Contentious spatialities in an era of austerity: Everyday politics and ‘struggle communities’ in Athens, Greece

Opposition to austerity politics manifested through mass mobilizations and the ‘squares’ movement’ in Athens over the past few years constitute key ‘moments’ in contemporary social movement debates. Nevertheless, the dispersal and grounding of an emergent bottom-up democratic politics in everyday life contexts and across neighbourhoods in the following period still remain analytically nascent. This paper addresses the key role of everyday politics in broader contestation and articulations of alternatives to austerity through the notion of ‘struggle communities’. First, it shifts the analysis of social movement, from ‘moment’ to ‘process’ and the quotidian, constructed at the neighbourhood level. Second, through a case study of a local campaign in the neighbourhood of Exarcheia, it locates the spatiality of struggle communities and their processual, often contradictory, constitution. Third, it discusses the possibilities and limitations for an alternative community politics to emerge and potential links to broader struggles in an era of deepening austerity in Europe and beyond. The paper methodologically draws on participatory ethnographic research conducted in Athens, Greece between 2012 and 2013

Automated office blood pressure measurements in primary care are misleading in more than one third of treated hypertensives: The VALENTINE-Greece Home Blood Pressure Monitoring study

Abstract Background This study assessed the diagnostic reliability of automated office blood pressure (OBP) measurements in treated hypertensive patients in primary care by evaluating the prevalence of white coat hypertension (WCH) and masked uncontrolled hypertension (MUCH) phenomena. Methods Primary care physicians, nationwide in Greece, assessed consecutive hypertensive patients on stable treatment using OBP (1 visit, triplicate measurements) and home blood pressure (HBP) measurements (7 days, duplicate morning and evening measurements). All measurements were performed using validated automated devices with bluetooth capacity (Omron M7 Intelli-IT). Uncontrolled OBP was defined as ≥140/90 mmHg, and uncontrolled HBP was defined as ≥135/85 mmHg. Results A total of 790 patients recruited by 135 doctors were analyzed (age: 64.5 ± 14.4 years, diabetics: 21.4%, smokers: 20.6%, and average number of antihypertensive drugs: 1.6 ± 0.8). OBP (137.5 ± 9.4/84.3 ± 7.7 mmHg, systolic/diastolic) was higher than HBP (130.6 ± 11.2/79.9 ± 8 mmHg; difference 6.9 ± 11.6/4.4 ± 7.6 mmHg, p Conclusions In primary care, automated OBP measurements are misleading in approximately 40% of treated hypertensive patients. HBP monitoring is mandatory to avoid overtreatment of subjects with WCH phenomenon and prevent undertreatment and subsequent excess cardiovascular disease in MUCH

The spatiality of counter-austerity politics in Athens, Greece: Emergent ‘urban solidarity spaces’

Grassroots responses and alternatives to austerity that have emerged in Athens and Greece call for a re-thinking of the recent neoliberal crisis through articulations of contestation ‘from below’. This paper addresses this yet nascent theoretical debate through the notion of ‘urban solidarity spaces’, focusing on the spatiality of counter-austerity politics that emerges in and out of places and expands across urban space and beyond. From survival tactics grounded in Athenian neighbourhoods, such as local solidarity initiatives; to solidarity structures and cooperatives; and broader strategies of transformation and alternatives, such as the formation of a solidarity economy. These aim to constitute an empowering process of solidarity-making ‘from below’, and open up spaces for the practice of bottom-up democratic politics vis-à-vis austerity, a ‘politics of fear’ and crisis. The arguments raised here methodologically draw on activist ethnographic research in the ‘Athens of crisis’, between 2012 and 2013

The urban roots of anti-neoliberal social movements: the case of Athens, Greece

The recent rounds of anti-neoliberal mobilizations in Europe have shown to be rooted in cities. Whereas Madrid has become a central hub in Spain’s social movement, Athens has assumed a central and centralizing role in Greece. Through a case study on Athens, Greece, this paper aims to show how cities have become the driving force of these national movements. The argument maintains that political institutional factors and local networking processes among activists contributed to making Athens a central hub of this national movement. First, weak state traditions in Greece undermined the abilities of government officials to mitigate the most egregious effects of urban neoliberalism during the 1990s and 2000s. As this triggered a proliferation of struggles throughout Athens, weak state traditions also denied local authorities the capacities to co-opt and control aggrieved inhabitants. Second, as urban grievances spurred countless localized struggles, participants formed new ties to one another, learned how to engage in their broader public worlds, and discovered new ways to become political. At the same time, well-networked activists within these particularistic struggles assumed the role of brokers between localized mobilizations and the wider social movement space. This networking process permitted the city of Athens to become an important staging ground in national mobilizations. In sum, we maintain that political opportunities and urban networking processes combined in ways to make Athens a driving force of the country’s anti-neoliberal social movement

ProMyelocytic Leukemia protein (PML) controls breast cancer cell proliferation by modulating Forkhead transcription factors

he multitasking Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein was originally recognized as a tumor suppressive factor, but more recent evidence has implicated PML in tumor cell pro‐survival actions and poor patient prognosis in specific cancer settings. Here, we report that inducible PMLIV expression inhibits cell proliferation as well as self‐renewal, and impairs cell cycle progression of breast cancer cell lines in a reversible manner. Transcriptomic profiling identified a large number of PML‐deregulated genes associated with various cell processes. Among them, cell cycle and division related genes and their cognitive regulators are highly ranked. In this study, we focused on previously unknown PML targets, namely the Forkhead transcription factors. PML suppresses the Forkhead box subclass M1 (FOXM1) transcription factor at both the RNA and protein level, along with many of its gene targets. We show that FOXM1 interacts with PMLIV primarily via its DNA binding domain and dynamically co‐localizes in PML nuclear bodies. In parallel, PML modulates the activity of FOXO3, a factor opposing certain FOXM1 activities, to promote cell survival and stress resistance. Thus, PMLIV affects the balance of FOXO3 and FOXM1 transcriptional programs by acting on discrete gene subsets to favour both growth inhibition and survival. Interestingly, PMLIV‐specific knockdown mimicked ectopic expression vis‐à‐vis loss of proliferative ability and self‐renewal, but also led to loss of survival ability as shown by increased apoptosis. We propose that divergent or similar effects on cell physiology may be elicited by high or low PMLIV levels dictated by other concurrent genetic or epigenetic cancer cell states that may additionally account for its disparate effects in various cancer types

Priorities for Inclusive Growth: Increasing Employment, Decreasing Inequality and Fighting Corruption

This chapter looks in detail at citizens\u2019 views on the extent to which their governments are meeting their demands for inclusive economic development, decent employment and fighting corruptions. It concludes that they are generally dissatisfied with the way governments are managing the economy and providing basic services, although there are some differences between countries. In particular, they are concerned about a lack of employment opportunities and they do not think that their governments are fighting corruption. Migration is mainly motivated by economic factors, with those considering migration being educated young to middle-aged men