Matina Kapsali

During the last years, many Southern European countries came at the forefront of international interest. Social and economic conditions are deteriorating and a vicious cycle of ‘austerity-recession-austerity’ is created.  The high percentages of homeownership and the significance of houses as assets in the Mediterranean cities render the housing crisis a critical aspect of the broader socio-economic turbulence.
In this research, we explore the new socio-spatial order that emerged in Greece as part of the austerity urbanism implemented since the 2008 financial crisis and we examine Athens and Thessaloniki as living laboratories. We elaborate on the economic evictions and the consequent increase in homelessness and marginalization of the urban population. In doing so, we provide a critical evaluation of the current housing-related policies and unearth the new landscapes of inequality. Throughout our analysis, we follow postcolonial theory, moving beyond North/South dichotomies. Furthermore, we adopt a comparative urbanism approach and employ the mixed-method triangulation for the collection and analysis of data.
We argue that the housing crisis should be understood as a process embedded within the context of a new socio-spatial order in the neoliberal city, which results in the formation of two distinct groups of population, those that deserve their presence in the city, as they are linked to economic growth, and those that do not, and stay marginalised. In parallel, the present policies seeking to address homelessness are more reactive than proactive in their aims and principles, bearing a higher resemblance to philanthropic practices than to concrete housing policies.

11-14 June 2015
At the Department of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece


International Open Gathering

UNICONFLICTS in spaces of crisis
Critical approaches in, against and beyond the University
http://uniconflicts.wordpress.com/ 

Encounters and Conflicts in the city
http://urbanconflicts.wordpress.com/

UNICONFLICTS in spaces of crisis: Critical approaches in, against and beyond the University

International Open Gathering

UNICONFLICTS in spaces of crisis

Critical approaches in, against and beyond the University

11-14th June 2015

at the Department of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)

Conference: International Conference on Changing Cities 2: Spatial, Design, Landscape & Socio-economic Dimensions”, At Porto Heli, Peloponnese, Greece

Environmental protection, urban sustainability and most recently resilience can be identified as central objectives of the current administration of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. Notwithstanding the economic crisis and shrinkage of state funding, “greenness”, in its various conceptual mutations, forms part of the dominant rhetoric and an underlying theme in a variety of initiatives, policies and projects undertaken by the municipality. The paper seeks to present the way the idea of “greenness” is constituted in the rhetoric and praxis of the municipal administration since its election in 2010. Towards this aim, the paper will be structured in three parts, as follows:

First, the paper engages on a theoretical discussion with regard to the way changing concepts of environmental urban management and planning are compatible with, and successfully incorporated in, the dominant dogma of urban competitiveness. It is argued that, both sustainability and resilience have departed from a socially inclusive and politically enriched constitution and have anchored to a set of scientifically proven, measurable and hence indisputable requirements. Stripped from social and political dimensions, sustainability and resilience are reduced to greenness. They become a technocratic and managerial quest dictated by the state of emergency created by the climate change and global environmental crisis. The quest of urban competitiveness is also construed as indisputable, stemming from the need to partake to the global economy. The two indisputable de-politicised quests are currently shaping a dominant and urgent agenda for cities.

Second, the paper focuses on the case of Thessaloniki. It charts the variety of disconcerted municipal initiatives pursued in different aspects of urban governance and planning and different scales of reference within the urban environment. A categorisation is attempted, with a view to outlining the spectrum of issues covered, the scales of reference and the mechanisms employed. Efforts to internationalise the city’s image as sustainable and resilient form a considerable part of the city’s newly shaped green agenda. Finally, the paper embarks on a critical view of the way the urgent mandates of greenness and competitiveness are combined to materialise the local version of depoliticised managerial agenda for Thessaloniki, in the context of crisis.

Kapsali, M. and Tsavdaroglou, Ch. (2016). The Battle for the Common Space, from the Neo-liberal Creative City to the Rebel City and Vice Versa: The Cases of Athens, Istanbul, Thessaloniki and Izmir. In Richard J. White, Simon Springer & Marcelo Lopes de Souza (eds.) The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt, pp. 151-182. London-New York: Rowman & Littlefield.