Gerodimos R. (2014), “Reclaiming the Urban Landscape, Rebuilding the Civic Culture: Online Mobilization, Community Building, and Public Space in Athens, Greece” in M. Shumow (ed), Mediated Communities: Civic Voices, Empowerment and Belonging In the Digital Era, New York, NY: Peter Lang
Abstract:
During the last few years, Greece has experienced an economic, social and political decline the velocity of which is possibly unprecedented. Since 2010, successive Greek governments have implemented radical austerity measures as part of bailout agreements with international lenders. With soaring taxation, unemployment and poverty on top of pre-existing problems – such as increased crime rates, regular bouts of vandalism by anarchist groups and the lack of an effective mechanism for the controlled entry and integration of immigrants and asylum-seekers – the social fabric of urban communities in Athens has faced repeated ruptures.
This paper focuses on the city of Athens and how communities of local citizens and civil society activists have utilized new media to reclaim the city’s public spaces – and how, through that, they may have contributed to sustaining or rebuilding a civic culture that has been facing its biggest crisis in generations. Employing case study data and semi-structured interviews with six experts on the public space and urban communities of Athens, including award-winning architects and the founders of two highly successful groups of engaged citizens (Atenistas and Every Saturday in Athens), this chapter will examine some of the claims that have been put forward regarding the impact of media and mobile networks on public space, as well as the main challenges facing both the mediated and the urban communities of Athens.
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