The disappearing immigrants: hunger strike as invisible struggle

The paper explores a hunger strike undertaken by 300 immigrants in Greece in early 2011

Virtues of violence: a testimonial performance or, an affidavit of lies, excuses and justifications

This is a performance lecture of statements/ records/ made up lies. We collected testimonies that spoke of some of the violences that we are facing – from Greece and Turkey - but these glimpses of frustration, bruising, broken dreams are evident everywhere, with different masks and excuses: ‘neoliberalism’/ ‘extremism’/ ‘factionism’/‘unionism’. All have the common suggestion: that this is how we play the game

Remapping Athens: an analysis of urban cosmopolitan milieus

The study makes a claim for a critical cosmopolitanism situated in daily performances and encounters of difference in Athens. In the wake of mass migration and economic crisis, the contemporary urban environment changes, creating new social spaces where identities and cultures interact. Festivals are seen as sites of creative dialogue between the Self, the Other and local communities. Festivals are examples of those new spaces where different performances of belonging give rise to alternative social imaginations. This study explores the emotional, cultural and political aspects of cosmopolitanism with the latter leading to the formation of an active civil society. As such, it seeks to evidence cosmopolitanism as an embodied, everyday practice. The research thus extends the current field by locating its empirical lens in a specific milieu. Empirical analysis of grounded cosmopolitanism anchored in behavioural repertoires redefines ubiquitous polarities of margin and centre, pointing towards social change in Athens. Fieldwork was conducted in Athens over eighteen months, comprising of building communities of participants involved in three festivals, including both artists and organisations. Research methods included observation and participation in the festivals, which were photographically documented for research visual diaries. Semi-structured interviews formed the core of the fieldwork. The approach allowed access to experiences, feelings and expressions through artworks, embodying ‘third spaces’. In the milieu of rapid social change, as urban localities transform as a result of economic and social crisis, the need for redefining politics emerges. The case studies explore how change in a celebratory moment can have a more sustainable legacy encouraging active citizenship. The analysis highlights the value of a model of cosmopolitanism in action, positing that transformation of the social and political must be local and grounded in everyday actions if it is to engage with promises of alternative futures

It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of wor(l)ds

The concept of ‘occupying’ in resistance movements is performative, embodied and affective. It involves ideas and feelings, sounds, smells and words. Thus, this presentation format is that of a dialogue/ performance of collected stories of protesters from Athens and political prisoners. The presenters attempt to resist discursive borders of social science and the arts by occupying both. The stories evoke the urban remapping of a politically charged multitude (in squares and streets) alongside narratives of personal resistance from within institutions (prisons). The common element is a view of resistance as embodied, and with an aim to radically transform the spaces of domination and oppression perceived to be limiting the human rights of the subjects. The data evoke effects/affects of resistance by recalling images (photographs); interview testimonies and narratives of resisting bodies

Asylum spaces: hunger strike and the disappearing immigrants

The paper analyses a large-scale hunger strike act, performed by 300 immigrants staged in the Law School building in Athens in January 2011. In order to unpack the complexities of such a performance, the researcher’s own position as occupying overlapping roles as witness, audience, researcher, artist is explored. The starting point of analysis is the socio-political context in Athens which prepares the stage for that performance. The Law School building is introduced in order to critically reflect on the ‘academic asylum’ state and the multiple meanings of being in a space always already inscribed by powerful social memories, drawing on Lefebvre’s work on the social production of space and the power of remapping. To remap means to engage into a compelling negotiation of space, stereotypes, feelings and practices such as inclusion, recognition and openness. Hunger strike is examined as a means of practicing resistance and as a spectacle, referring to the importance of the image in postmodern societies to evoke genuine human reactions. The ‘performance’ is analysed from the audience’s perspective, critically questioning issues of participation and representation. Finally, the paper considers the wider social, political and cultural implications of such a performance. The paper is concerned with how the strategy of engaging with invisible bodies and performative resistances can unpack hierarchies of representation. It focuses on a specific resistant act which can be read as a performance; dealing with the narratives that provide the act with its socio-political context, as well as the categories of audience witnessing of the act

Crisis, What Crisis? Immigrants, Refugees, and Invisible Struggles

Different evocations of “crisis” create distinct categories that in turn evoke certain social reactions. After 2008 Greece became the epicentre of the “financial crisis”; since 2015 with the advent of the “refugee crisis,” it became the “hotspot of Europe.” What are the different vocabularies of crisis? Moreover, how have both representations of crisis-facilitated humanitarian crises to become phenomena for European and transnational institutional management? What are the hegemonically-constructed subjects of the different crises? The everyday reality in the crisis-ridden hotspot of Europe is invisible in these representations. It is precisely the daily, soft, lived, and unspoken realities of intersecting crises that hegemonic discourses of successive, overlapping, or “nesting crises” render invisible. By shifting the focus from who belongs to which state-devised category to an open-ended, polyvocal account of capitalist oppressions, we aim to question the state’s and supranational efforts to divide the “migrant mob” into discrete juridical categories of citizens (emigrants), refugees, and illegal immigrants, thereby undermining coalitional struggles between precaritised groups. Différentes évocations liées au terme « crise » créent des catégories distinctes qui, à leur tour, sont évocatrices de réactions sociales particulières. Depuis 2008, la Grèce est devenue l’épicentre de la  « crise financière »; depuis 2015, avec l’apparition de la « crise des réfugiés », ce pays est aussi devenu le « hotspot de l’Europe ». Quels sont les différents vocabulaires de crise? Plus encore, comment ces deux représentations de crise ont-elles favorisé la perception des crises humanitaires en tant que phénomène de la gestion institutionnelle transnationale? Quels sont les sujets des différentes crises qui ont été construits de manière hégémo-nique? La réalité quotidienne en temps de crise au « hotspot de l’Europe » est invisible dans ces représentations. Ce sont précisément les réalités quotidiennes, intangibles, vécues et non dites des crises intersectionnelles que les discours hégémoniques des crises successives, des crises superposées ou des « crises emboîtées » rendent invisibles. En déplaçant le centre d’intérêt des catégories définies par l’état, et des personnes qu’elles regroupent, à une description plurivoque ouverte des oppressions capitalistes, nous avons pour objec-tif de questionner les efforts des états et les efforts suprana-tionaux pour répartir la « foule des migrants » en catégories juridiques distinctes de citoyens (émigrés), réfugiés, et immigrants illégaux, et déstabiliser ainsi les luttes de coalition entre les groupes précarisés

Projections of an urban revolution

This chapter is concerned with the new projections of crisis in the urban landscape of Athens, exploring urban aesthetics and civilian performances in the era of austerity

Food Banks in East London: Growth by Stealth and Marginalisation by the State

In debates about the formation of policies to alleviate poverty food banks are considered by some to inhibit the development of policies to address structural inequalities that account for poverty, social and health inequalities. By feeding hungry people food banks bring immediate relief, but, it is argued that the availability of emergency food removes pressures from policymakers to adopt a social justice and rights-based solution to address the causes of food poverty. Following her research on Trussell Trust Foodbanks two years ago Lambie-Mumford called for a debate on these issues before food banks become institutionalised (Lambie-Mumford 2013). In this paper we describe how a policy of dissociation by central government has created a space for food banks to multiple by stealth. The lack of policy debate has been accompanied by a largely absent discussion about how food banks operate in practice, and in this study we asked food bank managers what they do, and how they are coping with, and adapting to increased demand for their services

Covid-19 discloses unequal geographies

The collective editorial discusses inequalities that scholars in Europe and the Americas world have paid attention to during 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic has unevenly and unpredictably impacted on societies. The critical reflections reveal that the continuing ramifications of the pandemic can only be understood in place; like other large-scale phenomena, this exceptional global crisis concretizes very differently in distinct national, regional and local contexts. The pandemic intertwines with ongoing challenges in societies, for example those related to poverty, armed conflicts, migration, racism, natural hazards, corruption and precarious labor. Through collective contextual understanding, the editorial invites further attention to the unequal geographies made visible and intensified by the current pandemic