The right to public space during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Governmental policies to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) have directly and decisively intervened with literally every facet of people’s life transforming the geographies of everyday lives across the Global South and North. In this paper, we explore the shifting relationship of urban dwellers to public space during the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim to unravel the uneven ways lockdown measures and restrictions on movement have impacted the residents of Athens, the capital of Greece. By focusing on the way the relationship of different social groups to public space has been affected by governmental measures, we show how the reconfiguration of the production of urban public space has disproportionately affected people along lines of class, ethnicity and gender. We argue that governmental measures have so far deepened systemic inequality, segregation and social, spatial and environmental injustice in the city and have imposed unprecedented restrictions in people’s democratic rights, consolidating a shift towards a more authoritarian version of neoliberal urbanism. By opposing and challenging the possibility of only dystopian futures that has dominated public discourse and collective imagination within this ongoing global public health crisis, we address a call to radical scholars and activists to start envisaging possibilities for a plural use of space and a new undisciplined, radical politics of coexistence in shared, safe spaces along the lines of a geography of togetherness, care and resistance.

Keywords:

• public space
• COVID-19
• social segregation
• austerity urbanism
• social reproduction
• inequality

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the reviewers and editors for their very constructive comments as well as research participants for their involvement in this work—without them this paper would not have been the same.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 See https://covidtracker.bsg.ox.ac.uk/stringency-map?fbclid=IwAR1HR3qA1VWsRagayDjdBfeDwu0EZd9Ea79ku-vjaXDresRQ656Mg0-IXoQ; https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse?fbclid=IwAR3Ll_fMi2qqQcIixLmcLrEWgn4WrZ-eTq2J296OCPHZYoU18Cudky2cUeM.

2 See https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/ for more information on Covid resilience ranking.

3 In the 1960s many apartments built in Kypseli were largely targeting the middle and upper-middle classes. The area started changing significantly in the mid-1980s and early 1990s due to both the tendency of younger families to move in the suburbs and the mass settlement of migrants (Lafazani and Vaiou 2015). The neighborhood is now gradually growing in popularity, short-term rental presence and housing prices.

4 Lancione and Simone (2020a) term this bioterity referring to a biologically-structured austerity.

5 See https://www.onmed.gr/ygeia-eidhseis/story/382180/proto-kroysma-koronaioy-stin-ellada-38xroni-gynaika-sti-thessaloniki.

6 See https://esngreece.gr/covid-19-faqs.

7 See https://www.tovima.gr/2020/07/19/society/synexizetai-i-apagoreysi-kykloforias-stis-domes-filoksenias-logo-koronoiou/.

8 See https://www.facebook.com/StopWarOnMigrants/.

9 See https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/dikaiomata/250792_orgio-astynomikis-bias-stin-plateia-biktorias.

10 This brings in mind John Pavlovitz’s comment that ‘only white people get to do this’ (https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/05/01/the-white-privilege-to-terrorize/).

11 Vertical segregation refers to social stratification by residence floor in the apartment buildings (‘polykatoikies’) that dominate Athens’ housing stock (Maloutas and Spyrellis 2016).

12 The leadership of Golden Dawn has been convicted in October 2020 of running a criminal organization and sentenced to 13 years (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/14/greece-golden-dawn-neo-nazi-prison-sentences).

13 It is indicative that the police imposed 300 euros fines to homeless people in Athens and Thessaloniki for ‘unjustified’ movement in the city (https://www.arsis.gr/deltio-typoy-prostima-askopi-metakinisi-se-astegoys-sti-thessaloniki; https://www.tanea.gr/2020/11/12/greece/thessaloniki-astegos-paravatis-ton-metron-gia-ti-metakinisi/).

14 See https://left.gr/news/entasi-kai-himika-ta-mesanyhta-stin-agia-paraskeyi.

15 For more information, see https://repressionwatch.gr/.

16 Another manifestation of governmental emphasis on the policing and ‘sanitization’ of public space has been the creation of a new police squad, called ODOS, namely Assembly Management and Demarcation Team, whose role has been to manage, contain and patrol ‘low-risk’ public gatherings.

17 Governmental intentions have been clear before the announcement of the national lockdown when riot police violently attacked the public demonstration outside the high court in Athens on 7 October 2020 while people were waiting the verdict on the neo-nazi criminal organization Golden Dawn.

18 See https://www.greece-is.com/news/wwf-greece-introduces-app-mapping-urban-green-areas/. It is worth pointing out that Kypseli is one of the most unprivileged areas in terms of green spaces availability and that well maintained green areas are mostly located in the wealthier suburbs of Athens.

19 See https://studentsforliberty.org/north-america/blog/police-brutality-in-greece/

20 See the accusations against the prime minister concerning his visit in the National Forest of Parnitha, https://www.politico.eu/article/greece-prime-minister-accused-of-breaking-coronavirus-lockdown-rules/.

21 Available video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svfWvsidTz0.

22 According to a recent OECD report, Greece is at the bottom of the list of countries in relation to additional resources given for public health during the pandemic (http://www.oecd.org/health/europe-needs-to-prepare-better-for-coming-out-of-new-strict-containment-measures.htm?fbclid=IwAR1v1uM6ftexFg0vq9⁣W4ST4RhrR9LY4nAJSSHT_gwQBU⁣fDh2LFwgeG-MtiE).

23 According to the Pandemic Backsliding Project that aims to track violations of democratic rights during the pandemic, Greece is rated with a PanDem (Pandemic Violations of Democratic Standards Index) Score of 0.35 and belongs in the category of ‘major violations’, particularly regarding ‘discriminatory measures’, ‘restrictions of media freedom’ and ‘abusive enforcement’.

24 Indicatively, laws that establish a new police force inside public universities (https://www.dw.com/en/police-officers-at-greek-universities-the-culture-clash-continues/a-56725837), regulations facilitating precarious contracts (https://www.lambadarioslaw.gr/2021/06/main-provisions-of-new-greek-employment-law/), and an urban redevelopment plan in the city center named the ‘Great Walk of Athens’ that started as a pilot program during the pandemic and has already proven a failure (https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/05/12/the-great-walk-of-athens/).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elia Apostolopoulou

Elia Apostolopoulou is a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge and a visiting fellow at Harokopio University. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Danai Liodaki

Danai Liodaki is a PhD candidate at Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany, in the framework of the CORAL-ITN program. Email: [email protected]