Mediterranean cities of hope^*

* It is an irony that this article was submitted in final form only a couple of weeks before the global pandemic turned the South European cities of hope into landscapes of despair.

Abstract

This essay puts to doubt the supposed ephemerality of social movements in Mediterranean cities, focusing on Greece and discussing Spain as well. During the aftermath of anti-austerity mobilizations international networking expands, the change in values affects society, and diverse economies emerge. A new generation of digitally literate and highly educated millennials, instead of lingering in unemployment and precarity or succumbing to the brain drain, are involved in alternative and creative ventures and the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). On the basis of a map of solidarity structures in Attica and a two-dimensional typology of initiatives in Greece we argue that, though these ventures are vulnerable, they transform urban public spaces. Hybrid hubs of solidarity and creativity add up to affect urban landscapes towards a grassroots version of the ‘smart city’. In the 2010s, despite the crisis, and with a short-lived positive role of the state when the Left was in power, geographies of hope have been emerging in Mediterranean Europe.

Keywords:

• hybrid public spaces
• diverse economies
• social and solidarity economy
• austerity
• the commons
• smart city
• digital communication
• Athens

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

* It is an irony that this article was submitted in final form only a couple of weeks before the global pandemic turned the South European cities of hope into landscapes of despair.

1 Spontaneous as defined by Gramsci 1971, 196–200 (see the extended analysis in Leontidou 1990, 2012); impromptu also implies the composition of social gatherings.

2 Castells (2012, 80–81) attributes the overcoming of fear to being together in the squares and also virtually, with emotions of outrage and hope.

3 Mubarak’s decision to cut off people from the Internet in Egypt intensified the already massive mobilization in Tahrir Square in 2011, instead of curtailing it (Dabashi 2012; Castells 2012). In Turkey, Erdogan did not manage to enforce his decision to cut first Twitter, then YouTube, after the 2013 in Taksim Square and then the Gezi park protests (Robins 2019).

4 The May 68 movements in Paris came two years after the birth of the hippie culture in San Francisco, which had similar values, but no digital means to share them!

5 For example, the Digital Liberation Network (DLN) was established in 2008, after the Athens riots, and hackerspace.gr appeared in 2011, directly in the aftermath of anti-austerity movements, as documented after the 50th minute of the film in note 8. See other cases in Giovanopoulos and Kolokotronis 2016; Nasioulas 2012; Leontidou 2015.

6 Giovanopoulos (2011), who was a member of this team during the uprisings of Syntagma Square, recalls that some people in their 50s received their first email during the movement of the piazzas. The tents were protected – I was not allowed to take any photos (see also Giovanopoulos and Mitropoulos 2011).

7 Title by Vasilis Kostakis to his presentation of P2P Lab in the CommonsFest in Athens, 17.05.2015; see also the argument by other members of labs, after the 51st minute in the film referenced in note 8.

8 Title of the 2014 film on knowledge ‘commons’ in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iCZgZEYm0w&feature=youtu.be (last accessed 16.2.2020). The ‘children of 2008’ of ‘hackerspace’ expand on their activities in producing software in networks of ‘commoning’ and other initiatives (Leontidou 2015).

9 The typology is more extended and documented with lots of web pages in footnotes of the article by Leontidou (2015, 87–93).

10 Florida’s (2002) Creative City prioritizes culture and the affluent classes, Smart City stresses technology, environment and the knowledge economy. In the new millennium we also find references to Digital Cities (Craglia et al. 2004), Intelligent Cities (Komninos 2008; Deakin and AlWaer 2012), and the related concepts of Regional Smart Specialization (EC S3 2013) and smart growth (ESPON-SIESTA 2013). Finally, Resilient Cities stand strong to resist the crisis (Leontidou 2020).

11 For Athens as Capital of Innovation see https://www.culturenow.gr/h-athina-anakiryxthike-eyropaiki-proteyoysa-kainotomias-2018/?fbclid=IwAR3Al8ZzVnonzGHBVe_ZV--vDenorJo9TUassNhNKxEVyoE3qPxtyL2G2Lk (last accessed 8.2.20).

12 King and Manoussaki-Adamopoulou (2019). Police raids started on 26 August 2019 against squats in Exarcheia, just one day after a new mayor was sworn in. The mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis, is the nephew of Greece’s new prime-minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and both have promised to ‘bring order’ to neighbourhoods, targeting ‘terrorism’, drug-use and trade. In fact, however, a number of refugees and undocumented migrants from Syria and other Asian and African countries were arrested in offensives throughout the autumn.

13 A pilot programme to reverse the brain drain was announced, involving a state subsidy to Greek enterprises to employ 500 diaspora Greeks with postgraduate studies, employed for at least one year abroad. As a motive for repatriation a payment was offered of 3.000 euro per month, which will be subsidized by the State by 70% for one year. It is ironic that the state targets and funds the people who will most probably return to their established lives abroad after the end of the programme, and ignores thousands of other Greeks with postgraduate and doctoral degrees who struggle to find a job in Greece, and if they fail they keep leaving Greece in search for a proper job abroad.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lila Leontidou

Lila Leontidou is Professor Emerita at the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University. Email: [email protected].