The auste-city model and bio-political strategies: re-visiting the urban space of Athens (Greece) during the crisis

ABSTRACT This article offers a depiction of Athens focused on the consequences that the initial round of Memoranda measures (2012–2015) produced on its urban space. On a theoretical level, a strategic function of the Greek capital is posited, seeing it as an urban laboratory for testing debt policies; accordingly, the primary focus is on the neoliberal agenda set in motion there, mainly consisting of the combination of privatization programmes and the securitization of urban space. Consequently, some of the emerging critical issues – i.e. Rethink Athens and the cases of the Akadimia Platonos, Ellinikò and Aghios Panteleimonas neighbourhoods, alongside the most relevant bio-political tactics of social control - are encapsulated within a specific model of governance, named auste-city and specifically targeted at normalizing the ‘extraordinary’ state of economic crisis into an ultimate rule. The conclusion is that austerity is currently disclosing an opportunity for neoliberal forces to reorganize their own dominion.