact-of-the-fiscal-crisis-on-greek-and-portuguese-welfare-states-retrenchment-before-the-catch-up/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:31 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-impact-of-the-fiscal-crisis-on-greek-and-portuguese-welfare-states-retrenchment-before-the-catch-up/ Continued]]> This article examines the impact of the ongoing (2008–13) economic crisis on Greek and Portuguese welfare state reforms in a comparative perspective with a particular focus on the public sector, labour markets and social protection. It is argued that the recent crisis caused ‘shock and awe’ in Greece and Portugal resulting in an unprecedented wave of cuts, tax rises and labour market reforms. In particular, public sector remuneration and jobs were cut, pensions were significantly curtailed and pension rights significantly restricted, successive tax hikes were implemented and welfare benefits became less generous and more conditional. It is argued that these reforms constitute a critical juncture and a considerable effort towards welfare retrenchment, which is which is implemented before converging with the more advanced welfare states of the EU15. Both countries appeared to be significantly more vulnerable to the crisis than the richer countries of Northern Europe (e.g. Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands) and their larger Southern counterparts (Italy and Spain). Yet, the latter had to implement similar measures, albeit in a less abrupt and extensive fashion. In other words, it may be that size is less important than economic and political power for coping with the effects of the current crisis.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/political-socially-engaged-interfering-art-in-greece-during-the-years-of-the-economic-crisis-tendencies-in-cinema-theater-and-public-art/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:31 +0000 http://arc.local/items/political-socially-engaged-interfering-art-in-greece-during-the-years-of-the-economic-crisis-tendencies-in-cinema-theater-and-public-art/ https://toarcheio.org/items/voting-with-their-feet-highly-skilled-emigrants-from-southern-europe/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:30 +0000 http://arc.local/items/voting-with-their-feet-highly-skilled-emigrants-from-southern-europe/ Continued]]> In this article, the authors present new empirical data on highly skilled emigrants from two southern European countries, Italy and Greece, which have been particularly hit by the global financial and Eurozone crisis. The data have been generated by an e-survey conducted in late spring and summer 2013. Through analyzing the responses of Greek and Italian citizens who have chosen to emigrate, the authors present new insights on their educational backgrounds, the conditions that have motivated their decision to emigrate, and the way in which they have defined their migration project. It is argued that the decision to migrate is driven by a sense of severe relative deprivation as a result of the crisis and a deep frustration with the conditions in the home country. The crisis seems to have magnified the “push” factors that already existed in Italy and Greece and that now nurture this migration wave. At the same time, however, this migration is also framed within a more general perspective of a vision of life in which mobility and new experiences are valued positively and also seen as part of one’s professional identity.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-impact-of-the-economic-crisis-on-the-ideological-space-in-portugal-and-greece-a-comparison-of-elites-and-voters/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:30 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-impact-of-the-economic-crisis-on-the-ideological-space-in-portugal-and-greece-a-comparison-of-elites-and-voters/ Continued]]> This work addresses the dimensions and content of ideological space in Portugal and Greece after the onset of the sovereign debt crisis and the imposition of austerity policies in the two countries. By examining both elite interviews and public opinion data, the article principally attempts to determine whether the economic crisis has created a new division in ideological space by cross-cutting or completely replacing older ones. In addition, we attempt to gauge the position of crisis-related issues relative to issue divides on European integration and globalisation which, up to now, have been dormant in Southern European countries.

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/the-sovereign-debt-crisis-why-greece-but-not-japan/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:30 +0000 http://arc.local/items/the-sovereign-debt-crisis-why-greece-but-not-japan/ Continued]]> This paper asks why Japan has not yet suffered from a sovereign debt crisis, although its gross public debt as a percentage of GDP is much higher than in Greece. We use a simple stylized model to explain the occurrence of both a fundamental and a speculative debt crisis. We apply this model to both countries and derive some hypotheses about why investors are still ready to hold Japanese Government Bonds. In particular, we point to the significance of domestic debt holdings, to the central bank’s government debt purchases, to investors’ access to “safe havens,” and to the role of an autonomous monetary policy. We also analyze potential challenges to Japan’s long-term fiscal situation, resulting from its aging population. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

]]> https://toarcheio.org/items/is-the-crisis-in-athens-also-gendered-facets-of-access-and-invisibility-in-everyday-public-spaces/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:30 +0000 http://arc.local/items/is-the-crisis-in-athens-also-gendered-facets-of-access-and-invisibility-in-everyday-public-spaces/ Continued]]> As the Greek crisis deepens and ‘recovery’ is constantly postponed to an unknown future, a dominant discourse seems to consolidate which focuses almost exclusively on macro-economic arguments and concerns. Other aspects of the crisis, among which are its gendered facets and unequal effects on women and men, rarely permeate the allegedly ‘central’ understandings. With the possible exception of unemployment which fares high among left-wing analysts, gender is thought to pertain to a ‘special’, that is, less important, matter which may detract from the ‘main problem’. The paper draws together a series of stories of ordinary women who have experienced deep changes in their everyday lives as a result of austerity policies (unemployment, precarity, salary and pension cuts, shrinking social rights, mounting everyday violence). It argues that emphasis on this scale ‘closest in’, linked in multiple ways to many other scales (local, national, European, international), reveals areas of knowledge that would otherwise remain in the dark; and that connecting concrete bodies with global processes enriches our understandings with more complex and more flexible variables and informs the ‘big pictures’ (in this case about the Greek crisis)—and not only the reverse.

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