Encountering a divine dance of solidarity at the Zalongo Monument

In this article, a combination of travelogue, personal narrative, archival research and cultural analysis, I contemplate the Monument to the Heroines of Zalongo, a sculpture by George Zongolopoulos that stands in the western Greek region of Epirus. It commemorates the Dance of Zalongo, a mass suicide, or heroic sacrifice, of women and children in 1803. The legend of the dance and the monument inspired by it evoke contradictory perspectives on the national identity of Greece and of Greeks that stretch back to the founding of the modern nation: the externally directed view of the philhellenes, and the introverted perspective of the Romii. Seen as an international, philhellenic cause, a mass suicide, the Souliote women’s leap signified helpless women and children, and a nation, in need of rescuing. Seen as a national, Greek narrative, a patriotic sacrifice, the Souliote women’s leap showed female warriors filled with pride and self-determination. The Dance of Zalongo has had many lives: as a nineteenth-century media event that sparked an outpouring of literature and art, a twentieth-century lifeline to the old country for Greeks in the diaspora and a twenty-first-century cultural meme bolstering resistance to economic austerity. The Zalongo Monument, a site for pilgrimage where Greek cultural memory is infused in stone and resonant in the air, recreates the presence of the dance, letting us feel what it means to be free. Visiting the monument as a philhellenic foreigner, I ponder its power as a tribute to solidarity among those everywhere who are pushed to the precipice.

Rousseau’s General Will

The advance of populist parties in the European Union can be interpreted as the sign of an expanding “frustration” about representation in a political sphere oppressed by economic austerity. In this context, the modern philosophical roots of an alternative conception of democracy, based on direct participation, appear to be worth of a careful scrutiny. This paper focuses on the notion of the General Will as described in The Social Contract. After a critical review of the antithetical conceptions of the General Will suggested by Rousseau, a coherent interpretation is proposed, obtained through an analysis of the text taken as a “self- -sufficient” unity: the General Will is pure “ambition” for an unknown common good, shared by all the members of a political community. However, it is argued that the participatory “machinery” of General Will is fundamentally incapable of resolving three serious problems that undermine the foundations of Rousseau’s ideal “République”, namely, 1. How the citizens can identify the common good without errors; 2. How the citizens can develop an ethical dimension by themselves, without any external influence; 3. How single individuals, seen not as active citizens but as passive subjects of the State, can protect themselves from the abuses of power.

Coming to Terms with the Greek Crisis: Highly Educated Young Women’s Employment Struggles in Conditions of Economic Austerity

The global financial recession which began in 2008 has led to significant economic and social consequences for youth, with the case of Greece being a notable one in terms of severity. Repeated political-economic ‘shocks’ to the structure of Greek society have manifest in common situations of unemployment and underemployment. Although impacting heavily on the working classes, severe curtailments in medium-high-skilled labour have also been observed among the middle classes as well. Following these contexts, the article examines the experiences of highly educated young women in Greece ( n = 36) as they navigate precarious employment within the midst of the Greek economic crisis. It is argued that rather than their educated status offering opportunities to deploy resources to help withstand the crisis, their high education levels create frustrations and barriers towards achieving suitable employment. These perceived mismatches between high education and low status and/or poor-quality work conditions are assessed in the context of research on emerging adulthood.

‘Fountain’, from Victorian necessity to modern inconvenience: Contesting the death of public toilets

Drawing on the politicised history of Public Conveniences in England since the 19th century, this paper traces the socio-political motives for their provision and for their gradual withdrawal in recent decades. It discusses the effects these developments have had on public mobility, and the socio-political complexity these infrastructures pose to city-making agendas. In particular, the essay highlights the notions of stigma associated with these spaces in relation to gender, body-politics and control, which led to a lack of political interest in their provision and a pattern of closures that began in the Thatcher era and has continued through later times of economic austerity. To unfold these arguments, the essay examines a series of initiatives put forward to reclaim for public use a derelict toilet in the centre of London: from the concept of an interactive site-specific intervention to raise awareness of its closure, to a campaign for its listing as an Asset of Community Value, to contest its privatisation. This case study is used to address the spatial stigma that public toilets carry as a contested locus of public sanitation and, furthermore, to highlight important questions surrounding their provision in the context of contemporary citizen-driven urban agendas. To articulate this argument, the case study exemplifies how critical spatial practices can operate as a form of pedagogical urban praxis for awareness-raising and citizen engagement, advancing a Lefebvrian ‘right to the city’ against hegemonic neoliberal agendas.

Young People's Participation

Young people’s participation is an urgent policy and practice concern, across countries and context. This book showcases original research evidence and analysis to consider how, under what conditions and for what purposes young people participate in different parts of Europe. Focusing on the interplay between the concepts of youth, inequality and participation, this book explores how structural changes including economic austerity, neoliberal policies and new patterns of migration affect the conditions of young people’s participation and its aims. With contributions from a range of subject experts, including young people themselves, the book challenges current policies and practices on young people’s participation. As a result, it asks how young people can be better supported to take part in social change and decision-making and what can be learnt from young people’s own initiatives.

‘Culture for Sale’: The Effects of Corporate Colonization on the UK Museum Sector

For the United Kingdom, the 2008 financial crisis coupled with the subsequent economic austerity programme forced many public institutions to engage in various cost-cutting and fundraising ventures. In parallel, corporate ideologies came to dominate how academics, officials and professionals debated public activities, in turn profoundly affecting the provision of communal services. This paper explores how ‘corporate colonization’ ( sensu Deetz, 1992), fuelled by austerity, claims public institutions for commercial interests. Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior staff, this paper demonstrates how retrenchment of external support in the UK museum sector has been an uneven process, resulting in the manifestation of three experiential states of corporate colonization: organizational perennity, organizational perseverance and organizational precarity. We thus investigate the differential and uneven ways in which corporate colonization affects organizations pertaining to the UK cultural sector. Overall, we argue that the austerity culture in the UK affects museums in largely negative ways by forcing them to respond to the progressive need to satisfy short-term financial interests.

Re-defining a decade: Marc Jacobs, Tony Viramontes and the vocabulary of 1980s fashion

Historian James Laver described the cyclical nature of fashion as taking almost 50 years for a particular style or decade to be remembered as romantic. The 1980s are often overlooked by fashion historians as garish or vulgar, best left to the confines of history. During the global financial crisis of 2007‐08, direct quotations from the 1980s and television show Dynasty (1981‐89) appeared on the catwalks of major designers. An interest in the decade of greed and excess was revived in a time of economic austerity: were we dressing up to cover up our financial shortcomings? Fashion is yet again in the midst of a 1980s renaissance; however, in this time of sociopolitical uncertainty, the perspective has shifted as designers immerse themselves in the creativity and showmanship of the decade. One designer at the apex of this resurgence was Marc Jacobs in his Autumn/Winter 2018 catwalk presentation. Although not the first designer to hone in on the trend, Jacobs’ collection was a homage to 1980s popular culture and the showmanship of haute couture. One notable visual influence was the work of fashion illustrator Tony Viramontes (1956‐88), whose genius captured the essence of the decade. Through analysis of the recent vogue for 1980s revivalism, alongside the ingenuity of the decade’s most energic fashion illustrator, Tony Viramontes, this article will attempt to decode Marc Jacobs’ collection for his eponymous label and consider the vocabulary of 1980s fashion as truly worthy of genuine artistic examination by fashion scholars and contemporary fashion designers.

Locating civil society in Marx and Gramsci

This chapter explores the origins and aims of the two phases of the WISERD; research programme on civil society. It examines the first phase research agenda and some research results on: locality, community and civil society; individuals, institutions and governance; economic austerity, social enterprise and inequality; generation, life course and social participation. It also outlines the second phase concern with frontiers of civic exclusion and expansion; polarization, austerity and civic deficit; contentious politics of civic gain; material resources, social innovations and civil repair; and data infrastructure and data integration. The influence of David Lockwood’s account of civic stratification is also explored.

The Forgotten Lives: Connecting Gender, Security, and Everyday Livelihoods in Ukraine's Conflict

Recent debates within Women, Peace and Security (WPS) scholarship (e.g., Bergeron, Cohn, and Duncanson 2017; Elias 2015; True 2015) have underlined the need to position the WPS agenda in the context of broader feminist security analysis as defined by early feminist international relations scholars (e.g., Tickner 1992). More precisely, this requires integrating feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist political economy (FPE). At the center of these largely theoretical reflections is a concern that gender-responsive peace-building efforts have too often been undermined by postwar neoliberal economic processes. This essay provides an empirical contribution to this debate, taking the case study of Ukraine as an atypical example of how WPS has been adopted and implemented for the first time during an active conflict. The integration of FPE and FSS proves especially relevant for a country in conflict, where economic austerity policies come along with increased military expenditure. The essay illustrates that the bridging of security and economy is entirely absent in Ukraine's WPS agenda, which has largely prioritized military security while failing to connect it to the austerity policies and the gendered structural inequalities deepened by the ongoing conflict.

Manifestations of Economic Resilience in Hospitals: What do managers say?

Introduction: The area of healthcare requires crucial measures in the area of economic resilience. Regarding the important role of hospital managers in reaching the healthcare goals and realizing instances of the economic resilience in hospitals, the present study was conducted. The aim was to explore the perception of educational and healthcare centers’ managers in Isfahan regarding the concept and instances of economic resilience in hospitals. Method: The data needed for this qualitative descriptive exploratory study were collected using semi structured interviews With 11 managers of educational and medical centers in Isfahan. Thematic analysis was used for the analysis. Result: The concept of economic resilience included supporting domestic products, productivity, optimal use of resources, economy in consumption, strategic purchase, difference between economic resilience and economic austerity, and moving away from a mono-product oil-based economy. The basic components in instances of economic resilience included: drugs and equipment, human resources, financial management, installation and hoteling, consumption management, management and leadership, and information technology. Conclusion: Due to the lack of a comprehensive definition about the concept of economic resilience from the participants' perspective, the goals of the economic resilience would not be achieved unless the executive authorities in large or small scale administration level conform to the ideas mentioned by the Supreme Leader of Iran.