Mediating the nation: news, audiences and identities in contemporary Greece

This thesis investigates the relationship between media and identities in contemporary Greece. Acknowledging the diversity of Greek society, the study follows the circulation of discourses about the nation and belonging and contrasts the articulation of identities at a local level with the discourses about the nation in the national media. Through a series of case studies I examine how people of Greek, Cypriot and Turkish origins living in Athens articulate their identities through everyday practices and media use. At the same time I investigate the television news discourse which is nationalized, largely projecting an essentialist representation of identity that does not reflect the complexity of the society it claims to describe. The study follows the shifts in peoples' discourses according to context and observes that it is in their encounters with the news media, compared to other contexts, that some of the informants express a more closed discourse about difference and belonging. This points to the power of the media, through a number of practices, to raise the boundaries for inclusion and exclusion in public life. Hence, while for the majority of the Greek speakers the news is a common point of reference, for the Turkish speakers it is often a reminder of their `second class citizenship' and exclusion from public life. Public discourse, much dominated by the media in the case of Greece, is a complex web of power relations, subject to constant negotiation. This is an interdisciplinary study that draws upon a number of theories and approaches by means' of a theoretical and methodological triangulation. The thesis aims to contribute primarily to two literatures, namely media and audience studies —particularly the developments towards a theory of mediation — and the literature that addresses the relationship between media and identity. In the light of the analysis of the empirical findings the study argues that neither of the hitherto dominant paradigms in theorising the relationship between media and identity (namely, strong media/weak identities and weak media/powerful identities) is adequate to describe what emerges as a multifaceted process. What is proposed is an approach that takes into account both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective. Media and identities should be understood in a dialectical fashion where neither is foregrounded from the start. The concepts of culture and the nation are understood through a historical perspective that recognises their constructedness and diversity. Identity is conceptualised as relational and performative rather than fixed and stable

Migration in the Southern Balkans: From Ottoman Territory to Globalized Nation States

Migration; History, general; Cities, Countries, Regions; Demograph

Second chance schooling in Greece: a policy study, with particular attention to the situation of teachers of English

The purpose of this study is to investigate the process and practice of Second Chance Schooling in Greece during the first decade of the schools' existence. The study focuses on the reasons why the schools were established and traces the trajectory of the development of the policy. It considers the experience of the teachers in the Second Chance Schools, as seen from the perspective of teachers of English. In particular, it considers the professional support and development of these teachers who were charged with breaking new ground in the Greek adult education system. The fieldwork consisted of semi-structured interviews with individuals at different levels in the Greek adult education system: with the politicians who developed the ideas and oversaw the implementation of the policy; with the staff who were Involved with the central administration of the policy; with the scholars and academic staff who made up the advisory team; with the training organizers, the discipline advisors, the regional advisors, and with the head teachers and the teachers of English in one of the regions of Greece (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace). A wider group of regional Second Chance School teachers were also surveyed. All available documentation relating to the national development of Second Chance Schools was scrutinised. The analysis of these data revealed a complex picture that developed and changed as the decade progressed. There is evidence that the Second Chance Schools policy was well received and attracted new students into adult education. As such, it had a positive impact on social and cultural problems such as illiteracy, unemployment, and lack of social cohesion. However problems arose from the manner in which EU policy on lifelong learning was adopted without adaptation to the specificities of the Greek context. The political drive to access EU funding and accept EU definitions of the social and educational needs of the country resulted in insufficient analysis of the impact of the history and cultural context of Greek adult education, regional political upheavals, immigration and the rapidly deteriorating economic situation. At the national level, therefore, I argue that the policy was insufficiently nuanced to be effective in serving the needs of Greek adult education. Furthermore, a unified generic policy for Second Chance Schooling across the whole of Greece was adopted. This in turn failed to recognise the regional variations within Greece, which, I argue, were of considerable significance to the implementation and ultimate success of the initiative. A further problem related to the Greek political process which produced frequent changes in leadership and a system that was highly dependent upon the individual in charge. Lack of infrastructural support for the policy and party political turbulence led to erratic development and changes of direction and emphasis which left teachers confused and ultimately, in many cases, demoralised. At the school level, the policy challenged teachers of English to adopt new teaching methodologies, to take seriously the problems of adult drop-out students and debate how best to help them acquire their self-respect, stay in education and become European citizens. However, despite the fact that the need for teachers to be involved in intensive professional development was acknowledged at all levels of the system, provision of continuing professional development [CPO] was Inadequate. Gaps between the rhetoric and reality of CPO provision were ignored; there was little evidence of rigorous evaluation and provision of relevant expert guidance which might have strengthened the system and maximised the investment that was being made In the schools. The realities of teachers' contractual and professional working conditions were not taken into consideration. The effect of this was that, although the majority of Second Chance School teachers had positive attitudes towards the Second Chance Schools policy at the beginning of the period, their enthusiasm waned over the course of the decade as the inadequacies in the support and training they received came to be understood as more than just initial start-up difficulties. Consequently the gap between an ambitious and initially well-funded national adult education policy and the realities of day to day practice in Second Chance Schools deepened. This study seeks, through careful analysis at the national, regional and individual level, to contribute to an understanding of how this important initiative might have worked better in Greece. In doing so, it offers a case study of the implementation of a European educational initiative in an EU member state and seeks to identify factors that will be significant to the development of policy in other contexts

‘Greeks without Greece’: local homelands, national belonging, and transnational histories amongst the expatriated Greeks of Turkey

In this thesis, I focus on the experiences of the Greeks of Istanbul and Imbros/Gökçeada, who were exempted from the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Particularly in the years c.1950-1980, members of these communities were faced with persecution in Turkey, and overwhelmingly left their places of birth to resettle in Greece, their purported ‘national homeland’. Drawing on oral history testimonies, written documentation, and participant observation, I explore how the expatriated Greeks of Turkey appealed to and reworked the past as they attempted to establish belonging in their new place of residence, make sense of their recent historical experiences, and communicate these understandings to others. Part I sets out the conceptual, methodological, and historical background of the thesis. In part II, I consider the representation of self and others by the Greeks of Turkey, arguing that they sought to assert both belonging and distinctiveness within the Greek national community by emphasising the specificities of their own local heritages. Part III investigates the ways in which activists and writers from the expatriated community, in their efforts to raise awareness of their experiences of persecution, adopted and adapted archetypes both from Greek nationalist history and the mnemonic repertoires of other communities, and I discuss these discourses in relation to the recent ‘transcultural turn’ in memory studies. In part IV, I turn my attention to the seasonal, semi-permanent, and permanent return of the Greeks to Imbros after 1988, documenting how these more recent developments have impacted upon the community’s relationship to the Greek state, and the transmission of memory and identity to the younger Greek-born generation. I conclude by suggesting that anthropologists and historians can make significant contributions to current scholarly debates concerning national identity and social memory by examining the internal heterogeneity and malleability of ethnicity and nationhood, and how the transcultural circulation of memories makes its presence felt on particular local communities in particular historical contexts

When a dam bursts : an anarchist approach to social movements

This thesis addresses the inability of existing approaches in the field to reach an adequate understanding of social movements. It shows existing approaches to be reliant on a civic conception of social movements (articulated as a relationship between individual and state), overly-reliant on a priori theorising and frequently foreclosing the content of social movement activity. It argues that at the heart of the problem is the presentation of the political internal to these perspectives â as a representational practice. Moreover, it is a principal contention of this thesis that social movement behaviour proves difficult to account for is because it challenges and undermines this presentation. Anarchist literature provides both the means to understand â in the form of the objections to idealisation, abstraction and determinism in political thought â as well as the foundations to address â in the objectives of a de-alientated intellectual enquiry and a unique view of the political â this issue. It also provides the outline for the development of a unique methodology to the study of social movements. It was the aim not only to establish new and better methods for documenting and analysing social movements but also seek to apply this to a particular case study, the December unrest in Greece of 2008, in an attempt to provide a richer, more holistic account of these events.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The role of religion in national-EU relations: the cases of Greece and Turkey

This thesis examines the role of religion in national-EU relations. The focus is on how EU membership (or potential membership) may affect nations of a particular religious background in a particular way and, furthermore, whether religious difference affects national-EU relations in a particular way. The study is based on an internal perspective to two countries-Greece and Turkey-whose religious traditions stand outside a 'core' of religious traditions within the European Union (that is, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism). On the basis of these two cases I argue that neither religion per se (as theology or doctrine), nor the prevalence of a particular faith are definitive factors in national-EU relations. Rather, it is mainly in the domain of institutional interests of the `church' vis-ä-vis the 'state', that we find religion influencing national-EU relations. These institutional interests are, in turn, shaped by the relationship between religion and national identity in each case, and the relationship between 'church' and 'state'. The differences in these relationships in the cases of Greece and Turkey yield vast differences in the way 'religion' affects national-EU relations. This thesis examines the role of religion in national-EU relations. The focus is on how EU membership (or potential membership) may affect nations of a particular religious background in a particular way and, furthermore, whether religious difference affects national-EU relations in a particular way. The study is based on an internal perspective to two countries-Greece and Turkey-whose religious traditions stand outside a 'core' of religious traditions within the European Union (that is, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism). On the basis of these two cases I argue that neither religion per se (as theology or doctrine), nor the prevalence of a particular faith are definitive factors in national-EU relations. Rather, it is mainly in the domain of institutional interests of the 'church' vis-ä-vis the 'state', that we find religion influencing national-EU relations. These institutional interests are, in turn, shaped by the relationship between religion and national identity in each case, and the relationship between 'church' and 'state'. The differences in these relationships in the cases of Greece and Turkey yield vast differences in the way 'religion' affects national-EU relations. As background information to the interview research, secondary sources are used to explain the relationship between religion and national identity, and between 'church' and 'state' in each case

The process of the new inter-organizational format of social franchising from a social network theory approach: Institutions, social entrepeneurship povile, innovation and the argument of embeddedness

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThe inability of the public sector to satisfy social needs- like poverty alleviation, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, unemployment, health and education - are redefining the relationship between the governments and their citizens by making the latter play an active role as the provider of the welfare state. Citizens through their entrepreneurial activity have been pulled to the third sector leading to the emergence of new organizational forms like social enterprises and social franchises. The main focus of this research study is the investigation of the new interorganizational format of social franchising which has received ‘scunt’ research attention up to now. The behaviour of actors and organizations in the social economy sector are influenced by the properties and dynamics of elements coming from the political, social, organizational and individual level. We have adopted a systems approach of social network theory. A grounded theory named Social Franchise Model (SoFraM) has been induced from an exploratory empirical mixed method study conducted at various stages and from different sources during a time frame of thirty months. Primary data were raised through six case studies in the UK and Greece, more than 143 interviews with social entrepreneurs and various stakeholders and three action research projects which were the subject of analytic induction supported by archival analysis of secondary data coming from governmental, European Commission, local authority and other sources. Our findings indicate that the formation, growth and success of social franchises is heavily shaped through: firstly, law, regulations, and incentives introduced by centralized or formal institutions- both supranational and national- as well as their driving logics; secondly, the relational and structural embeddedness of actors in networks and the social norms that subsequently emerge; thirdly, the characteristics of the individual social entrepreneurship profile; and finally elements of the social innovation model adopted. The properties of the system of informal or decentralised institutions of networks have been further explored through a pilot quantitative study on mainstream franchises in the UK and Greece. An online self-administered questionnaire has been created based on our conceptual framework of the Franchise Network Model (FNM) drawn from existing scales from literature. The findings indicate that relational and structural embeddedness of actors and organizations in networks determine choices of formation, partner selection, governance mode and the subsequent performance of franchise systems