Solidarity's Tensions: Informality, Sociality, and the Greek Crisis

‘Contagious’ solidarity: reconfiguring care and citizenship in Greece's social clinics

“…Yet while their political profile most often lies somewhere on the spectrum of the Left, solidarity networks focus less on explicit political mobilisation and more on addressing basic, often urgent, human needs. Rakopoulos () characterises solidarity networks as ‘hidden’ forms of welfare, offering services outside or alongside state‐based social support. Solidarity initiatives are also substantively different from NGOs and non‐profits, which also provide extra‐state services.…”

“…Yet while their political profile most often lies somewhere on the spectrum of the Left, solidarity networks focus less on explicit political mobilisation and more on addressing basic, often urgent, human needs. Rakopoulos (2015) characterises solidarity networks 4 Muehlebach's ethnography explores a much more diverse range of activities in the voluntary sector in Italy, including faith-based approaches as well as Leftist groups founded in trade union activism. The particular histories of both the Catholic Church and the Left in Italy shape how her interlocutors ethically situate their voluntarism as a break from market forces and also restorative of earlier political traditions and world-views.…”

Introduction—Uncertain Visions: Crisis, Ambiguity, and Visual Culture in Greece

“…Most works about the current phase of Greek history converge on partly affirming that it constitutes a crisis, often defined with reference to structural reforms aiming at reducing the country's deficit (Knight ; Papailias ) and formalizing its economy (Rakopoulos ). Works also link the crisis to recession and to conditions disenfranchising groups already on the margins (Alexandrakis ), changing one's attachment to history and place (Knight ; Vournelis ), engendering anxiety regarding one's position in Europe or creating bitterness about a “present becoming damaged future” (Herzfeld ; Kalantzis , ), and securitizing daily life (Dalakoglou ).…”

“…A corollary of recognizing the crisis as a phenomenon is the idea that there is something new to this phase. The present conjuncture produces new things: new experiences of the past as relevant to the present (Kalantzis , ; Knight , ; Vournelis ), novel socialities around “informal economy” (Rakopoulos :88), new cinematic and theatrical spectacles that disturb dominant national narration (Papanikolaou ), new political discourses that deny official affiliation to parties (Yiakoumaki ), new potentials for dissent (Dalakoglou and Vradis ), enhanced imaginings of colonialism and novel experiences of nationhood (Herzfeld ; Kalantzis , ; Knight ), and new possibilities for reclassifying suicides as political acts (Davis :1020; Knight :62). Many authors describe the “new” as building on preexisting attitudes, for instance regarding the past's reworking in the present (cf.…”

“…These strategies, the argument goes, afford a sense of empowerment, convey that the crisis is overcome‐able, or simply offer tools to classify things within familiar categories (e.g., Knight :69; Theodossopoulos :208,209). Some accounts claim to avoid the term and problematic of “resistance” by looking at social experience in terms of pleasure (Kalantzis :1065) or by predicting that even practices that appear to be resisting formalization may gradually constitute another formality (Rakopoulos :97).…”