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Haris Malamidis, Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden
Greece, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9789463722438
(cloth); ISBN: 9789048551460 (ebook)
“No one alone in the crisis”. This has been one of the most popular slogans in Greece
since 2010, and reflects a double reality: on the one hand, the reality of loneliness and
vulnerability created due to the harsh austerity measures; and, on the other hand, the
reality of solidarity and empowerment generated through the polymorphous
grassroots movement that sought to collectively address the increased needs of people
living under austerity. In the last ten years or so, the geographies of counter-austerity
have attracted the interest of scholars in the fields of radical geography, sociology and
political theory who sought to document and theorise the underlying thread of
grassroots anti-austerity initiatives. Haris Malamidis’ book, Social Movements and
Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, which was developed as part of the
author’s PhD research at Scuola Normale Superiore,1 refocuses our attention on anti-
austerity movements in Greece, or what the author calls “alternative repertoires of
action” (p.15).
In this book, Malamidis introduces the term “boundary enlargement”, around
which the whole analysis is structured. Boundary enlargement refers to “a process
where previously defined boundaries are extended” (p. 12), enabling social movement
organisations (henceforth SMOs) to expand their practices and fields of action. The
book’s point of departure is that the 2010 crisis has been the driving force and catalyst
of a process of boundary enlargement for SMOs in terms of both their internal
organisation and their relationship with institutional actors. According to the author,
while boundary enlargement can be identified in various processes, austerity has
motivated a shift of SMOs’ activity from claim-based repertoires to service-oriented
forms of action. Thus, Malamidis’ goal in Social Movements and Solidarity
1 And is available as an open access ebook: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18x4hxs
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Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece is to identify “the mechanisms that constitute the
process of boundary enlargement between 2008 and 2016” (p.16). Bringing together
an innovative conceptual framework with a rich grounded analysis of SMOs in
Greece and beyond, Malamidis contributes to social movement theory by confirming
it or by often challenging its classic agenda and some of its well-established ideas.
Conceptually, the book provides an innovative approach for theorising social
movements. Building his analysis on social movement theory and employing the
framework of Contentious Politics (McAdam et al. 2001), Malamidis recognises that
movements are “dynamic entities which change over time” (p.33). Moving beyond
the dichotomies between structuralist and cultural approaches in social movement
theory, Malamidis constructs a synthetic conceptual framework in which the two
approaches complement each other. He studies both the organisational structure and
resources and the factor of identity of the SMOs under scrutiny with a view to bridge
the two often-conflicting theoretical frameworks. The value in this approach is that
the author succeeds in providing a coherent and holistic picture of SMOs by shedding
light on their different aspects and dimensions.
However, Malamidis does not rest on applying the theoretical framework to
the specific case of SMOs in Greece. Rather, he provides a re-reading of traditional
social movement theory: while he employs terms and definitions that predominate in
social movement theory, he gives new explanations and meanings based on the rich
field research in Greece. In doing so, Malamidis focuses on three social movement
scenes: food (markets without middlemen, collective and social kitchens and
collection and distribution of food parcels); health (social clinics); and labour (social
cooperatives, workers cooperatives, recuperated corporations). The basic criterion for
the selection of these three scenes is that these fields were most acutely affected by
austerity measures. Indeed, the reduction in welfare spending, especially in the fields
of health, social care and education, was one of the most severe consequences of
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austerity measures, and impacted negatively on people’s ability to sustain themselves
and their families (Daskalaki et al. 2021).
In methodological terms, Malamidis offers a grounded analysis of SMOs in
Greece, having undertaken primary ethnographic research with 50 organisations in the
two largest cities in Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki. Based on a rich methodology
which comprises interviews, document analysis and participant observation, the
author simultaneously offers a deep understanding of each different social movement
scene under examination whilst also paying attention to the wider picture, drawing out
a comparative analysis and tracing similarities and differences. To do this, Malamidis
dedicates one chapter to each of the three scenes, where he explores the enlargement
of their boundaries along the axes of the organisational structure, resources and
identity (Chapters 3-5), and he also brings findings together under a comparative
perspective (Chapter 6).
Comparisons between the three social movement scenes are being drawn at
two levels. First, Malamidis discusses a within-case comparison, where he points out
the similarities and differences in the course of development of the three scenes. For
each of the three axes, the author examines key features and compares research
findings among the three scenes but also with dominant ideas in social movement
theory. For example, when discussing the organisational structure, the author
demonstrates that in contrast to the classic agenda of social movement studies, the
existence of networks of collaboration and support between the different repertoires
of action (e.g. markets, clinics and cooperatives) was not a prerequisite for their
development but the outcome of their action. Second, Malamidis engages with a
comparison of the different trajectories observed at the social movement scenes under
examination and highlights the mechanisms and sub-mechanisms that contribute to
the enlargement of their boundaries. It is exactly at this point of the book where it
becomes clear to the reader that the author manages to fulfil his promise; after a
necessarily detailed examination of the three different scenes, the contentious
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mechanisms that shaped the development of the alternative repertoires are clearly
identified and explained.
While the key concern of the author is to analyse SMOs as developed in
Greece, Malamidis also engages in a very interesting and thought-provoking exercise
by trying to make connections outside the Greek context (Chapter 7). In doing so, he
brings Spanish and Argentinian perspectives on SMOs to the forefront by exploring
the provision of unofficial welfare services by social movements. Based on secondary
literature, this part of the book persuasively argues that the boundary enlargement
process can be applied to various socio-political contexts. In the Spanish case, for
example, Malamidis focuses on SMOs active in the fields of housing, health and
education, and discusses the municipalist trend and feminisation of politics. In the
Argentinian case, the author focuses on the unemployment workers’ movement,
neighbourhood assemblies and recuperated factories, and analyses them under the
lens of affective politics – “an embodied form of politics that relies on the human
capacity to understand, listen and cooperate” (Dinerstein 2015: 137).
Motivated by the discussion of the feminisation of politics developed in
Chapter 7, I find that the analysis on boundary enlargement would be greatly enriched
by more frequent references to feminist work on social reproduction and the gendered
aspects of social movements. The shift from claim-based protests to service-oriented
repertoires clearly marks a move towards struggles that are preoccupied with issues of
social reproduction and initiatives engaged in its collectivisation. By now, there is a
rich scholarship that documents the gendered aspects of austerity policies and politics
emphasising that women have been disproportionately hit by austerity measures
(Daskalaki et al. 2021; Vaiou 2014). In parallel, there is literature in the fields of
radical geography and feminist political economy that points out that although anti-
austerity initiatives have not been predominantly structured around feminist ideals and
demands, they have been associated with a feminist praxis and a move into the realm
of social reproduction, care ethics and “quieter” politics (Kouki and Chatzidakis 2021;
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Hall 2018). Building on this body of scholarship, it would be interesting to apply a
feminist lens at the book’s analysis to understand the gendered relations and dynamics
that have been at play within the SMOs examined, and to understand how these
affected the process of boundary enlargement.
To conclude, Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden
Greece is an excellent resource for scholars and activists who wish to dig deeper into
anti-austerity mobilisations but also to understand more recent solidarity initiatives. It
vividly explains how politicisation in Greece has become a process linked to everyday
life under austerity, and how individuals without an activist background became
deeply engaged in collective solidarity initiatives. The significant contribution of the
book lies in the coherent and innovative framework built around the concept of
“boundary enlargement” and supported by concrete empirical evidence. In this way,
Malamidis succeeds in giving fresh insights in social movement theory, and manages
to build a framework that can be useful for explaining more recent social movements,
like the refugee solidarity movement or the mobilisations emerging in the context of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
Daskalaki M, Fotaki M and Simosi M (2021) The gendered impact of the financial
crisis: Struggles over social reproduction in Greece. Environment and
Planning A 53(4):741-762
Dinerstein A C (2015) The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of
Organising Hope. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Hall S M (2018) The personal is political: Feminist geographies of/in austerity.
Geoforum 110:502-506
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Kouki H and Chatzidakis A (2021) Implicit feminist solidarity(ies)? The role of
gender in the social movements of the Greek crisis. Gender, Work, and
Organization 28(3):878-897
McAdam D, Tarrow S and Tilly C (2001) Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Vaiou D (2014) Is the crisis in Athens (also) gendered? Facets of access and
(in)visibility in everyday public spaces. City 18(4/5):533-537
Matina Kapsali
School of Architecture
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
kapsali.matina@gmail.com
July 2021
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