FROM EXARCHIA TO SYNTAGMA SQUARE AND BACK The City as a Hub for Strategies of Resistance against Austerity

Abstract

This article will examine the relationships between urban space and social movements in times of economic crisis in Athens, Greece. I will focus my attention on the impact that the Syntagma square movement had on those grassroots mobilizations, which precipitated at a local level as soon as the occupation of the Parliament’s square ended in summer 2011. Accordingly, the anti-authoritarian neighbourhood of Exarchia will provide the spatial setting for pointing out how, starting from “the origin of the conflict,” which occurred in December 2008, joie de vivre (Leontidou 2014) is reflected in practices of resistance. I will briefly depict two empirical cases, the time-banking system and the Social Solidarity Network, in order to finally recount Athens as a relevant hub for incubating social movements.