Study title

Greece is one of the countries most affected by the current financial crisis. Since 2010, when the Greek government and IMF/EU/ECB agreed on the largest loan ever received by a single country, Greece has seen sweeping transformations in the character of its polity and state functions. The Greek version of the crisis has produced a rupture in the modus operandi of the state in question and in its relationship with its citizenry. The main axis of this rupture is the systemic challenge and reconfiguration of the category 'public' - which of course includes public spaces. This research focuses on the newly emerging public socialities in reference to public urban spaces. The idea of emphasizing spontaneous and unspontaneous socio-spatial practices, public urban materialities and spatialities in the capital city of Greece appears as an ideal way in which to study the wide variety of the social consequences of the financial crisis.