Social movements' political space and austerity policies by asimina silv

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies THE CITY OF ATHENS AND THE ROLE OF URBAN SPACE IN SOCIAL STRUGGLES

Asimina Paraskevopoulou The Bartlett Development Planning Unit University College London

Ampelokipoi area, city centre, Athens Source: Grigoriou D., 2012

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies THE CITY OF ATHENS AND THE ROLE OF URBAN SPACE IN SOCIAL STRUGGLES

Prepared by Asimina Paraskevopoulou

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit University College London

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

Ampelokipoi area, city centre, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2012

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my thanks to Caroline Newton, my dissertation supervisor, for her theoretical guidance and support throughout the process of writing this dissertation. Her comments and suggestions proved to be deeply inspiring and insightful for the completion of this work.

Additionally, I would like to thank my family and friends, the ones back in Greece and the ones I was lucky to meet while studying and living in London, for supporting and encouraging me during the whole year of my studies.

Urban landscape, Lykavittos hill, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Theorizing on cities, politics and space 2.1. Social movements and cities: a relational approach towards contention, control and power 2.2. Contemporary anarchism: pre-figurative politics as an approach to social change 2.3. Social movements and solidarity: space, networks and trust Social struggles in Greece 3.1. Public space in Athens and its symbolic connotations 3.2. Introducing the ourburst of social mobilizations and the relation with the economic crisis Recurrent spatialities 4.1. December 2008 upheaval: pre-figurative politics towards direct democracy claims 4.2. Syntagma Square Occupation, 2011: towards emanicipatory politics 4.3. Occupied Navarinou park project, 2009: democracy in the spaces in-between Conclusion References

3. 4.

5. 6.

9 13 13 16 20 24 24 26 32 33 36 39 44 48

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

Exarcheia neighbourhood, city centre, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A.,

2013

1. INTRODUCTION “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves in changing the city. It is moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is ... one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.” (Harvey, 2008, p.23)

Transformations in the urban space in order to remake our cities are facilitated through

struggles by individuals practicing collective actions. Claims in urban space are addressed having entrenched within them the notion of the political. This dissertation aims to investigate the relation between urban space and practices of political actions within it. Public, open space within the build environment can act as a mediator, a vessel of accommodating and expressing political relations and conflicts. Cities are seen as land where policies and measures directly linked to neoliberal ideologies are being implemented. Therefore, the rapid transformations of urban space in cities have been affected by neo-liberal ideologies, challenging the political sphere and citizenship. In the current context of economic crisis in Southern European countries, social movements have emerged and act against neo-liberal urban development through re-appropriation of space (Dalakoglou and Vradis, 2014; Harvey, 2014; Leontidou, 2012, 2014; Petropoulou, 2010, 2014).

Forms of resistance therefore emerge in order to challenge the existing modes of urban growth and as a result create the roots for new alternative practices of urban developments. A form of different ‘citizen’ emerges, one that is interested in decision making processes of urban transformations and grasps his/her ‘right to the city’ through political actions expressed in public places (Miraftab, 2009; Holston, 1995). 9

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

Cities can be seen as spaces where political actions and insurgent practices of citizenship are facilitated, and therefore offer a fertile ground for analysis of urban social movements and their relation to the urban environment. Therefore, when taking into consideration the diverse political, economic and social factors that exist within different urban contexts it seems that in places of immense economic uncertainty the existing power relations and structures are questioned. Hence, the space is created for political actions to be expressed and facilitated in open public areas. Is then public space seen as a vessel of social space that can facilitate and accommodate social change through the expression of political relations?

In order to investigate this relationship the case of Greece and specifically of Athens is chosen, since transformations in the political and social sphere have been taking place, especially during the years of financial uncertainty. In the city of Athens an outburst of reactions against the austerity measures, which have been implement due to the economic crisis, occurred the years of 2009 to 2012. The context of the current economic crisis has allowed the emergence of urban social movements, which through occupation of public space, manifest their political activities. Those social movements being forms of survival strategies, solidarity practices and social networks are of utmost importance in the understanding and interpretation of public space through occupation. The city of Athens became a field where politicizing urban grassroots connected and social mobilization emerged addressing claims not only on the right to the city, but on the right for free space and of free expression of grievances. Still, in Athens occupations and strikes occur in public squares, happening as a means of political pressure. However, the range, scale and motivation of these actions have declined the last couple of years. Specifically, it is argued that a shift has been observed from reacting in public open space to places of a more private and cultural, artistic character.

The question, therefore, rises why this shift in the space of expression of political struggles has occurred in Athens? Have specific governmental and political decisions influenced the reactive decisions of the social movements operating in the city? 10

Through the case of Athens, the dissertation aims to show how an emerging social movement space was facilitated, by a long tradition of socio – political tensions developing in the Greek context, and at the same time by demonstrating transformations happening in the states’ governance strategies aims to analyze, and if possible to explain why a shift of action space of social movements form the public realm has occurred.

First, it is argued that a relational approach towards interrogating and understanding the relation between cities, urban space, and urban grassroots is appropriate, underpinning the evolution of urban social movements. Next, by looking into principles of contemporary anarchism, especially in Greece where a tradition of rebellion and radical movements exists, it is asserted that tactics of pre-figurative politics can promote alternative socio – political imaginaries towards achieving social change. The importance of forming face –to – face relations, ties and networks within individual insurgents, activists, collectives and movements is underpinned. By exploring the political transformations happening in Greece, three cases of insurgency which are characterized as crucial in the history of urban grassroots in Greece are chosen to illustrate how collective action asserts struggles in the urban space: the December 2008 youth uprising, the Syntagma Square occupation in 2011 and the Occupied Navarinou park project. In each case, the strategies that were used by the insurgents are explored as well as the states’ confrontation towards them. By examining how the Greek state in order to maintain social order through actions of control and practices of severe police repression and surveillance, it is argued that an ‘ecology of fear’ and police violence has resulted in a shift of the action space of social movements.

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

Exarcheia neighbourhood, stencil, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2011

COUNTERINFORMATION contrainformation

2. THEORIZING ON CITIES, POLITICS and SPACE In the current context of globalization and implementation of policies and measures directly linked to neo-liberal ideologies the activity of urban social movements has been enhanced with practices that could generate and hopefully achieve transformations towards change and a more socially just urban environment. Field for the expressions of those activities has been the urban space of cities where an emergence of urban social movements has occurred, especially in cities of Southern European countries undergoing augmented economic instability and uncertainty. Therefore, investigating the relation between social movements and cities is of utmost importance in understanding and interrogating the vast field of citizens’ insurgency operating within spaces characterized by contention and power.

2. 1. Social movements and cities:

a relational approach towards contention, control and power

Literature deriving from disciplines of geography, social anthropology and political theory has provided relevant frameworks for analyzing social movements and the urban space. Conventional urban social movements’ literature has been based on the dominant right-tothe-city discourse offering a specific, and sometimes limited, understanding of the urban mobilizations within cities. Hence, the need prevails for developing theoretical and analytical tools that are relevant to the interpretation of the complex relation of the social movements and their affinity to the cities. As Emirbayer (1997) and Nicholls (2008, 2009) argue a relational approach, which emphasizes on analyzing mobilizations due to the interest arising because of the movements’ operations within the cities and not because of the cities, can provide a different perspective on analyzing socio-spatial dynamics such as contention and power which influence movements’ activities.

From Lefebvre’s (1996 [1968]) right to the city definition as “right to change ourselves by changing the city” academic scholars have developed the concept of achieving urban and

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

social transformation through the practice of this individual right “upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization.” (Harvey, 2008). The importance of collective action and claims pertaining to the urban is incorporated and highlighted into the right-to-the-city framework.

Mobilizations’ struggles rising within cities when examined through the lenses of the rightto-the-city literature are perceived as a reaction to ‘neoliberal urbanization’ and efforts to produce more just, democratic and livable cities (Harvey, 2008; Marcuse, 2009; Mitchell, 2003; Nicholls and Beaumont, 2004). This approach confines social movements’ struggles to the urban, connecting and framing activists’ grievances, ranging from urban aims, political struggles to civil rights or environment claims, mainly with the concept of urban space (Nicholls, Uitermark and Loopmans, 2012). As Beauregard (2011, cited by Miller and Nicholls, 2013, p.453) articulates “asserting control over the urban was conceived primarily as the objective of these struggles – creating a paradoxical symbiosis between approaches that ‘could recognize but not theorize it’, and an enduring preoccupation with ‘interrogating the urban as the central task of urban theory itself.’”.

As an analytical concept, therefore, the right-to-the-city discourse deters academic attention away from issues of scale, networks and power that are inherit in some of the mobilizations’ operations. Attention is drawn on the space, failing to articulate the diversity of the claims and demands that exceed the spatial struggle. In activists’ circles, although space is the place where those voices and demands are presented, their principles and values differ and do not only revolve around concepts of the urban. If issues of activists’ grievances are addressed through this framework the danger lies on portraying political and not only struggles in specific geographies relating to specific localized issues. As Harvey (2008) has demonstrated, through the concept of militant particularism (William, 1989), the localization of claims prevails as a rooted weakness of social movements, resulting in politically marginalized groups operating within isolated spatialites. 14

Consequently, the approach of urban social movements and cities through a relational perspective provides the framework and tools to explore the growing dynamics which emerge within them. The city is not only seen as a “space where demands are made but as the relational conduits where movements connect and develop.” (Nicholls, Uitermark and Loopmans, 2012, p.2549).

Due to key urban attributes of the cities, those being density, size and diversity as illustrated by Wirth (1938), cities act as vessels that accommodate actions, political struggles and positions’ expressions deriving from diverse actors, those originating from different political and social spheres such as local state, social movements, or individual activists. Recognition and interpretation of those antagonistic relationships that emerge, as well as the examination of the transformations of their dynamics, lie at the core of analyzing cities as places which incubate urban, political and social struggles, connection and coordination of the prevailing actors.

Connections and interactions between actors, due to the fact that people live in intense proximity, enhance the emergence of antagonistic relations, portraying cities as sites that breed contention (Nicholls, 2009). Cities are spaces where agglomeration of opportunities occurs, attracting the concentration of power by diverse people and variety of ideas. Thus, concentration demands on finding ways of regulating and controlling social life for social order to be achieved, encouraging the involvement of states and governments. Cities then can also be characterized as spaces where “new technologies and ideologies of control are developed. ... Just as cities are spaces that support innovations in politics, they also become sites for the innovation of techniques to monitor subjects and maintain social order” (Nicholls, Uitermark and Loopmans, 2012, p.2550).

Socio-spatial tensions of contention and control manifest in urban areas due to dynamics of capitalism and the state. As already described in the right-to-the-city framework urban 15

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

mobilizations have risen as reaction to neoliberal urbanization, resulting from political decision processes directly linked to ideologies of capitalism and governmental methods of maintaining social order through monitor and control. However, it has been argued that the relational approach to cities and movements is more appropriate for exploring the dynamics of contention and control, since it provides the tools to analyze cities as accommodators of struggles and explore the role of the local state in affecting the evolution of social movements.

2. 2. Contemporary anarchism:

pre-figurative politics as an approach to social change

Urban social movements operating within cities, in various scales and places, claim for transformations that will lead to achieving more just, livable societies. Globalization processes and neoliberal ideologies have made attempts of maintaining participatory practices and involvement, in the structures of the democratic state, even more arduous. As Graeber (2007, p.367) asserts the democratic state has always been contradictory to its roots and thus globalization and the neoliberal solution of restricting the state to its paternal role has underpinned this contradiction. The relation between state and society, crucial for the transformation and development of social movements, has been challenged and therefore changed. It is of great significance, then, to examine how this relation has diversified and if dynamics of contention and control identified in societies and governmental methods have influenced this change.

Historically, in theories of the state, states have been addressed as the ‘imaginary totally’, as they “were ideas, ways of imagining social order as something one could get a grip on, as models of control” (Graeber, 2004, p.65), assuming that states, social order and societies correlate. In cities, characterized as sites which generate control, local states produce new methods as to maintain social and political order, through practices of repression, clientelism and surveillance. Cities, therefore, being incubators of methods of control, correspond to the reality of states and social order viewed from the conventional theories of the state. 16

Relevant to existing debates pertaining to actions and mobilizations of social movements, becomes the question how change should then be addressed. Is urban transformation going to be achieved through struggles operating against the existing institutions and regulations contesting for the formation of a new society? It might be that the answer to this lies in investigating the field of anarchism, as a discourse of revolutionary practice which in the contemporary context of globalization and neoliberalization has largely inspired and been addressed by diverse movements and struggles.

According to Albert (2001, as cited by Williams, 2007, p.311) contemporary anarchism “is this widely awakening impetus to fight on the side of the oppressed in every domain of life, from family, to culture, to state, to economy, to the now very visible arena of ‘globalization’, and to do so in creative and courageous ways conceived to win improvements in people’s lives now while leading toward new institutions in the future.”.

An approach towards understanding anarchism as a revolutionary practice and project is underpinned. Rejecting already existing types of society’s organizational structures and social relations will allow for new ones to be built and formed, offering the ground for this livable and just society to be created.

Embracing the idea of building “the new world within the shell of the old”, a political slogan deriving from the Industrial Workers of the World (Engler and Engler, 2014; Graeber, 2004), social movements and mobilizations integrate in their operations organizational principles of autonomy, voluntary association, self organization, mutual aid and direct democracy (Graeber, 2007). This largely correlates urban mobilizations to contemporary anarchists or anarchist-inspired movements, operating within organizational structures of consensus or modified-consensus practiced in groups according to their scale.

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

“In the absence of faith in government, faith in people – that is faith in the likeminded souls found in neighbourhoods, face-to-face communities, and interpersonal relations – seems like a natural alternative. It is no wonder, then, that today’s anarchists often characterize their efforts in terms of affinity groups and a movement of movements.” (Williams, 2007, p.310)

In order for activists to contest relations of power and control, enhanced by governmental methods of the local state, the feeling arises of having to counteract in solidarity. Therefore, building those face-to-face relations and bonds is fundamental for practicing revolutionary counterpower, the dominant form of social power in egalitarian societies. Counterpower, thus, acts as a guard over the “emergence of systemic forms of political and economic dominance” (Graeber, 2004, p.35) within the society itself. Taking into consideration the economic uncertainty and the neoliberal policies implemented in countries and societies that are currently undergoing through processes of financial uncertainty and instability, it comes as no surprise that mobilizations counteract to existing and rising models of economic and social control through actions of civil disobedience; the snowballing mobilizations happening in Italy, Spain, Potugal, France, Tunisia and Greece with the movement of the piazzas illustrate those actions.

Hence, activists engage into practices of politics by creating groups of dedicated mobilization willing to make sacrifices towards the claim of social justice by acts of civil disobedience in hope of achieving new institutions within the society. Strategic and pre-figurative politics have been in the core of designing social movements’ practices in order to influence public opinion. The former, pursuing transformations through the establishment of organizations so as to leverage conventional policies, the latter corresponding to contemporary anarchists’ ideologies since it involves counterpower actions and participatory democracy activities (Engler and Engler, 2014, p.4). 18

In pre-figurative politics created spaces of mobilizations are the ones addressing social change. Communities which develop in alternative ways provide the space for radicals, who play a pivotal role in activists’ networks, to support a substitute way of living outside norms of the already existing society’s structures (Engler and Engler, 2014, p.5). As Williams (2007, p.310) demonstrates anarchism ideology becomes “resurgent because in a world of globalization and neoliberalization there is no place left for radicals to go.”. Social transformation can be attained through the creation of invented spaces of citizenship (Miraftab, 2006) for expression of political, urban and social struggles.

“Insurgent movements do not constrain themselves to the spaces for citizen participation sanctioned by the authorities (invited spaces): they invent new spaces or re-appropriate old ones where they can invoke their citizenship rights to further their counter-hegemonic interests.” (Miraftab, 2009, p.35)

Pre-figurative politics encourage the creation of these invented spaces, such us liberated public spaces, centers, hubs, squats and occupations, where the social needs of the participants are being considered, enhancing the role of insurgent citizens (Holston, 1995) in political and power struggles. Interpersonal bonds, networks, relations and consensus processes in decision-making activities intensify activists’ counter-hegemonic efforts against neoliberal governance. These are developed by the movements’ operation and organization, and enhanced forms of radical solidarities are achieved. The feeling of inclusion through the formation of networks of mutual support, also found in the traditional anarchist principles, becomes prominent in the ever-changing relations and dynamics of mobilizations within the cities.

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

2. 3. Social movements and solidarity: space, networks and trust

Since the geographies where social movements organize, develop and mobilize are identified within cities’ spaces, the argument that the city is conceived as a ‘relational incubator’ forming the urban milieu (Miller and Nicholls, 2013) is of great relevance in order to examine the relationships which emerge within individual activists and social groups. Solidarity, cohesion and trust which are created by the intertwined relations of activists within groups strengthen collective power and their imaginary towards achieving expanded rights and more a just city.

“The urban arena becomes an important space for politically activating marginalized groups, but it is also a favourable environment for creating complex alliances among diverse organizations, groups and actors that reside within these cities.” (Miller and Nicholls, 2013,p. 459)

Taking into consideration that the city provides heterogeneous and diverse environments for people to interpreter grievances into collective forms of political actions, the urban arena becomes a scene where hegemonic powers are contested and counter-hegemonic actions are expressed in claims for justice, through solidarity and actions of civil disobedience, such as protests, strikes, riots, revolts and occupation of spaces. Insurgents by creating spaces of political expression, through occupation movements, manage to construct new spaces where the dominant symbolic order and social power is questioned, hence making the vision of alternative worlds attainable.

In this section the aim is to demonstrate the importance of forming trust, bonds and networks for social movements’ operations in order for the diverse grievances and struggles of civil society to be conveyed to the state. These forms of networks underline the cohesion and stability of the social movements, which are significant for the outcomes, impacts and 20

range of their mobilizations.

As already demonstrated on a previous section when investigating cities and social movements through a relational approach, concepts of place, scale and space (Nicholls, 2007) are articulated in a way that is explanatory of how interactions within diverse actors derive to compose collective political action. Both concepts of place and space are linked with the social relations and networks that underpin structures within social movements.

Both territorial and relational conceptions of space provide a framework for the examination of social relations and networks which structure social movements. The territorial approach highlights the structured cohesion of relations in a site due to the geographic proximity and common sociological attributes that correlate to the actors in place. This kind of solidarity, which derives due to place-based relations and trust, enforces collective power and action. However, at the same time it can lead to local struggles for localized claims, enhance particularism, and threaten the development and existence of the movement. A binary relation between space and place is obvious enforcing dynamics of particularism.

On the other hand, the relational approach taking into consideration globalization dynamics draws the point of attention to the contingent interactions of actors recognizing their geographic and sociological diversity. Although, solidarity can be produced due to geographical proximity, it can also be produced due to the interactions that emerge between diverse geographies, since globalization has assisted flow of people, resources and ideas across space. Mobility, movement and communication, of people and ideas enrich the geographical field of interacting social relations, a phenomenon known as time-space compression (Massey, 1994). Contingent interactions between individual activists and diverse actors help deconstruct or reinforce power relations existing in different geographies. Thus, social movements relate to a broader context of movements and power struggles, expanding their range of influence form their locality to a wider space, that of global space. 21

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

Space can, therefore, be described as a sum of concrete activities, relations, connections and practices (Massey, 1994, 2004; Nicholls, 2009) which is consisted by a collection of places. Places relate to specific geographies with different dynamics and properties, since as Richard Sennet has argued (1971) places are locations constituted by a variety of points, where diverse interactions between groups are facilitated. The properties of places are those which define and underline the types of networks that will emerge corresponding to which form of ties (Tilly, 2004; della Porta, 2005) can be facilitated. The strategic value of place is underpinned: according to the properties and conditions provided social capital can be facilitated, strong network ties can be enforced and communications enhanced. Interestingly, Nicholls (2009) illustrates how stringing places together a social movement space is created, where places can be understood not by their geographic boundaries, but through the networks formed due to social relations and ties.

However, for a social movement space to be created the affiliations between activists are of great significance. Social movementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s horizontal structure assists the creation of ties within activists, because of trust, norms, symbols or identities that they collectively share (Nicholls, 2008). Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multiple identities construct boundless places of diverse properties (Stavrides, 2010); having therefore multiple identities on places of richness and contention. The space is claimed where activists are able to contribute their knowledge, information, ideas and resources towards collective actions and struggles. Since, most activists act and participate in a variety of social struggles, they also have multiple organizational affiliations (Routledge, 2003; Tarrow and McAdam, 2005). Connections between diversified movements can be facilitated, through vertical organizations and horizontal networks. Flow of information about resources, opportunities, strategies and tactics is fostered, allowing for local actors the expansion of their political playing field as well as the construction of common discourses (Miller and Nicholls, 2013). Consequently, networking and brokerage (as defined by Tarrow and McAdam, 2005) are significant in establishing new ties, connections and relations of trust towards contesting new obstacles and asserting new social claims. 22

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;birds sing to us heavenly, and life was beautiful, was beautifulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Exarcheia neighbourhood, poster on upheavals, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2010

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

3. SOCIAL STRUGGLES IN GREECE

Urban grassroots development and state governance, the case of Athens

Protests across Southern Europe against the austerity measures implemented in countries of economic instability demonstrated not only commonalities in their claims, but also in their space of reference and focus point in expressing those struggles in urban squares, piazzas. Hence, when exploring the case of upheavals and social outbursts in the contemporary Greek society, especially in the city of Athens, towards understanding the dynamics between social movements and the urban space, I find highly relevant to highlight the importance of public space in the Greek urban environment, through its historical and symbolic interpretations.

3. 1. Public space in Athens and its symbolic connotations “The square was created so as to function and produce; was created so as to become a place and not a space. It is the open stage, the void, the viewpoint, the opening, the respite.” (Kapetanios, 2010)

The diversity of uses, activities, and social importance of the square within the urban environment is underlined in the description provided. The concept of public space, and most profoundly the urban square, refers to a vibrant place, which is immensely experienced by human and is characterized by condensation and variety of activities (Grigoriou and Paraskevopoulou, 2012). Urban movements, claims on public spaces, cultural interests and citizens’ initiatives are dynamics, which influence the production of urban space and lead to new creations and forms of public and social space; a space which is experienced profoundly and is appropriated by people.

Therefore, it is relevant to argue that public space accommodates social needs, since except from private space it is the main place where people meet and socialize; cultural needs, since 24

it is a field of production of innovative ideas, intellectual and cultural conceptions; and po-

litical needs, since it is and has been the field of expression, formation and practice of claims and political struggles. The political aspect entrenched in the notion of public space has been highly corresponded to the symbolic identities of Greece’s urban space.

The concept of the political is more competently embedded in the political expression and actions of citizens in the classical antiquity, which was based on the cohabitation and convention in common spaces pertaining to the exchange of diverse views in common matters. In antiquity the restrict demarcation of public and private life was a fundamental principle in Greek city-states. Thus, public spaces, Agora (αγορά), were formed to accommodate public and not private needs; they were created for the commune, demos (δήμος) and not for the house, oikos (οίκος). The Athenian Agora is a vital space for religious and commercial activities. At the same time, it is a space of free expression, discussion, and conflict, as well as a composition, synthesis (σύνθεση) aiming to decision-making processes through democratic procedures. Agora, or in contemporary terms the piazza, being a public space of political participation and fostered citizenship can be characterized as a recurrent spatiality in social struggles (Leontidou, 2012; Harvey, 2014), a politically charged public space of discussion and debate (Leontidou, 2009, 2012).

Hannah Arendt in her book Human Condition (1958) while examining public space from a political and philosophical perspective asserts that public space is par excellence political space and is intertwined with the concept of freedom and civil liberty. Under this political character of public space and the concept of public liberty, did the insurgents of the uprising of December 2008 and Syntagma Square 2011 occupation in Athens coordinated to act against the Greek state’s neoliberal policy agenda implemented in the years of severe economic crisis. As it will be argued later, by exploring those two cases of political insurgents’ mobilizations in Athens, the historical and symbolic reference of Athenian public space was crucial in the coordination and organization of the Athenian crowd, Demos and Multitude (Douzinas, 2011), in demanding political and social claims on democracy in the movement 25

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

of the piazzas.

3. 2. Introducing the ourburst of social mobilizations and the relation with the economic crisis

Considerable attention has been drawn in the Athenian urban milieu since the Greek state entered a period of economic crisis, resulting in an attempt of requiring financial support from international and European allies, the so-called troika of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union (EU), and the European Central Bank (ECB). Recognizing the underlined relations between the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interventions in order to surpass the economic crisis, by realizing policies of extreme financial austerity measures, and the emergence of social unrest, through occupation movements and actions of civil disobedience, has been the subject of interest for many scholars, academics and activists (Arampatzi and Nicholls, 2012; Bratsis,2010, 2012; Dalakoglou, 2011, 2014; Douzinas, 2011, 2013; Dragonas, 2011; Graeber, 2014; Harvey, 2014; Kaika, 2012; Leontidou, 2012, 2014; Merrifield, 2014; Petropoulou, 2010, 2014; Stavrides, 2014; Vradis, 2011, 2014). In this context, therefore, the relational approach of analyzing new social movements in Athens and exploring their evolution in accordance with the local stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interference can provide useful and fruitful insights in the complexity of the situation, which although its strong urban reference accented grievances which exceeded from the spatial struggle into the political sphere.

By investigating the changes which occurred during the last two decades in the urban governance of the Greek state, an understanding of how urban grassroots developed and mobilized in political struggles in relation to the implementation of neoliberal policies can be demonstrated. It is argued that the space of expression of political grievances and claims has shifted from the public realm to more private places due to specific governmental policies inculcated by a state constructing its operations in maintaining order and organizing consent according to its economic role. However, asserting that a shift to the space of expression has occurred is challenging to illustrate, since the boundary between the private and the 26

public, in a globalizing world within which cities are experiencing transformations resulting

from regeneration projects, becomes vaguer and is under constant re-negotiation and reconceptualization processes (Bauman, 2000 as cited by Smith, 2003).

Although, international attention in the Greek case of social movements emerging has been intensified since the troikaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence in the country, politicizing grassroots practices have been taking place in Athens for a longer period of time. Socio-political tensions have been already in existence in the Greek context breeding social movements within the weak Greek civil society (Leontidou, 2010; Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, 2013). The Olympic Games in Athens 2004 signified a series of urban redevelopment and renewal projects designed and implemented in accordance to the needs of international investors and temporary visitors, ignoring local concerns, thus prompting insurgents in frequent demonstrations and protests against neoliberal globalization (Afouxenidis, 2006; Arampatzi and Nicholls, 2011).

During that period Greece seemed to be in processes of development; a development, however, which was highly achieved due to modifications in planning legislations for the completion of 2004 Olympics (Vaiou, Mantouvalou and Mavridou, 2001), followed by cases of large-scale privatization of public land, institutions and services; a governmental strategy well established and still in operation today (Ellinikon project, Chalkidiki gold â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;miningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; investments, etc) (Dalakoglou and Kallianos, 2014; Petropoulou, 2010,2014). Claims pertaining to issues on the environment and privatization or re-appropriation of the urban space were expressed by urban mobilizations in the 2000s, centred around concerns on quality of life, public spaces, natural environment and commoning spatial interventions. Although, struggles by left-wing organizations and environmental groups were made, those mobilizations were characterized by a failure to form solidarities and collectively achieve consensus about tactics and strategies for further action (Portaliou, 2008). This failure for achieving scalar-compression in collective action can be explained since contesting claims became absorbed through a system of patronage and clientelistic relations, in which Greek 27

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

society’s grassroots were operating. As it has been already illustrated, state control to maintain social and political order is exercised through practices of repression, clientelism and surveillance. Especially, in the Greek context, where the political system is based on clientelism, repression of political grievances and urban grassroots was achieved through client-patron relations fostered between popular classes and centralized institutions of state power. According to Bratsis (2010, 2012) due to top-down governance and as the capitalistic system failed to generate jobs in Greece, the state gained a compelling role in accumulation and redistribution of wealth, legitimazing its power, and therefore creating strong personalistic ties between civil society and centralized state.

However, in the case of Athens the adoption of a number of neoliberal urban policies, during the period of counterfeit prosperity with the Olympic Games 2004 and afterwards when politico-economic crisis entailed the application of an extreme form of neoliberal governance, resulted in the weakening of local state’s power. Personalistic relations in the socio-political sphere were threatened, marginalizing a system of patronage and political governance practised through clientelism (Petropoulou 2010, Arampatzi and Nicholls, 2012). The state lost its power to assert control on politicizing grassroots creating a political vacuum (Bratsis 2010), which allowed the opening of political space for contentious relations and political claims to be expressed within an environment of socio-political and economic transformations.

Since the country entered a period of economic uncertainty, austerity policies of neoliberal governance applied in Greece generated rapid social and economic changes, already evident in the physical and social urban fabric of Athens (Kaika, 2012; Leontidou, 2012, 2014). Extended spending cuts and structural changes in the economy and society resulted in the deterioration of the living quality of the citizens, as well as decrease in provisions of health, 28

education and public services. Unemployment or underemployment of the previous, ‘for-

tunate’ middle class, combined with the high rise in cost of reproduction coincided with closure of small businesses, appearance of extreme poverty, and an increase of inequality strikingly evident in the urban space and everyday life in the city. As the debt crisis has been deepening, the austerity policies have managed by marginalization of the impoverished to spawn a polarized society undergoing a deepening crisis of social and cultural identity.

In this context of extensive urban and social transformations combined with activists’ international networking through involvement in social networks and digital activism, Greek solidarities, spontaneous grassroots practices and activists groups were strengthened and therefore new social movements were incubated (Arampatzi and Nicholls, 2012; Leontidou, 2012). Actually, the fact that society’s grassroots became detached from institutions of state power allowed for a social movement space to be created. Especially, after December 2008 events, a moment characterized defining and crucial by many academics for urban mobilizations in Greece, “a multiform movement started to emerge with major mobilizations (Douzinas, 2013) that far surpassed bureaucratic trade unions or party organizations” (Petropoulou, 2014, p.116), overcoming the aforementioned limitations of movements during the early 2000s.

Social unrest arose in the city of Athens and through civil disobedience actions, such as upheavals, riots and protests, materialized in the urban space. Nonetheless, since the Greek state lost control to maintain social order through a system of clientelistic governance in the socio-political sphere, techniques to suppress grievances through monitoring and actions of police repression were developed. It has been argued that cities are urban geographies where states and governments produce innovative techniques to monitor common citizens and regulate social life. In the city of Athens, following the displacement of clientelism to the economic sphere, control on social life had to be achieved through innovative ‘creative’ methods. 29

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

In accordance with Bratsis’ (2012) observation that the relation between state and civil society in Greece is organized correspondingly to the state’s economic operations, authoritarian statism (Poulantzas, 1978) allowed for contradictions and contention to emerge, and thus power to be asserted through surveillance, police control and violence. Interestingly, Mike Davis (1990) has articulated how surveillance techniques correlate with issues of public safety: since security issues have been for the last decades at the point of attention, installation of cameras (CCTV) in public communal spaces is perceived as a justifiable practice, negating nevertheless civil liberty, transforming the city into ‘city-fortress’ and establishing a new ‘ecology of fear’. Especially, during the 2000s police presence and monitor surveillance of the everyday life in Athens’ city centre increased, legalized also due to the Olympic Games, and consequently constantly violating the citizens’ right to the city (Petropoulou, 2008).

To sum up, through a relational approach the development of social movements in Greece has been demonstrated in accordance with the state’s urban governance policies, illustrating the diverse political actions which guided and shifted the space where claims and political grievances are addressed. I therefore argue that a current shift in the action space of social movements from public space to places of safer environment, such as digital spaces of virtual interaction, educational institutes by networking with academic circles and environments of cultural innovations, can be witnessed due to the shift which occurred in maintaining order through practices of suppression and surveillance facilitated by authoritarian statism governance, which legitimize the feeling of fear and control in the public realm.

Syntagma Square, city centre, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2013

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

4. RECURRENT SPATIALITIES Expressing political claims

“What can happen and will happen is determined to some extend by the past. A deep embodiment and a very slow change of mentalities and cultural patterns define the frame of future possibilities. It is therefore important to look back into the past if one wants to anticipate the potentiality and the probability of future developments.” (Dieter Rucht, 2002, as cited by Zeri, 2009, p.69)

Urban mobilizations and social movements’ actions do not only arise as a response to political decisions made by the state, but their practices can also be triggered due to the occurrence of spontaneous events, which however can have a strong social and political symbolic connotation entrenched. In the case of Athens, in order to realize a current shift that has been observed in the space where grievances are expressed, researching into past, nonetheless, crucial moments in urban mobilizations is of great significance. Conducive to social movements’ practices, are the responses that the government takes upon confronting them. Activities of civil disobedience, rallies, riots, protests, can be either viewed as tools of mobilization on social struggles, or as actions of disruption within the realm of social life.

As the city is a field which breeds content and conflicts, it is interesting to indicate in the city of Athens how the government aims to assert control by managing disorder instead of sustaining social and political order, a tactic which according to Giorgio Agamben (as cited by Gavriilidis, 2014) is well established in contemporary governance. This relation will be demonstrated by presenting two cases of civil society’s insurgency and the state’s response: the events of December 2008 youth uprising and the Syntagma Square occupation in 2011, both considered to be crucial moments for contemporary social movements in Athens.

4. 1. December 2008 upheaval:

pre-figurative politics towards direct democracy claims

The events of December 2008 triggered a series of civil disobedience actions, which as it has been already claimed, created a fertile field in Athens for urban grassroots practices to emerge and social movements to connect, in order to express political grievances, especially during the implementation of snowballing austerity measures in a period of economic crisis. The assassination of a 15-year-old boy by a police officer, in the city centre area of Exarcheia neighbourhood, resulted in a revolt, which charged the social and political imaginary of people not only in Greece, but also around the world due to the flow of information through the digital media.

“December 2008 uprising was a moment of violent awakening. The Greek society hypnotized by the prosperity of the last decade was disturbed by the startling outbreak of economic crisis and social outbursts that were provoked by Alexandros Grigoropoulos assassination.” (Dragonas, 2011)

The events of December’s revolt are perceived as a moment in which an entire new generation of youths was activated and mobilized in the streets in order to claim citizens’ rights, such as the right of free expression in urban space. Even though the occurrence of the events was prompted regardless of political struggles, it soon became evident that a political interpretation of the events was relevant. The uprising sparked on the streets of Athens, and quickly due to the flow of counter - information on digital space spread out to other Greek cities (Economides and Monastiriotis, 2009;Dalakoglou and Vradis, 2011), highlighting the symbolic importance of the streets in forming collectives and facilitating mutual contest.

December “may have started as a territorial reference, but it quickly moved beyond geographical boundaries” (Dalakoglou and Vradis, 2011, p.14), and forms of local resistance soon acquired a broader character in political action. Nonetheless, considering the geo33

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graphical characteristics of the city is essential in realizing the spatial references of the uprising, and their symbolic connotations. The events started in the centre city neighbourhood of Exarcheia and ended in Syntagma Square, generating though during the days of the upheaval disruptions and outbursts in the whole metropolitan area of Athens.

Exarcheia is an area in the core of the city centre, being mainly a student neighbourhood and a hub of social centres and squatter settlements, since the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and social, cultural places are located there. It is a space characterized as the core of Athens’ intellectual and political activity with a long history in incubating urban mobilizations and radical actions and therefore a recurrent spatiality in the urban fabric accommodating socio – political diversities. In the same respect, Syntagma Square as one of the main public squares is a place which has witnessed distinct rallies and protests, and in most recent years collective occupations, as its historic and symbolic meaning is correlated with Greek political struggles. The square is a focal point for insurgents, because of the presence of the Parliament buildings, as well as other judicial and administrative authorities in the surrounding area. The fact that a public building, a landmark of the city, foci of public and administrative activities (Sitte, 1992, p.92) is adjacent to the square has established Syntagma as a place of concentrated rallies, and has consequently shaped Greek politics.

The socio – political imaginary of Greek citizens, therefore, is related to a long tradition of social outbursts and forms of collective resistance against governmental policies, most of those taking place in the centre of Athens, in Syntagma Square and in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia, a traditional hub of radical movements, uprisings and rebels. As explained, Greece has a history in incubating various grassroots movements and a strong social antagonistic, anarchist camp. Pre-figurative politics in addressing counter-power by leakage of information facilitated the strong character of the movement, since practices were linked to world’s experiences of the anti-globalization movements (Bratsis, 2010; Dalakoglou and Vradis, 2011). The realization that transformation in an apparently fixed political field can 34

be achieved became instilled in the social imaginary of political insurgents, thus opening the route towards the formation of new ties and links between diverse activists. Organization strategies, composition of resources and forming networks between immigrants, students, anarchists and autonomous movements were some of the novelties which this revolt underpinned.

During the events, diverse actors and political insurgents connected and mobilized on the same place, emphasizing the relation between urban mobilizations and the space of expression. Through claims on everyday life a wide range of people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds became a multitude of individuals linked together by commonality of their struggles, addressing issues of power and state governance by contestation and resistance. The city functions as a vessel, a field of resistance, a site where struggles on the urban conceived as the right to free space and free expression can be fought (Makrygianni and Tsavdaroglou, 2011; Petropoulou, 2010). December uprising reshaped the political field and generated new ways in which the rebellion tradition could be linked to urban movements in Greece, structuring new socio – spatial dynamics within the city by the emergence of new collective forms of planning practices.

This mobilization as a form of revolt was again highly suppressed by the state, using practices of fear and police repression and violence to silence it. Although, the insurgents’ strategies of resistance were effective in displaying the incapacity of the state to manage grassroots creativity and spontaneity, eventually the uprising was abolished and portrayed as a terrorist action within the core of a democratic state. As Harvey (2014, p. 197) argues “political power typically waits on such irruptions in order to immediately crush them, to depict them as terrorism and to justify the further strengthening of state repressive laws and powers.”. Consequently, when two years later the Greek state acknowledged that the country was facing the financial crisis because of massive accumulation of debt, it came as no surprise the enforcement of extreme neoliberal governance and austerity measures, as well as the strate35

Social movementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political space and austerity policies

gies of violence and fear used aiming in the suppression of socio â&#x20AC;&#x201C; political mobilizations.

4. 2. Syntagma Square Occupation, 2011: towards emanicipatory politics

As the debt crisis has been deepening, struggles in the Greek context claiming for direct democracy were intensified from politicizing grassroots through outbursts of spontaneous resistance. Although those struggles were expressed in recurrent material landscapes in the city of Athens, they also became attached to broader international processes of struggles, within the European urban milieu protesting against accumulation of dispossession (Harvey, 2003) and fighting in a wider frame of political mobilizations through transnational networks which facilitate the flow of resources, ideas and people in space. The investigation of December uprising, by emphasizing on the variety of the actors and political activists involved, allowed to illustrate the connection between already existing and new emerging urban movements in Athens. Transformative thinking, which was gradually nurtured in the imaginary of Greek society, created the environment for grassroots spontaneity to materialize against neoliberalism. Undeniably, December events opened the way to new forms of collective practices and occupations, which were strengthened by several minor mobilizations of strikes and civil disobedience actions, operating against governmental severe austerity policies.

In 2011, the mobilizations and occupation of Syntagma Square in Athens, a focal point in Greek politics, became part of a transnational movement, the movement of the piazzas or also known as movement of the indignant citizens, which spread across Southern European countries, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Through digital communication and networking a social movement space was generated. Interaction in associate networks shaped by various insurgents and activists allows the examination of the similarity of struggles and therefore assists the organization of common tactics and strategies of resistance (Miller and Nicholls, 36

2013). Solidarity practices among countries, workshops and flow of counter-information

promoted a common European struggle against austerity and democratic deficit in the European Union (Leontidou, 2014).

However, especially the case of Athens is of remarkable significance, not only because of its long duration, but also due to its massive resonance in the Greek society. Heterogeneous crowds, insurgents from various social and cultural backgrounds, from all ages and diverse political identities, gathered and reclaimed the city streets and the square under a common claim on direct democracy. Such a massive anti – austerity protest, which also spread nationwide to other cities in Greece, was a revelation for urban mobilizations. It was a mutual struggle of all Greeks to regain their right not only in the city, but in their field of expression and in having a claim in decision-making political processes that directly affect their everyday life. It also redefined the spaces of actions of political struggles, by the formation of collectives in the material as well as the digital world (Arampatzi and Nicholls, 2012; Leontidou, 2012), highlighting a shift in the space of expression of grievances and the organization tactics of urban movements. Moreover, Syntagma Square occupation has been characterized as a crucial moment in the country’s circle of struggles against the troika’s patronage and has been connected with new contemporary practices of urban commoning in Athens, realized by common citizens, insurgents.

The demands on direct democracy of insurgents in the Syntagma Square movement, requesting the displacement of the current parliamentary democracy, indicate how the political imaginary of the citizens has shifted from the Greek cynicism of pessimistic belief that transformations in the political realm are not feasible. Through activities of pre-figurative politics, by squatting and self-organization within the squares, to reclaiming of the streets, common citizens suggest how ‘another world is possible’ and indeed much needed. Individuals, who were neither political activists, nor actors on previous mobilizations, acted upon the practice of counter – power as agents of political action opposing against the emergence of a systemic form of economic neoliberal dominance. A space of expression and a place of 37

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

networking, politicizing, cultivating social relations, even relaxing was created by the practice of pre – figurative politics, underpinning the importance of alternative forms of organization based on autonomy principles. Although, the claims of the indignant citizens were not met, accurately demands on democracy were dismissed in decision processes happening over night in the parliament, the occupation of Syntagma Square made it possible for activists to question the existing symbolic and social power, debating towards an imaginary of emancipating autonomy (Stavrides, 2014).

The indignant citizens’ movement lasted for over 60 days of squatting in Syntagma Square composing an urban environment identified by its hybrid and multi – activity character. Synergy, solidarity, detachment from party politics and trade labour unions was expressed in series of debates, workshops and artistic and cultural performances (Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, 2013). This occupation being a part of a global heavily politicized action of reclaiming the streets “is a perfect contemporary example of an urban social movement that consciously attempts to defamiliarize and call into question the conventional distinctions between art and politics in everyday life.” (Smith, 2003 p. 164). Thus, during the occupation stronger ties, bonds and networks of trust were created, sustaining a cooperative between spontaneous mobilizations and an emerging cultural scene, profoundly active in contemporary struggles in Athens. These bonds that were developed encourage the construction of new multiform collectives, which as it has been argued become politically and socially active in spaces, either digital or material, described as safer environments, mainly connected to the academic and cultural scene.

It has also been claimed that this shift has occurred since practices of suppression facilitated by the state act upon the establishment of ‘ecology of fear’ in the city, due to constant activities of police surveillance, repression and violence. When considering the events which led to the dismantling of the squats, it becomes obvious that the state’s interference strategy 38

adopted was one of severe police repression (Bratsis, 2010; Leontidou, 2012, 2014; Soti-

rakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, 2013). The movement was finally dissolved after consistent releases of the riot police against the insurgents, destroying the material equipment of the demonstrators and persistently exiling them from the square, using legal and illegal equipment, such as batons, tear gas and other chemicals. Police presence in the city centre, mainly in the precarious and traditionally rebellious neighbourhoods, was already reinforced to sustain public safety in the urban space as a reaction to the December 2008 upheavals. Grassroots spontaneity, therefore, was acutely oppressed by a state which even today reproduces terror and unleashes flow of violence to its own citizens who defy neoliberal policies.

4. 3. Occupied Navarinou park project, 2009: democracy in the spaces in-between

It might be that both December 2008 uprisings and the Syntagma Square occupation were dismantled by strategies of re-establishment of fear in the urban spaces where grassroots movements operated, nonetheless, their legacies and contribution to the production of collective experiences in reclaiming the city are indisputable. Synergy, solidarity and hope have managed to endure their presence in decentralized piazzas and other spaces of occupation constructed by activities of urban communing in Athens. Insurgency re-appeared in Athens by the creation of livable spaces in the urban fabric of the city through the exercise of the inhabitantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; right to appropriation, the right â&#x20AC;&#x153;to physically access, occupy, and use urban space.â&#x20AC;? (Purcell, 2012, as cited by Dalakoglou and Vradis, 2011, p. 86).

Several neighbourhood initiatives and squatter collectives after the occurrence of those two crucial events practiced their common right to re-appropriate spaces and buildings, and therefore demonstrated the potentialities of spatializing resistance and power. The places which were selected to be reclaimed were characterized by a respective justification pertaining to present circumstances and local conditions, as well as their importance in practicing political activities due to their spatial symbolism. Specifically, actions of popular spontaneity and creativity unfolded through contentious relations within the city and exceeded the 39

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

material sense of urban space towards the creation of social space.

In the city centre, around the Exarcheia neighbourhood, local associations, resident committees and neighbourhood groups engaged in political, occupying practices and protest actions, such as the establishment of Skaramaga squat, the Occupied Navarinou park project and the Empros occupied theatre. The former, which generated a fertile space for workshops, events and political groups to connect and at the same time supplemented individual housing needs, was forcefully dissolved by the eviction of the building in January 2013 conducive to issues of public safety and hygiene, manifesting again the state’s interference strategy of police harassment and fear. The later, being an abandoned historic building and important theatre, was reclaimed and re-activated by collectives of artist groups with the support of local associations and residents committees in November 2011, indicating the strong network ties emerging between political activists and the city’s cultural scene (see Figure map on p. 46).

However, one of the most important spatial legacies which also influenced the collective imaginary of individuals towards alternate environments of social organization is the case of the Occupied Navarinou park. This initiative started in 2009 within Exarcheia district, and became an experiment of collective commoning and self – organization practices. A physical space previously functioning as a parking lot was occupied and reclaimed with the support of local residents, activists and associated professionals. The place was transformed into a green park, a livable place significant for peoples’ livelihoods in the neighbourhood, since in the city of Athens parks and open green areas have been modified into unused car parks lot and buildings (Petropoulou, 2010). At the same time, this park has become a vital, focal point of commoning practices and collaboration fostering face-to-face relationships within diverse actors, and as a result affecting political developments in the city (Dalakoglou and Vradis, 2011). 40

Moreover, this specific case of commoning practice is of interest since it enhanced the connections and networking between the core activists in Exarcheia and individuals of associate professions, such as urban planners, architects and academics. The legitimacy of the struggle upon the occupation of the park, which was attempted to be dissolved by violent unleashes of the police against the activists and occupants of the park, was strengthened due to the intertwined relations which emerged between professionals and local activists (Arampatzi and Nicholls, 2011). The connections that have been gradually built, through long time processes, have also contributed in the expansion of the political field of expression of the core activists in Athens. The last couple of years two workshops, conferences have been organized and taken place in the premises of NTUA: the “Crisis regimes and emerging social movements: cities of Southern Europe” in February 2013 and the “Crisis-scapes: Athens and Beyond” conference in May 2014. In these conferences, local activists had the chance to connect and exchange ideas, concerns on organization of strategies and tactics pertaining to common struggles against neoliberal policies with professionals, academics, students and other social and political activists, not only from the city of Athens but from around the world. The lectures, debates and workshops that took place extended the space of the struggles from the physical, material space of occupation to a space of knowledge exchange, even to the space of digital interaction, nonetheless within the physical boundaries of an academic environment.

It is therefore evident how institutions of commoning, such as the Occupied Navarinou park, facilitate an alternative imaginary towards an autonomy which exceeds the spatial distinctness and surpasses physical boundaries in localized struggles (Stavrides, 2014), which eventually lead to collective political action. It also illustrates how strong bonds and connections lead to the formulation of networks within intertwined professionals, local associations and activists allowing the expansion of the political field of expression in places of safe environment and consequently making the shift of addressing claims from the public realm to also academic circles apparent. Democracy, therefore, through practices of emancipat41

ing autonomy is returning to spaces in which it originated: the spaces in-between (Graeber, 2007, p. 367), in a period of crisis, an in-between moment implying a transition towards change.

Gerani neighbourhood, city centre, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2013

Exarcheia neighbourhood, poster on riots, Athens Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2012

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;burning your guard, lights up your dreamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

5. CONCLUSION The aim of this dissertation was to research the relationship between cities, the urban space and the practices of social movements activating and addressing political struggles within it. Specifically, it tried to identify if a shift of social movements’ actions in the city of Athens, Greece, aiming to contest the state’s neoliberal governance policies, has occurred from being expressed into the public realm. Through, exploring the relation of the economic crisis in Greece which affected and transformed the urban governance of the country, with the evolution of urban grassroots, it has been illustrated that actions of civil disobedience, facilitated by movements’ pre-figurative strategies and spontaneity, managed to express contest against the dominant neoliberal policies and austerity measures implemented. Within a political void which occurred due to the state’s incapacity to sustain control over social life through a traditional clientelistic system of patronage, political, indignant insurgents formed solidarities, synergies and networks of trust and therefore reacted against severe economic measures and neoliberal policies. Practices of strikes, riots, occupy movements and collective commoning activated and changed the social and political imaginary of civil society. The recurrent spatialities where those struggles are expressed have underlined how social movements’ mobilizations are closely correlated to the symbolic connotations and political memories of the geographies, within the city’s centre urban fabric. Therefore, it becomes evident that the urban public space of Athens has been an accommodator of social movements’ grievances.

However, by exploring three case of insurgents’ practices happening the last years in Athens, it has also been demonstrated how the state’s intervention has affected and transformed the tactics and strategies used by the new social movements in Athens. Forming strong bonds through constant networking of local activists and associations in digital spaces, and places of more cultural and artistic character, with academic cycles and an emerging cultural scene, the field to address struggles has expanded. This shift, nonetheless, has happened due to 44

specific policies and tactics of constant surveillance and police repression performed by

the Greek state. The state has been promoting an image of a city which is dominated by anomy and therefore is producing violence that has to be controlled and treated in respective ways. Police presence in neighbourhoods with a tradition in incubating grassroots and radical movements has been intensified, after the massive mobilizations which occurred in the urban space of Athens. “In many urban neighbourhoods, police continue to be seen as occupying forces, and they often act as such, trashing social centres and cafes in leftist neighbourhoods in the same way as gangs...” (Graeber, 2011, p. 230); police forces generate and establish fear in the public space. It has been shown how police suppression of urban social movements is more severe, since police action is more brutal than it had been in the past decades. The city of Athens portraits an image of a militarized city, especially in areas such as Exarcheia, in the core of the city’s urban fabric (Crisis-scape, Athens: Future suspended, 2014). This transformation of the city has been facilitated by state’s strategies, which try to apply a state order and maintain control over a society which is heavily repressed by an augmented financial crisis. It is a transformation towards a kind of totalitarian state which by presenting its democratic character focuses however on controlling behaviour and practices that are considered anti – social (Stavrides in Athens: Future suspended, 2014).

Due to this transformation and since urban social movements have been persistently restrained by top – down government policies and urban tactics, it comes as no surprise that new social movements in Athens have been expanding their field of expression and practices in educational environments, where their claims and struggles obtain legitimacy and also activists have the chance to form new networks, allies and gain knowledge and resources on specific urban issues. Therefore for grievances to be addresses a need rises for collective action within different actors form various activists and professional spheres, so actions of disobedience can achieve scalar – compression. Connections between local associations, in45

Social movements’ political space and austerity policies

surgents, professionals and individuals committed to public and political actions are defined as crucial for the future of social movements in Greece.

As Merrifield (2014, p. 163) elaborately defends

“probing researchers - inside and outside university – can ally themselves with militant activists, transforming themselves into probing militants and activist researchers, vocalizing joint dissent in brainy and brawny ways.”.

Skaramaga squat Occupied Navarinou Park

Villa Amalias squat Empros occupied theatre

Syntagma Square, city centre, Athens Police presence on strike day Source: Paraskevopoulou, A., 2013 47

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