Socio-political Responses during Recessionary Times in Greece: An Introduction

In the context of the recent global financial crisis – the most severe crisis since the Great De-pression – Greece has been heavily affected in almost all aspects of the economic, social, political and in-stitutional spheres. The implemented draconian austerity measures under the bailout mechanisms have led to devastating effects on the lives of citizens that have triggered a plethora of collective initiatives. The main rationale of the Special Issue is to capture the various facets of socio-political responses that have emerged from the aftermath of the Greek financial crisis. The Special Issue relies on original data produced in the context of two EU-funded projects, namely LIVEWHAT and TransSOL, and includes six papers apply-ing qualitative and quantitative methods, providing a rich set of fresh and systematic data on understand-ing the collective efforts of Greek citizens during recessionary times

The concept of sinlessness and sinfulness in the first letter of John : with reference to the paradox encountered in 1:6-10/3:6-10

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the meaning and function of an apparently paradoxical statement encountered in the first letter of John. The method chosen for this investigation is an exegetical study of two passages namely 1Jn 1:6-10 and 3:6-10, which are supposed to be in juxtaposition. The argument, reduced to its bare minimum, will move as follows. Firstly, the first chapter sets the context for this study by addressing the issue of sin and its parameters in contemporary Jewish literature. Jewish writers of the time were much occupied with such themes as sin, sinfulness and sinlessness, need of cleansing, forgiveness, the reward of the righteous and punishment of the wicked. The Jewish world of thought of the time provides us with the ideological framework in which John is to be better understood. We are to witness the coexistence of apparently contradictory modes of thought concerning eschatology and by extension anthropology; for instance, statements supporting the exercise of free will on man's part and God's predestination or references to the idea of demonic powers being accountable for sin and man's own responsibility for sin, 'like those of a railway, run side by side, crisscross, or overlap in various ways', even in the same piece of work. Bearing in mind the result of the study of this background, chapter two undertakes an examination of the history of the community whose products the Fourth Gospel and the Epistles were. According to our findings, the Johannine community never became a sect alienated from the rest of Christianity, in spite of the presence of sectarian traits such as perfectionist ideas and ethical rigorism, the exaggeration of which led finally to an inner schism. Next, chapter three investigates the identity of those in combat to 1John, the so-called opponents of John, concluding that having being former members of the Johannine community, they misinterpreted the Johannine tradition conveyed by the Fourth Gospel, drawing radical conclusions about their sinlessness/perfection from its realised eschatology

Exploring Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) during the Greek Economic Crisis

In the last decades, Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has become an everyday practice for an increasing number of citizens, and the SSE sector has been constantly expanding. Particularly, during hard economic times, SSE has acted as a viable economic alternative and as a means to support vulnerable social groups, hit by the recession. However, SSE does not merely act as an emergency actor during harsh economic times, but also as a form of resistance to neoliberal dominance and as a tool of empowerment, transformation and social change. This paper, using quantitative data from the LIVEWHAT project, ex-plores SSE organisations in Greece, as one of the European countries most severely affected during the recent global financial crisis. The results, which are indicative of the Greek SSE sector during the period under study, shed light on the role of the recession as one of the main triggers for the recent expansion of SSE organisations that are often less formally organised, and primarily act as coping mechanisms, which aim to meet the uncovered, urgent socioeconomic needs of citizens. The findings also demonstrate that the Greek SSE sector, under study, acts as an economic alternative, promoting collective action and new social movements