The Regional Dimension of Migration in Greece - Spatial Patterns and Causal Factors

Since the nineties, Greece, like other Southern European countries, has changed from being a country of migratory origin to a destination country for migrants. This, in itself, has been the result of fundamental political and economic reforms across Eastern Europe, as well as of demographic and economic developments within Greece. The first officially available data on migrants in Greece – country of origin, employment, education level or marital status- had been extracted from the 2001 population census. There are interesting points to be made regarding their spatial distribution. Migrants of Albanian origin, the most heavily represented migrant ethnic group, have a more or less even distribution across Greek regions. However, migrants of other ethnic origin seem to cluster in different regions. The first part of this paper offers a panorama of how migrants are dispersed across Greece in respect with their country of origin. This is followed by an attempt to identify the causal economic, social, and demographic factors of the spatial distribution of migration using various econometric tools, including spatial regression.

Musical counterpublics: The dissensual sounds of Yiannis Angelakas

Το άρθρο διερευνά την πολιτική διαφωνία (dissensus) στη μουσική οντολογία του Γιάννη Αγγελάκα και την ανάδυση εναλλακτικών δημοσιοτήτων (counterpublics), όπως έχουν θεωρητικοποιηθεί από τον M. Warner στην επικράτεια της μουσικής επιτέλεσης. Εστιάζει σε μια εθνογραφικά θεμελιωμένη συζήτηση για τις διαχρονικά δημοφιλείς αναμεσοποιήσεις του τραγουδιού «Δε χωράς πουθενά», οι οποίες κατανοούνται ως ευ-αισθησίες εναντίωσης που αμφισβητούν τον «μερισμό του αισθητού» όπως διατυπώνεται από τον JacquesRancière. Το «Δε χωράς πουθενά» επιτελεί μια μορφή αυτό-εξόριστης υποκειμενοποίησης, η οποία διευθετείται στα πλαίσια και, ταυτόχρονα, ενάντια στην κρίση της δημοκρατίας. Πρόκειται για μία οντολογία εκτοπισμού στο «πουθενά» όπου υλοποιούνται ουτοπικές αντιλήψεις της πολιτειότητας  μέσα στις συναισθηματικές οικονομίες της πανκ-ροκ αισθητικής. Η μουσική διαφωνία του Αγγελάκα διερευνάται επιπλέον μέσα από τις μνημονικές διαδικασίες και τις σχεσιακά παραγόμενες ιστορίες-ζωής στα πλαίσια της εθνογραφικής συνάντησης. Η συζήτηση  ενισχύεται από την ανάλυση  του τραγουδιού «Αιρετικό» και της επιτελεστικής ανάδυσης συναισθηματικών «εναλλακτικών δημοσιοτήτων» που αντιπαρατίθενται στους πειθαρχικούς μηχανισμούς υποκειμενοποίησης στη δημόσια σφαίρα.  The article discusses the dissensual ontology of the Greek popular musician-poet-singer YiannisAngelakas and the emergence of 'counterpublics', as theorized by Michael Warner, in the regime of musical performance. It focuses upon an ethnographically-grounded discussion of the ongoing successful remediations of the song “De horas pouthena” (You don't fit anywhere), which are explored as sensibilities of disagreement disputing the 'distribution of the sensible' in Jacques Rancière's terms. “De horas pouthena” voices a self-exiled form of subjectification regulated within and against the crisis of democracy―an ontology of “not-fitting-in” materializing utopian notions of civility within the affective economies of its punk-rock aesthetics. Angelakas' musical dissensus is also discursively explored in the memory-work of his life-story relationally produced in the context of the ethnographic encounter. Τhe discussion is further elaborated through the discussion of the song 'Airetiko' (Heretic) and the performative emergence of affective counterpublics objecting disciplinary mechanisms of subjectification in the public sphere.  

Urban Ethnomusicology in the City of Thessaloniki (Greece): The Case of Rebetiko Song Revival Today

This thesis is an ethnography of contemporary rebetiko music performance contexts in the city of Thessaloniki. It is the outcome of a research experience I underwent during the years 1997-98 in Ano Poli, a state-declared 'conservation' area of the city. The ethnography is organized in three case studies, each one representing a different performance context: (a) rebetiko concerts held in an 'ethnic' cafe bar, (b) a rebetiko taverna and, (c) a special rebetiko ghlendi (‘revelry') event. These case studies are current expressions of rebetiko entertainment, upon which my discussion of the ongoing revival of the genre in Greek society today is primarily based. My main concern in the thesis is to discuss how people make sense of and communicate rebetiko music culture as a lived experience in different contemporary rebetiko venues. To that extent, the knowledge of revivalist culture is grounded on the aesthetics and discourses which are 'other-ing' rebetiko music today. Eventually, such discourses and aesthetics provide the means for the theoretical discussion of the ways the genre is experienced as 'world music' in certain entertainment settings. These questions are explored within the broader framework of postmodern socio-cultural transformations, which appear to condition variously the contemporary revivalist culture. The ethnography is additionally underpinned with an introductory part that aims to describe the genre and provide a brief review of rebetiko history and associated rhetorics. Overall, there are two mam ethnographic orientations featured in this ethnography concerning the processes of doing fieldwork, as well as thinking and writing about it. One is the fact that I am a native researcher, born and grown up in the 'field'; the other being that this is an urban ethnography bearing the particularities and complex networks of city culture. Finally, this thesis is not just a current ethnography of rebetiko music; it becomes an ethnographic embodiment of the multiple dynamics of reflexivity defining the process of doing urban ethnomusicology at home

Suicide Rates in Greece: Comparing Mortality Data with Police Reporting Statistics and Investigating Recent Trends

This paper analyzes recent suicide trends in Greece. It relies on two separate databases, vital statistics and police records, the latter never having been explored before. Those datasets present a different picture about the suicide rates and trends, confirming the crucial importance of data reliability and consistency in time trend analysis. Frequencies and ratios were calculated and compared using paired sample t-tests. Overtime trend changes were detected applying segment regression analysis on both data collections. Our findings suggest that there are important differences between vital and police statistics on suicides. At national level, over the period 1990–2013, vital statistics reported an average of 7 percent more suicides, annually. Differences were more pronounced among women and younger ages. Both datasets confirm a change in total suicide trends during recent recession, but police data analysis supports that increases are less impressive than vital statistics claim

Male fertility in Greece: Trends and differentials by education level and employment status

Background: More than downplayed, the role of men in the demographic analysis of reproduction has been entirely neglected. However, male fertility can be an important issue for exploring how economic and employment uncertainties relate to fertility and family dynamics. Objective: This paper intends to study fertility variations over time, relying solely on data referring to father's socio-demographic characteristics; in particular, their age, education level, and employment status. Methods: We use a combination of Labor Force Survey and Demographic Statistics data on population and Vital Statistics on births to estimate male fertility indicators and fertility differentials by education level and employment status, for the period 1992-2011 in Greece. In addition, over-time developments in male TFR are separated into structural (education-specific and employment-specific distributions) and behavioral (fertility, per se) changes. Results: We find that the male fertility level is declining, the fertility pattern is moving into higher ages, and the reproduction period for men is getting shorter. From 1992 up to 2008, changes in male fertility were mostly driven by behavioral rather than compositional factors. However, the decline of male fertility over the period of economic recession (2008-2011) is largely attributed to the continuous decrease in the proportions of employed men. Conclusions: The study suggests that male fertility merits further exploration. In particular, years of economic downturn and countries where household living standards are mostly associated with male employment, a father's employability is likely to emerge as an increasingly important factor of fertility outcomes

Bollywood Trajectories and Audibilities of Race in Greek Popular Song

This chapter explores “Indoprepi” songs in postwar Greek musical production. Indoprepi is a genre comprising diverse forms of adaptation: In particular, tunes and songs from Bollywood films screened in Greek popular cinemas from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s. Through Tim Ingold’s concept of “wayfaring, " the author raises questions concerning the mobilities, disembodied trajectories, transmediality, circulation, appropriation, and popularity of musical objects, including the cartographies of transnational regimes of melodramatic affectivities made in sound/film. As a cosmopolitan and intertextual genre made of “copies” and mobile, intersecting musical fragments-effectively remapping Greek popular song in the Middle East and the global South-Indoprepi is a promising case study for re-thinking the racial question in mainstream epistemologies and sensibilities of Greekness in music as well as its public/national memory. In the light of recent adaptation theories coming from film and literary studies, the author takes Indoprepi as a point of departure for exploring theoretical issues around the ethnomusicological study of adaptation, referentiality, and translatability, including their attendant desires, politics, and pleasures. © 2022 Taylor & Francis

Urban ethnomusicology in the city of Thessaloniki (northern Greece) : the rebetiko music revival today

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A Head Full of Gold: A Discussion with Yiannis Angelakas

This chapter deals with a life so rich that it already appears to last forever, as is often the case with people whose work is understood to be a watershed in the history, in this case of Greek popular music. It owes a lot to Yiannis Angelakas, whose contribution to the “final cut” - in film-making terms - of transcribed discussions was immensely helpful. Yiannis Angelakas began his musical trajectories as the singer of the Thessaloniki-based punk Rock group Trypes which became immensely popular during the 1980s and 1990s. In the midst of the 1990s the degeneration and stupefaction of neohellenic “socialist” society was successfully completed. The media and the private TV-channels of the upper urban class imposed their vulgarity and fake-glamorous aesthetics next to the cheap popular song as official national culture. The big-bang eventually took place in 1993 with fourth album, Ennia Pliromena Tragoudia. © 2019 Taylor and Francis