Idealism and Indignation

Applying Inglehart’s postmaterialism theory to a

socio-economically destabilised society

An investigation into the values and tendencies exhibited by the Aganaktismenoi

during the Athens 2011 demonstrations

Candidate Number: 14239

Master of Science in Political Sociology

Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science

Supervisor: Dr Niels Spierings

Word Count: 10,000

1

Acknowledgements

Papers attributed to a single author are misleading. The words might have been written

by one individual but the extensive (and invaluable) network of both psychological and

intellectual support behind the project is obscured. In an attempt to amend this, I wish to

briefly thank all those people who assisted me along my way. Firstly, my gratitude to Niels

Spierings, my supervisor, cannot be adequately expressed here, so I can but hope that he is

already aware of how thankful and indebted I am to him and his guidance. The helpful (and

apologetic) staff in the libraries of Panteion University, the University of Piraeus, and the

National Library should not be forsaken, and neither should Athanasia Iliaki and Panagiotis

Striftos for helping me gain entrance to their universities. Finally, I am eternally grateful to

Vivien Wohsmann for her endless patience and selfless readiness to assist.

Abstract

Greece is a country in turmoil. During the demonstrations in 2011, the Aganaktismenoi movement was

created and occupied Athens’ central square, refusing to leave before those responsible for the economic crisis

resigned. There was, however, far more to them than this simple, militant request. They developed a system of

organisation based on solidarity, self-expression and the responsibility to act, and demanded a greater say in the

running of the state. These values, and others explored in greater detail in the paper, together with their social

profile, are characteristics typical of postmaterialists. Inglehart’s theory on postmaterialism claims that during

times of crises, societies experience a rise of materialism. The Aganaktismenoi are used as a case study to

investigate whether evidence to the contrary can be found. After a substantial review of academic literature that

brings together both English and Greek scholarship in an attempt to create a new basis for discussion on this

unexplored topic, a qualitative content analysis of the organisation, demands and social profile of the protesters,

as observed through coded media articles dating from the time of the protests, is presented. Finally, the essay

concludes that the characteristics exhibited by a certain section of the Aganaktismenoi movement presents

evidence of postmaterial tendencies, thus suggesting that the hitherto ignored topic of Greek postmaterialism

needs to be further probed and Inglehart’s theory of material relapses during times of crisis needs to be revised.

Cover Page Photograph

The photograph of the Aganaktismenoi Cleaning and Environment Unit cleaning Syntagma Square and the

surrounding streets following the use of chemicals by the police on 15 June 2011 was found in the public domain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9312_Greek_protests#mediaviewer/File:Greek_indignants_clea

ning_streets,_day_22.png

2

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 3

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 7

The Theoretical Dimension ........................................................................................................... 7

Reviewing Literature ....................................................................................................................... 8

Content Analysis and Further Discussion ................................................................................... 9

Strengths and Weaknesses ............................................................................................................ 11

THE GREEK BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................ 13

Postmaterialism, Inglehart, and his Critics ................................................................................. 13

Greece and the Greeks ................................................................................................................. 14

Understanding Protests in Greece; Past and Present ............................................................... 17

The Riots and the Crisis ............................................................................................................... 19

DATA AND ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 24

Data Results and Source Analysis ............................................................................................... 24

Organisation of the Aganaktismenoi ............................................................................................. 25

Demands of the Aganaktismenoi ................................................................................................... 27

Social Profile of the Aganaktismenoi ............................................................................................. 30

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 32

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................. 36

APPENDIX A: Timeline of Demonstrations (2010-2011) ........................................................ 52

APPENDIX B: Manifestoes ............................................................................................................ 55

APPENDIX C: Units and Announcements .................................................................................. 57

APPENDIX D: Table of Values and Data Results of Article Coding ...................................... 61

APPENDIX E: Pictures ................................................................................................................... 68

3

INTRODUCTION

Recent events have made it easy to forget that Greece used to be considered a

moderately prosperous European country. Despite its structural shortcomings, the country’s

economic growth, averaging 6%, was the highest among European Economic Community

member states between 1957 and 1966, and Greece continued to economically outperform

most European countries even after the 60s (Thomakakis, 1997: 41, 49-52). The Greek middle

class grew throughout the 80s and 90s following the fall of the military junta in 1974 with a

strengthening of the welfare state and small businesses (and the amassing of astronomical

debt). A mere ten years ago the little Mediterranean country played host to the world for the

2004 Athens Olympic Games which proved to be a – eye-wateringly expensive – triumph.

Experienced in combination with the victory at the European Football Championship 2004

and even the success in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, Greek morale reached an all-time

high. In popular Greek parlance, the year 2004-2005 is commonly referred to as ‘the year God

fell asleep’. However, God was to slowly stir from his celestial slumber and first in 2008, and

then in 2011, submerge the Greeks in bitter conflict with their all too familiar social, political

and economic foes.

The crisis and its effects on Greece’s politics, society and economy have been widely

explored by academics, politicians and journalists from both Greece and abroad. The rise in

unemployment, taxes, homelessness and violence, combined with the decline in social and

political trust, average income, and pensions mean the majority of Greeks are now struggling

for survival. In this bleak climate of economic and mental depression (Κολτσίδα, 2012: 35), a

very interesting and, some would argue, counterintuitive phenomenon took place. In 2011, a

non-partisan social movement with strong ideological and organisational ties to the Spanish

Indignados, calling itself Kinima Aganaktismenon Politon (Movement of Indignant/Desperate

4

Citizens) or simply Aganaktismenoi (pronounced Ah-gah-nah-ktee-smeh-nee), took over

Syntagma Square in central Athens and refused to leave until its demands were met.

Those demands, although multifaceted and broad, can be summarised in two ways.

Firstly, the Aganaktismenoi made an emotional appeal for equality, justice and dignity in the face

of what they viewed (albeit from various moral and ethical vantage points) as the government’s

betrayal. Secondly, through their various elected announcements, they presented multiple

demands ranging from ‘real’, ‘deep’ and ‘direct’ democracy, to freedom of expression and

assembly, and rights for women and immigrants (see Appendix E). These were of course

accompanied by the more traditional calls for jobs, security and an end to austerity. But what

makes the Aganaktismenoi movement and its demands interesting is that it might offer a glimpse

into Greece’s neglected postmaterial culture.

The presence of postmaterialism in Greece has long been denied by both citizens and

academics. Living in a traditionally materialist society, Greeks have developed a certain cynical

and belittling approach to postmaterialist values, portraying them as utopian, irrelevant or

socialist wishful thinking. The latter is a heated matter in a country that was torn apart by a

Civil War between Royalists and Communists between 1946 and 1949 (Baerentzen, 1987: 4).

The conflict and subsequent harsh treatment of communists by the victors and the Junta

regime (1967-74) affected both the Left’s character (reactionary and anti-systemic) and divided

society’s perception of it (problematic and juvenile, or cheated and misunderstood). Most post-

Junta strikes, protests and demonstrations staged in Athens have been organised and

supported by parties of the Greek Left and affiliated trade unions. Indeed, protesting itself is

considered a citizen’s duty by many Greeks and the 1st May, together with the 3rd September,

are traditional days of demonstration throughout the country.

Lastly, strong bonds within patriarchal families and the legacy of Greek Orthodoxy

shaped a society in which postmaterialism struggles to take root. Thus, if postmaterialism is

5

found to be part of the Aganaktismenoi movement, allowances need to be made for the style of

its manifestation, as it might have been modelled by Greece’s particularities. Consequently, the

overwhelming majority of work on Greek society and protests takes an approach based on

materialist values. In contrast, the present paper will focus on trying to find elements that hint

at postmaterial values in order to bring balance to the movement’s narrative. This is not to say

the essay suffers from a postmaterial bias, but merely that it employs an Inglehartian lens to

analyse the Aganaktismenoi, instead of viewing Greek protesters as de facto materialistic.

When the crisis hit, according to Inglehart’s theory on social value change, Greek

society should have reinforced its materialist convictions and drawn inspiration for the ensuing

demonstrations from them. Despite all odds, the Aganaktismenoi’s organisational style, their

demands, and their social and political make-up, might suggest that something very rare

happened in Athens: protesters in a crisis-hit country might have displayed postmaterial values.

The movement’s participants disavowed violence and through the Popular Assembly elected

their aims and demands. Although their proclamations did not reflect the views of the majority

but rather a mixed representation of the values of those participating in the assemblies, the

Aganaktismenoi need to be assessed using Inglehart’s theory of value change to determine

whether some Greeks are developing a postmaterial culture, as some of their beliefs and

actions suggest (Inglehart, 1971: 991).

The literature on this topic is embarrassingly scarce. Greece presents academia with a

rare opportunity to observe a society of young, indignant individuals at odds with the past and

with what they perceive to be corrupt, outdated and egoistic values and mind-sets. Despite the

importance of such a development, rooted as much in the traditional causes for a value shift

outlined by Inglehart, as in the violent break with the past the Aganaktismenoi pursued,

academics have failed to see this potential. Many papers flirt with the concept of

postmaterialism by hinting at new values, novel organisational styles, substantial breaks with

6

tradition and traditional values, and newfound interest in communal action, but very few make

an effort to explain them within the conceptual framework of Inglehart’s theory.

Therefore, this paper shall seek evidence of mixed and postmaterialist values in the

actions and identity of the Aganaktismenoi in order to encourage future in-depth research on

this topic. More precisely, the question guiding the research will be whether a socio-economic

crisis can allow the existence of – and even help develop – postmaterial values, and whether

evidence of such a tendency can be found in the organisation, demands and goals, and socio-

political profile of the Aganaktismenoi. It is important to answer this for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the existence of these universal values would help explain the ease with which the

Indignados movement spread from Spain to Greece. Secondly, any potential move towards

postmaterialism in Greece is worth analysing as part of the country’s cultural and social

development, regardless of how limited and ambiguous the evidence might be at the moment.

Indeed, even the absence of postmaterialism in a country with as promising a socio-economic

context as Greece, is worth studying. Furthermore, framing the demands and organisational

style of the Aganaktismenoi within the materialist/postmaterialist debate could offer a new

vocabulary for further analyses of ongoing social and political changes in Greece. Finally, if

enough evidence can be found to suggest a postmaterialist culture is developing there,

Inglehart’s hypothesis that crises lead to relapses into materialism would have to be

reconsidered (Inglehart and Baker, 2000: 40-41).

Due to space limitations, the investigation of this piece is restricted to the 2011

demonstrations in Athens, although the riots of 2008 will serve as an introduction to the

collective psyche of Greek protesters. Based on a qualitative content analysis of news articles,

it analyses the actions and values of the protesters. It is expected that enough evidence of

postmaterialism will be found to correlate the Aganaktismenoi movement with a budding

postmaterial culture in Greece.

7

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

This paper undertakes to study hitherto academically neglected aspects of Greek

society. It does this by dividing research and analysis into two sections. The first deals with the

review of literature on postmaterialism and value change, Greek society and history, and the

protests against austerity in Greece. The second section analyses the Aganaktismenoi movement

as a potential platform for the expression of postmaterial values by using secondary material

to create a narrative of the 2011 demonstrations, and the discussion of the results of the

qualitative content analysis of contemporary media sources.

The Theoretical Dimension

The understanding of postmaterialism and cultural value change instructing this

analysis stems directly from Ronald Inglehart’s work. The shift to postmaterialism he describes

is the collective redefinition of an industrial society’s (or a segment of a given industrial

society’s) values to ideals and beliefs that are different from the material ones predating them.

These values are usually developed by a group of people socialised at a time of economic and

social stability, and include ideals such as preferences for less impersonal societies, more

idealistic solutions to problems, and a greater say in their governments and professional lives

(Inglehart, 1997: 108-109).

There are certain shortcomings and pitfalls in the application of Inglehart’s theory that

need to be addressed. Inglehart himself conceded individuals are subject to short-term

influences (Abramson and Inglehart, 1992: 218; Duch and Taylor, 1993: 747). In Greece, these

are of immense importance as many people who were postmaterialists prior to the crisis might

be displaying materialistic tendencies today (Inglehart, 1997: 138). Assessing the existence of

postmaterialists before the crisis would require a similar qualitative analysis to the one used in

this paper, since data on the values of Greeks are few and inconclusive, as many academics

8

often complain (Lyberaki, 2002: 2; Christoforou and Tsakalatos, 2003: 11; Paraskevopoulos,

2007: 5; Λαδή, 2007: 308-309). Likewise, this paper does not focus on achieving 'certain'

results, but on stressing their 'uniqueness', as it cannot hope to conclusively prove

postmaterialism's establishment in Greek society, making it what van Evera calls a 'smoking-

gun test'. Consequently, the research is highly unique, but the certitude of the hypothesis low

(van Evera, 1997: 30-35). The form of this test is a result of postmaterialism’s need for careful

and systematic analysis spanning a period of years in order to be successfully observed (Van

Deth, 1983: 77) as opposed to the mere months this paper covers due to space and time

limitations.

Reviewing Literature

The literature consulted mostly treats the history and development of Greek politics,

society, and economy, as well as postmaterialism and value change in post-industrial societies.

These topics are analysed and discussed to create a comprehensive picture of Greece and its

citizens, and a solid basis from where to explore Greece’s hypothetical developing postmaterial

culture. Also, the dominant literature and approaches on Greek society and anti-austerity

demonstrations will be outlined and criticised. The material was assembled through extensive

physical and digital research. Most of the Greek papers and books cited were consulted in the

libraries of the University of Piraeus, the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences,

and the National Library of Greece. In the latter, it was discovered that no books published

after 2008 had been acquired: an example of the academic stagnation afflicting Greece and

consequently this paper, caused primarily by insufficient government funds for public

universities and libraries. Similarly, it emerged that the major school of Social and Political

Sciences in Athens possesses more publications on postmaterialism in Modern Greek

literature than on postmaterialism in Modern Greek society.

9

Content Analysis and Further Discussion

The material used to evaluate the postmaterial nature of the Aganaktismenoi includes

academic articles and books, as well as media sources dating from the protests of the Spring,

Summer and Autumn of 2011. News articles were chosen as sources representing Greek

society despite their infamy as biased (Χριστίδης, 2013: 58-60), since they present a powerful

and influential lens, despite their vilification by the protesters (Κοντοχρήστου, 2007: 276-278).

The news articles were sourced online, written in Greek and published by three major daily

newspapers: Eleutherotypia, I Kathimerini, and To Vima, as well as on the website of Greek

television channel SKAI TV. These agencies were chosen on the basis of their relative

reliability and political stance. Eleutherotypia and To Vima are both centre-left newspapers, the

former maintaining a non-partisan social democratic stance, while the latter supported the

socialist party PASOK (now renamed Elia). I Kathimerini and SKAI TV, on the other hand, are

both affiliated with the centre-right, and the latter adopts a strong liberal and pro-European

stance. Particular aspects of events they choose to focus on are viewed critically and with the

suggested biases in mind.

The online archives of all four media outlets provide a search engine for visitors. The

method employed for all searches was straightforward: Aganaktismenoi was the sole key word

used and the dates aimed for ranged from 15 May 2011, the first day of the Indignados

movement in Spain and ten days before the Aganaktismenoi took to the streets of Athens, to 28

October of the same year, the national day of Greece and the date of symbolic anti-

government action (see Appendix A). Using the same key word for all searches ensured the

subject of the articles remained similar. In total, exactly 190 articles are employed to assess the

2011 demonstrations (54 from To Vima, 41 from Eleutherotypia, 53 from I Kathimerini, and 42

from SKAI TV: 95 articles from each political perspective).

10

To code their content, a simple numerical value ranging from -3 to -1 for material

concepts and +1 to +3 for postmaterial ones is attributed to words/phrases, events and

characteristics found in the articles that are inherent to either materialism or postmaterialism

(see Appendix D). The attributed rating is based on the assessed veracity of the article and the

primary or secondary influence of the value described (e.g. reports of collective action are

considered weak evidence of postmaterialism as their cause are not ascribed, but a statement

from the Public Assembly calling for direct democracy is seen as strong evidence). Articles

offering a total value between -3 and +3 shall be referred to as ‘inconclusive’ since they are

not descriptive enough of either position. Inglehart’s ‘mixed’ term is avoided because it is

potentially misleading, as all articles used present diverse views since the demonstrations were

made up of individuals with differing and sometimes conflicting ideologies. For statistical

information, the paper turns primarily to data released by the European Commission and

Parliament (EUROSTAT), the Hellenic Statistical Authority (EL.STAT.), and Kapa Research

(Κάπα Research), the latter being the most common source of statistics on Greek public

opinion among media outlets in the country.

Using media sources presents certain drawbacks. The key word Aganaktismenoi means

both ‘desperate’ and ‘indignant’ in Greek and is employed to describe anti-austerity protesters

in general. Unlike the term Indignados coined by the Spanish media, the protesters called

themselves Aganaktismenoi to connect with the international wave of indignation. This

ambiguity meant a careful reading of the events described and a comparison of the dates on

which they were written with dates on which the Aganaktismenoi were active was necessary to

ensure all articles used refer to the Aganaktismenoi movement. The term remains somewhat

vague throughout, as the extent and frequency of participation of those affiliated with the

movement is unknown and largely impossible to determine. Furthermore, the media are

expected to cater to the perceived interests of their target audiences (Otto, 2013: 556-557),

potentially skewing their accounts of events. The limitations inherent in the media due to their

11

respective interests and agendas render the coding process and subsequent analysis somewhat

idiosyncratic, as they are necessarily reliant on the author’s ability to decode, criticise and assess

(Otto, 2013: 563-565).

Strengths and Weaknesses

This study is necessarily limited by the subjectivity of the sources used, while

unavoidable space and time limitations render it impossible to conduct research covering all

aspects left undiscussed by academics. Therefore, the literature review and analysis only cover

aspects directly relevant to the topic, although a more extensive discussion would be beneficial.

This paper partly intends to encourage the formation of a debate surrounding the social,

economic and political conditions influencing postmaterialism in Greece. The qualitative and

quantitative content analyses are rudimentary and although they serve well to support the

argument made here, they are unsuitable for a more empirically rigorous study. Finally, due to

the value calculation method used here, two articles might be labelled numerically equal whose

content is actually very dissimilar. The qualitative analysis of the results will attempt to amend

this illusion.

The lack of work available on the subject simultaneously represents both one of this

paper’s main weaknesses and strengths, as it contributes to an understudied topic. The research

presented in the literature review joins Greek and English sources with important theoretical

and factual contributions which have so far not been read in conjunction with each other.

Combined with the analysis of the media sources and the academic work describing and

explaining the protests, an interesting new interpretation of the protesters, their motives, and

actions emerges. The qualitative content analysis avoids the major pitfalls of this research

method by taking into account Berelson’s warnings, especially his insistence on analysing the

events discussed in articles and not only the written context in which they are found. Finally,

12

by analysing the protests using categories (material/postmaterial) the journalists were most

probably unaware of when composing the articles, this paper ensures research is conducted

under the most unbiased conditions possible (Berelson, 1952: 196-198).

13

THE GREEK BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE

REVIEW

Postmaterialism, Inglehart, and his Critics

Maslow created a pyramidal hierarchy of individual needs that has shaped our

understanding of human priorities and wants, the timeless Hierarchy of Needs theory (Maslow,

1954). He contends that once the most basic physical needs are met, the individual graduates

to the next level of the pyramid in search of successively less material and more symbolic and

expressive goals. Inglehart used this theory as the basis for his study of social value change in

post-industrial countries. His understanding of postmodernity, of which postmaterialism is the

social characteristic, encompasses a society where basic needs have been largely met and

people are able to strive towards goals beyond those necessary for immediate survival.

According to Inglehart, industrial societies value the achievement of social status

through economic prioritization and de-emphasize communal obligations before the

inexorable march of social mobility, while postmaterialism, in post-industrial societies, brings

about a value and lifestyle change. This will be marked by a resurgence of communal action

and the need to belong, the rejection of absolute rules and the acceptance of diversity. The

above principles are also accompanied by the importance of self-expression, the tolerance of

ambiguity and, in the larger picture, a rejection of instrumental rationality, a revaluation of

tradition, and the rise of new lifestyles as ways to counter modernity (Inglehart and Baker,

2000: 19, 40).

The majority of academics criticising Inglehart do not reject his theory per se, but seek

to revise it, taking issue with his labelling of the cleavage he identifies (Flanagan, 1987; Hellevik,

1993). Flanagan claims the dimensions Inglehart calls material and postmaterial are in fact

“authoritarian” and “libertarian”. Their major difference arises from their understanding of

14

materialist views, some of which Flanagan terms authoritarian because, unlike material values,

they lack an economic dimension, but are different in outlook and ideology to postmaterial

values (Flanagan, 1987: 1304-1305). This distinction does not affect the present study since

authoritarian and material concepts belong to the same family of ideologies and can, therefore,

be treated under the umbrella term of ‘materialist’. The same applies to Hellevik’s

conceptualisation of “change” versus “stability” and “outer-oriented” versus “inner-oriented”

as substitutes for materialism and postmaterialism (Hellevik, 1993: 211). These will be taken

into account and used as prisms through which to identify postmaterialism when analysing the

protests, but shall be subsumed under Inglehart’s terminology for the sake of simplicity.

Inglehhart’s theory’s versatility, which allows for the above incorporations,

encompasses not only the concepts named above, but even older work done by Kerlinger on

social attitudes and Eysenck on radicalism-conservatism and toughmindedness-

tendermindedness, which are both taken into account (Kerlinger, 1979; Eysenck, 1954).

Because of its flexibility and wide perspective, Inglehart’s theory is ideal for exploring the

values of a rarely discussed society such as Greece. Especially useful for this paper is Inglehart’s

revision of his work to include greater detail on traditional ideals. He went on to contend that,

inherited by societies through their cultural past, traditional values make cultural change ‘path

dependent’ (Inglehart, 1997: 108-112). Therefore, it is imperative to keep in mind Greece’s

particularities, as its ‘interpretation’ of postmaterialism might not mirror that of Western and

Northern Europe.

Greece and the Greeks

Traditional Greek society is based on two core concepts; the family and the Church.

The family is patriarchal and authoritarian in nature with the father in charge of the family’s

welfare and protection, in return for which loyalty and submission are expected (Χριστίδης,

15

2013: 23). Even in Greek politics, families hold a feudalistic stranglehold on power through

connections established over three or four generations of political careers (Mouzelis, 1979:

133). Unsurprisingly, this tradition of submission is one of the main aspects the Greek youth

has taken issue with since the fall of the junta. Their framing encapsulates a perception of the

political system as elitist, corrupt and inflexible, catering only to its own survival instead of its

citizens’ welfare (Karamichas, 2009: 291). This is best summarised by the somewhat excessive

but poignant “Manson Family: Kill Your Parents” slogan found on the walls of Thessaloniki

during the 2008 riots. And since Greece is Europe’s second oldest society behind Germany,

with 20.1% of the population aged over 65, its youth might well feel oppressed (EUROSTAT,

2010-2012). With an older generation insistent on the ways of the past and less likely to retire

and make room for younger workers in the current crisis, the idea that it is to blame for the

troubles of the present takes root.

Furthermore, the exchange of populations taking place during and after the Greco-

Turkish War of 1919-1922 resulted in an unusually religiously uniform population (Mazower,

2001: 118-119) that persists today: the official number of Greek Orthodox citizens reaches

98%, although the actual number of believers is closer to 85% (Greek Helsinki Minority

Report, 2002). National identity in Greece, although constitutionally flexible, is shaped around

Greek Orthodoxy, as the national narrative places the Church at the centre of the revolutionary

movement of 1821 (Mazower, 2001: 62). As Pollis put it, in Greece “the ethnos, religion and

the state constitute an organic whole” (Pollis, 1993: 355).

Overall, strong family bonds and traditional values supported by the notoriously

anachronistic Greek Orthodox Church create a barren ground for the seed of postmaterialism

(Danopoulos, 2004: 51). The main debate that has formed around them concerns their

influence on the growth of social capital and, subsequently, civil society (both chronically

anaemic in Greece). These are important as a strong civil society has a positive effect on

16

postmaterialism, as it encourages communal action. Lyberaki and Paraskevopoulos argue the

Church and family are influential in this respect, with the former pointing to the correlation

between the small number of associational memberships and the reliance on family

connections as part of Greece’s well established hierarchical clientelist networks (Lyberaki,

2002: 34-36). Paraskevopoulos echoes her argument and emphasises the lack of social trust as

another by-product of the hierarchical and insular nature of the family and its carefully

established network which renders everything and everyone outside it ‘untrustworthy’

(Paraskevopoulos, 2007: 16). Finally, Fokas argues that the traditional and unbending stance

of the Greek Orthodox Church is hardly inspirational for modernisation and change (Fokas,

2008: 11).

Koltsida, however, using data from EUROSTAT’s 2010-2012 database for her

research on social capital development in crisis-hit Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, points

out that Spain, ranking second behind Ireland for social capital accumulation, has a similar

social make-up to Greece with similarly strong familial bonds and an influential Catholic

Church (Κολτσίδα, 2012: 34). Therefore, the influence of these two institutions does not

sufficiently explain Greece’s poor social performance. Besides, Poupos claims the problem of

Greece’s ailing social capital does not lie with its society, but with the lack of political will to

improve the conditions that lead to low social capital, such as poor education (Πούπος, 2010:

265-268). Improving education and clamping down on corruption and dysfunctional

institutions, however, only improves the chances of a society developing social capital and a

healthy civil society, and does in no way guarantee it.

Moreover, Koltsida argues the economic crisis has led to a record low social capital in

Greece by worsening living conditions and eroding state institutions (Κολτσίδα, 2012: 44).

What she fails to notice – and Simiti in her analysis of the demonstration of 2011 only mentions

in passing – is the social capital produced as a result of the crisis (Simiti, 2014: 7). Greece’s 2008

17

riots and the later crisis mark a departure point in the collective minds of the country’s youth,

as the seemingly prosperous past constructed by the previous generation was proven to be

nothing but an illusion based on corruption and lies. Thus, many young people trust

themselves and their cohorts more than individuals of previous generations. They espouse

new values that are seen as more ideological and morally sound than the immoral and

materialistic values of those they blame for the crisis, although some are still cautious towards

technological development and foreign influence (Δήμου, 2013: 9). This results in an increase

in citizen initiatives, grassroots groups, and contentious action. Stavrou discusses this attitude

shift in his paper on the demonstrators of Syntagma but fails to make the connection to social

capital and, as will be argued later on, postmaterialism (Σταύρου, 2011: 34-36).

Understanding Protests in Greece; Past and Present

Greece is no stranger to demonstrations. Various academics trace the Athenian

tradition of protest through numerous historical events and ideological influences, the two

most salient of which are discussed here: the historical and cultural heritage of the antagonism

between the Left and the state, and the symbolic significance of the Polytechnic uprisings

against the Junta in 1973. The Left in Greece, as Rüdig and Karyotis point out, has a strong

grip on the nature, direction, purpose, and focus of the country’s demonstrations (Rüdig and

Karyotis, 2014: 487-490). Demonstrators often establish ties to the socialist and communist

past through the slogans they chant during marches and protests (Κασσίου, 1997: 3). These

usually either contain references to older events or are re-mastered versions of slogans

previously used by Leftist protesters. For example, the ‘Bread, Education, Freedom’ chant

employed by Polytechnic students, is now ‘Bread, Education, Freedom: the Junta did not end

in ’73’. The idealisation of communism is also linked to the active role Greek communists

played in the country’s resistance movement during the German occupation in the Second

18

World War (Kornetis, 2010: 174). Their final defeat at the hands of the Royalists and their

American and British allies at the end of the Civil War marked the communists as martyrs of

the brutality and corruption of the elite and international interests (Μητροπούλου, 1984: 60).

Society’s attachment to anti-systemic communists leads to a culture sympathetic towards acts

of violence and resistance to the state, and one where citizens that espouse socialist actions are

not necessarily socialists, as Andronikou and Kovras argue (Andronikou and Kovras, 2012:

715).

SYRIZA, a populist radical left political party leading the polls in Greece at the time

of writing (Κάπα Research, 2014), has been the main proponent of both populist and Left

values since the 2011 demonstrations and the most successful party in harnessing Greek

indignation. Diakoumakos, one of the few Greek academics to have examined Greek society

from a materialist/postmaterialist perspective, identifies SYRIZA as the party closest to

postmaterialist demands such as the rights of women, gays, and immigrants (Diakoumakos,

2012). The party’s popularity among the young might be partially explained by its appeal to

postmaterial voters who have no other alternative and its supporting role in the 2011 protests.

The Polytechnic represents another major milestone in the history of Greek protests.

The hatred towards authority that often fuels demonstrations and protests in Athens largely

results from the violent suppression of the freedom of speech, press, and self-expression under

the Junta (Samatas, 1987: 30). Interestingly, Ignazi points out a major political and cultural

shift in Greek politics following the Polytechnic uprising and the state of the Metapolitefsi (post-

Junta) era: New Democracy, the ruling party in the first Metapolitefsi years, pursued a policy

which dictated a necessary break with the past. He further argues it was the successful pursuit

of this policy that allowed Greece to be free of any perceptibly influential extreme right-wing

party up until a few years ago when Golden Dawn managed to re-create a strong symbolic

bond with what it labels the ‘glorious Greek past’ (Ignazi, 2003: 192-194).

19

The Metapolitefsi governments pursued policies encouraging individualism, the

shunning of work as a social good and the shifting of blame to others, as part of their neoliberal

‘modernisation’ agenda (Παπασαραντόπουλος, 2012: 31-32). Papasarantopoulos, among other

Greek academics, insists on the corrosive effect those years had on Greek society (Γκρίτζαλης,

2004: 255; Giovanpoulos, 2011; Leontidou, 2011: 300). Individualism and corporatism

seemingly ruined the social fabric of a country based on strong local ties, an argument

supported by Mazower’s assessment of Greek reliance on patrimonialism as a relic of rural

lifestyles where business was settled between individuals (Mazower, 2001: 133-134). The spirit

of the Polytechnic Uprising lived on during the Metapolitefsi, especially among university and

school students radicalised in 1990-1991, 1998-2000 and 2006-2007 (Giovanopoulos and

Dalakoglou, 2011: 91-92). By the time of the riots of 2008, however, another break with the

past was occurring. Leaflets distributed at the time criticised how the Greek youth had been

observing uprisings occurring abroad without attempting any of their own, resting instead on

the laurels of the Polytechnic (Kornetis, 2010: 180).

The Riots and the Crisis

The riots of 2008 in Greece mark a watershed moment in the country’s history of

protesting. Sparked by the allegedly accidental police shooting of 15 year-old student

Alexandros Grigoropoulos on 6 December 2008, they spread to many urban areas around the

country and lasted approximately three weeks. The speed with which they expanded and the

wide participation they enjoyed are testament to the deeper social concerns that lay at their

heart (Petropoulou, 2010). Most attempts to explain the unrest focus on material concerns of

the young, namely the worsening employment prospects, the aggressive restructuring of the

educational system, and the economic crisis which had not yet hit Greece itself, but was seen

as symbolic of capitalism’s failure (Sotiris, 2010: 203-204; Βερέμης, 2008, Αλιβιζάτος, 2009:

20

196-201). Sotiris, however, tries to go beyond such conventional descriptions and points out

the originality of the movement. The fact that it attracted individuals from all social classes

and ethnic backgrounds combined with the informal self-organisation mostly realised through

social media and the acceptance of violence, even by peaceful youths, as a method of

communication, all made the 2008 riots unique (Sotiris, 2010: 205-209). They can be viewed

as the incubators for the spirit that was to take over Syntagma Square three years later.

Douzinas and Diakoumakos provide exceptional insights into the links between the

protests of 2008 and 2011. Others offer extensive descriptions which are invaluable for

studying the riots, but contain little originality, exclusively focusing on policy failures,

economic conditions, and cultural particularities as causes (Simiti, 2014; Featherstone, 2009;

Anastasakis, 2009; Dafermos, 2009; Papadimitriou, 2009; Paganides, 2009; Smith, 2009).

Simiti, in particular, offers a historical and cultural background summary of the 2011 protests

that is used as a basis for this study’s analysis, but her own investigation is anchored in a

partisan understanding of Greek street politics which, although influential, does little to explain

the non-partisan elements exhibited by the Aganaktismenoi.

Douzinas, on the other hand, draws some excellent theoretical and empirical parallels

between 2008 and 2011. He argues they were both demonstrations without clear demands and

goals, and were created by marginalised groups establishing their presence in the social and

political spheres by force. Furthermore, he argues the anger exhibited by the 2008 protesters

was the rougher, uncut version of the anger that fuelled the Aganaktismenoi in 2011 (Douzinas,

2011: 156-164). Diakoumakos, the only academic to clearly incorporate postmaterialism in his

work on 2008, contends that a purely economic argument cannot explain the very active

involvement of middle-class and middle-upper-class youth in the riots. To those arguing for

the structural pathogeny of Greek society as a contributing factor, he retorts it is no novelty

in Greece and does in no way explain the timing of the riots (Diakoumakos, 2012: 2-6).

21

One of the main concerns of the demonstrators was not losing the traditional lifestyle

of “getting a degree, getting a job, creating a family, be a consumer, have your children live

with you until they get a degree”, but, indeed, getting it (Gavrilidis, 2009: 16). Diakoumakos

goes on to suggest the 2008 protests could be the Greek version of what Inglehart considered

the 1968 riots in France to be; the clearest manifestation of the postmaterialism phenomenon

(Diakoumakos, 2012: 10; Inglehart, 1977: 267-284). In addition, Petropoulou, Dalakoglou, and

Leontidou all point to the demand for ‘the right to the city’ protesters made (Petropoulou,

2010: 215; Dalakoglou, 2012: 537; Leontidou, 2010: 1180). The right to the city is, as described

by Lefebvre in Writing on Cities, the demand not simply over a public space, but the right to

change ourselves by changing the places where we live (Lefebvre, 1996: 1-5). Moreover, it is a

common rather than individual right, as it depends on a collective power and as such is clearly

postmaterial, because it insists on aesthetics and emphasises community over individuality.

The present paper will explore the salience of the above tendencies in the more inclusive and

diverse 2011 demonstrations.

In some ways, the demonstrations of 2011 were a more mature, level-headed, and

poignant version of the unrests of 2008 (Kotzias, 2012: 486). Despite the negative portrayal

of the Greek Aganaktismenoi by the foreign press as an uncooperative, unruly rabble, as

opposed to the Spanish Indignados’ measured demands for reform (Τσώμου, 2011: 124), their

democratic and pacifist sensitivities were visible even before the creation of the movement.

When in the 5 May 2010 demonstration three people were killed in central Athens, protesters

created a shrine to them and the feeling of guilt for the unnecessary loss of life most probably

delayed the Aganaktismenoi’s appearance in Greek streets for another year (Μιχοπούλου, 2012:

32). The protesters who (re)took to the streets after 2008 carried less of the historical and

cultural baggage that former Greek demonstrators had, thanks to the absolving qualities of the

2008 riots which broke with tradition and paved the way for a renewed, fresh type of

contention through which values previously suppressed could be expressed. The fact that

22

thousands of the people who made their way to Syntagma had never protested before

(Κυριακοπούλου, 2011) only added to the freshness of the movement.

Due to Greece’s traditional values, weak civil society, and materialism’s cultural

hegemony, alternative culture has had only one outlet: protest activism. This is the approach

taken by Theocharis, the second and last academic to be mentioned here who has studied

postmaterialism in Greece. He argues that young people who are marginalised as

postmaterialists in a predominantly materialist society, have no outlet for their values and

beliefs other than protest and the Internet (Theocharis, 2011: 203-205). Both, collective action

and the use of technology, are positively correlated with education and, more importantly,

postmaterialism. Because of Greece’s weak civil society, the Internet has the ability to function

as the primary place for likeminded individuals to meet, discuss and argue about their beliefs,

thus offering Greek postmaterial thoughts a much needed outlet. Theocharis’ results showing

a positive correlation between internet use and contentious action, although promising for the

purposes of this paper as the Aganaktismenoi were originally formed online, are not entirely

persuasive. Searching for postmaterialists online is a relatively safe exercise, considering the

typically high numbers of educated youth using the cyber world, but the ability of the web to

transform online indignation to street indignation remains inconclusive. By analysing a survey

on contentious action participation, Diakoumakos and Tsouparopoulou show most young

demonstrators learned about protests and joined them because of television reports, not the

internet, further upsetting Theocharis’ argument (Διακουμάκος and Τσουπαροπούλου, 2011:

7). A study of the actual demonstrations is therefore necessary to deduce whether

postmaterialism truly exists beyond Greece’s online domain.

Apart from Theocharis and Diakoumakos, no academics have assessed the values

expressed in and through the 2011 protests using Inglehart’s terminology. A common

observation among academics and journalists about the Syntagma Square demonstration

23

involves the division of protesters into those of the ‘upper square’ and ‘lower square’, with

separate characteristics, agendas, and social profiles. The dominant method of protest in the

upper square included verbal abuse against MPs and the framing of the conflict centred on the

concepts of ‘national betrayal’ and the need for punishment. They exhibited characteristics of

religiousness, nationalism and patriotism by waving flags and referring to the ‘glorious past’ of

the Greek nation (Simiti, 2014: 8).

The lower square, on the other hand, was dominated by the encampment. These

protesters experimented with direct democracy, adopted horizontal decision-making processes

and organised the Popular Assembly. They used cosmopolitan terminology, made extensive

use of social media and had experience from the Global Justice Movement, the Anti-War

Movement and the World Social Forum, and organised protests in unison with Pan-European

demonstrations (Simiti, 2014: 10). Kosmatopoulos and Kavadas do not agree with the division

of the square into two, as they argue that people moved freely between both ends, thus making

it impossible to create a coherent social profile for either part (Κοσματόπουλος, 2011: 127-

128; Καβάδας, 2011: 401). Although they are right to point out the difficult task set before

social profilers, their outright denial of the separate characters of the two ends of the square

is exaggerated and misleading. The duality was and is undeniable, as all sources indicate that

even though people participated in both ends of the square, they did so by adopting the

respective method favoured on each side (Σταύρου, 2011; Leontidou, 2012; Simiti, 2014).

24

DATA AND ANALYSIS

Data Results and Source Analysis

The first two data sets (see Appendix D) derived from the social democratic

newspapers reveal a clear trend: 52% of the articles from To Vima and 49% from Eleutherotypia

received positive scores, while approximately 30% of articles from each paper were given

negative values. These results seem to indicate that certain aspects of the 2011 demonstrations

can be labelled postmaterial. In addition, many of the inconclusive articles contained extensive

documentation of postmaterial values which were, however, overshadowed by the media’s

focus on the economy and parliamentary politics. I Kathimerini’s articles were the most divided,

with positive and negative articles each making up about 40% of that sample. Finally, SKAI

TV, although leaning towards a clearer representation of postmaterialism than I Kathimerini,

attained the highest ratio of inconclusive articles at 31%. This did not result from conflicting

values, but the lack of opinion pieces, making the vast majority of the articles alternatives for

a bird’s eye view of the demonstrations and the parliamentary deliberations that were taking

place simultaneously.

To Vima yielded the most positive results, despite its focus on Greece’s economic and

political scene. The main reason why To Vima, and to a lesser extent Eleutherotypia, scored

highest was their willingness to approach the Aganaktismenoi and interview some of their core

members. Because these journalists observed and partook in the events they described, their

articles outline the inner workings of the Aganaktismenoi and the values driving their actions.

This approach increased the average score per positive article for To Vima, with articles scoring

on average 7.7, as opposed to the 6.1, 6.6 and 5.3 respectively yielded by Eleutherotypia, I

Kathimerini and SKAI TV.

While the two centre-left newspapers supported the Aganaktismenoi movement, I

Kathimerini and SKAI TV were generally critical and occasionally openly hostile towards them.

25

In I Kathimerini, a disparaging tone often prevailed when describing the Aganaktismenoi, their

demands and their direct democratic processes; possibly resulting from the traditional

animosity between Left and Right in Greece and assumptions that all demonstrations are

organised by Leftists. Moreover, SKAI and I Kathimerini tended to treat the more violent

actions of the upper square as representative of the Aganaktismenoi movement as a whole, thus

misrepresenting the values of the lower square. This emphasis on violence distorted the

narrative of the newspaper and clashed with the peaceful, pro-democratic nature of the

encampment. The amount of negative and inconclusive values in these two sources resulted

from superficial descriptions of the Aganaktismenoi and a focus on traditional material

considerations and explanations. Alternatively, any engagement with the protesters was pre-

determined by guided questions (e.g. “Are you angry with the government?”).

The following discussion is informed by the above material and the work of academics

who participated in and directly witnessed the Aganaktismenoi movement.

Organisation of the Aganaktismenoi

Before – and partly during – the occupation of Syntagma Square, the Aganaktismenoi

organised themselves online (Δασκαλάκης, 2013: 86). This was equally true for the Indignados

movement in Spain which, Castells in Networks of Outrage and Hope claims, was influenced by

the use of the Internet and its ‘largely unfettered deliberation and coordination of action’

(Castells, 2012: 7), thus allowing the Indignados and the Aganaktismenoi to develop what

Deligiaouri labelled a ‘metademocratic theory’ (Δεληγκιαούρη, 2011: 178). The creation of a

distinctive culture through the Internet is also supported by Kaldor et.al. who, in The ‘bubbling

up’ of subterranean politics in Europe, describe the culture developed by the protesters as Culture

2.0 (a reference to social media, or Web 2.0) (Kaldor et.al., 2012). The cyber-intensive,

transnational and cooperative nature of the Indignados and Aganaktismenoi movements was

26

epitomised in the live stream connection between Syntagma Square in Athens and the Puerta

del Sol in Madrid on 5 June 2011 transmitting messages of solidarity for each other’s causes.

Their cooperation, however, had been forged long before, as the organisation of the

Aganaktismenoi had begun on the ‘Real Democacy Now! Greece’ website, an offshoot of the

Spanish ‘¡Democracia real YA!’. The protesters’ cosmopolitan outlook and terminology,

insistence on international solidarity, and experiments with direct democracy testify to the

existence of postmaterialism in the lower square.

Equally interesting and even more telling of their principles is the Aganaktismenoi’s style

of organisation following the occupation of Syntagma Square. The movement was non-

partisan, and many protesters were hostile towards parties and trade unions they saw as

representative of the world order that had destroyed their lifestyle. Due to their non-partisan

profile (Rivat, 2013: 74-74; Κότζιας, 2012: 483) and their online ‘origin’, these men and women

adopted a horizontal hierarchical structure with decisions being made via the Public Assembly.

Anyone was allowed to participate in the Assembly and the right to speak was randomly

allocated by lot. People were encouraged to speak as individuals and not as representatives of

social classes or political parties (Simiti, 2014: 18). Although arguably naïve, this insistence on

individuals’ responsibility to act and the abandonment of established political positions

provide further evidence of postmaterial tendencies.

The Public Assembly, like the location where it was formed, was symbolic. The

absolute impartiality with which speakers were treated consciously attempted replicating the

Ancient Athenian agora, where Athenians had a practiced democracy for the first time some

2500 years ago (Mason, 2013: 48-49). Syntagma Square itself is where the Athenian uprising

against King Otto of Greece brought about the creation of a Greek constitution in 1843 –

syntagma means ‘constitution’. Since then, all protests requesting major democratic reforms

have had Syntagma Square as their focal point (Γιατράκος, 1995: 7). The significance lower

27

square protesters attributed to symbolism and their insistence on particular democratic ideals

further illustrate their postmaterial tendencies.

The emphasis on freedom and equality amongst the Aganaktismenoi is best highlighted

by the elected announcements of the Public Assembly and the establishment of peripheral,

subject-specific ‘units’ acting as its complementary bodies and, occasionally, its executive

branches. All announcements these units made were first presented, discussed, amended and

voted on in their respective, smaller assemblies, using the same deliberation process as the

Public Assembly (see Appendix E). Successful motions were then publicised online and

through leaflets distributed around the square and pinned on announcement boards (see

Appendix C). This grassroots deliberation of policy reflects the neoliberal (Harvey, 2005) and

postmaterial belief in the personal responsibility to act and deliberate.

The units themselves, their deliberation process, and the content of their

announcements reflect postmaterial values of self-expression, solidarity and belief in the power

of communal action. What are even more remarkable, however, are the considerations and

values around which these units were constituted: they were dedicated to such wide-ranging

subjects as the arts, women’s rights, assistance for the homeless, the environment, alternative

media headed by ‘Team Multimedia’ (Δημοκρατία Under Construction Video, 2011) and the

discussion of alternative solutions for the economic situation. Thus, they provide further

evidence of postmaterial sensitivities by demonstrating that the Aganaktismenoi adhered to

postmaterial values when organising their encampment.

Demands of the Aganaktismenoi

The demands commonly attributed to the Aganaktismenoi by media and politicians

revolved around employment, punishment for the corrupt, justice, and ending austerity.

Although these demands were, indeed, the most popular in the square, others were

28

overshadowed, partly because they were seen as unfeasible or too vague (Kern and Nam, 2013:

207), and partly because they were not taken up by the more conspicuous protesters of the

upper square. The very multiplicity of demands which coexisted under the Aganaktismenoi

umbrella implies a high degree of tolerance for ambiguity and diversity. The demands of the

protesters, however, were not limited to employment and security, but focused on a deeper

and more concerning problem: corruption and outdated values (Kouki and Vradis, 2011). The

Aganaktismenoi wanted change; they wanted to forge a new state to preside over a new society

that would have a greater say in how Greece was governed. The demands of the lower square

included a call for a ‘real’ and ‘deep’ democracy, equality, freedom of expression and self-

organisation, and social solidarity (see Appendices D and E).

The decline of traditional democracy and the alienation of voters from the political

establishment is not a new phenomenon (Chryssochoou, 2000: 122). In the case of Greece,

this process was accelerated following the 2008 riots; as Vradis put it, there is a ‘complete

separation between the lived and the articulated’ in Greek society, as large parts of it are living

along their own rules, while the political establishment continues to communicate and act on

the basis of old terms and values (Vradis, 2013). Meanwhile, the Orthodox Church, caught up

in an embarrassing corruption scandal, lost the respect and support of many Greeks hit by the

crisis (Salles, 2011)

Regardless of their location on the square, the majority of Aganaktismenoi did not

perceive the crisis as a simple economic problem, but rather as the most recent and violent

symptom of an old and persistent sickness. That sickness was the political elite who were

framed by what Mudde would describe as a populist mind-set, in which the people are seen as

blameless and innocent victims of the corruption and greed of the political elite (Mudde, 2004:

545). Scorn for elected representatives spread among those who had elected them. This

influenced the Aganaktismenoi’s narrative of the crisis, interpreting it as the climax of a

29

misguided materialist obsession with individualism and greed that had fragmented society,

alienated individuals from each other, and driven the country to the brink of disintegration, a

situation for which the corrupt politicians were as responsible as the older generation who had

voted them into office.

Of imperative importance when forming an identity is the comparison with the ‘other’

(Davies, 1996: 20). In 2011, Greek protesters perceived the ‘other’ to be the corrupt and old-

fashioned political elite. To emphasise their rejection of this representation of democracy, the

Aganaktismenoi attempted to model themselves as the opposite: a counter-force to the realpolitik

and rationality of the past three decades that prioritised ideals over politics (Μακρίδης and

Παγιάτσος, 2011: 102). This reactionary phenomenon might inadvertently lead involved parts

of Greek society to a postmaterial shift, if not entirely out of their own volition, then as a result

of their dislike for the alternative.

Lastly, there was an unusual upsurge of altruistic demonstrations that could have been

a result of the social diversity of the Aganaktismenoi. Hence, demonstrators often protested as

much for each other’s rights as for their own. This arguably led to the formation of a greater

feeling of community, increased empathy, and tolerance of diversity (Ceamor, 2011: 23). An

interesting example is the Aganaktismenoi’s demand for the government to assist the Gaza

Freedom Flotilla, made during one of the most heated periods of anti-austerity demonstrations

(see Appendix C). The articles equally report a counterintuitive rise in marches related to the

environment, only partially explicable by the more general increase in demonstrations. The

Aganaktismenoi were at the forefront of demonstrations calling for the protection of nature and

public property from private investment and development, particularly following reports that

the government was considering to sell public property, an issue that first emerged in 2010

(Ζερβάς, 2010: 223). Other altruistic causes include anti-racism marches against Golden

Dawn’s hate crimes and rallies for immigrants’ rights. Meanwhile, performances by famous

30

artists and groups from Greece and abroad, such as the Cirque de Soleil, took place in Syntagma

Square, adding an artistic dimension to the protest beyond that provided by the artistic unit.

Social Profile of the Aganaktismenoi

The Aganaktismenoi hailed from all parts of Greek society. Their one commonality was

not their language, their nationality, or their demands, but their indignation towards the

establishment. The universality of this indignation means the Aganaktismenoi represented a

miniature version of Greek society, a breadth that is simultaneously heaven and hell for a

sociologist. The multifaceted nature of the movement was best summarised by Simiti who

used polls and surveys conducted during the protests to create a general social profile for the

protesters. Although few tendencies and patterns are discernible, and protesters of the lower

square are difficult to separate from those of the upper square (an estimated 2.6 million citizens

would pass regularly by Syntagma Square to protest during its occupation (Sotiris, 2011: 157)),

certain characteristics emerge that allow for the development of postmaterialism.

Over half of the protesters were aged between 25 and 44, and 35 and 49 (Kollia, 2012),

meaning most were born in a period of political and economic stability, thus fulfilling one of

Inglehart’s requirements for the development of postmaterial values in individuals.

Furthermore, the majority grew up in the region of Attica where the average GDP (PPP) per

capita in 2008 reached €29,100, exceeding the €24,400 average of the European Union (Simiti,

1994: 17; EUROSTAT, 2008). With Greece’s ascension to the European Economic

Community in 1981 and the steady shift towards a service-based economy since the 60s, they

have the potential to be the first substantial minority of postmaterialists in the country. In

addition, 60% of protesters held a bachelor’s and 8% a graduate degree. And as 13% were

university students at the time of protest, the number of individuals linked to higher education

reaches 73% (Kollia, 2012). This is a remarkably high proportion for a crowd numbering in

31

the hundreds of thousands and although it is partly explained by the fact that higher education

in Greece is free, it could also have been the postmaterial allure of the Aganaktismenoi that

attracted young, educated citizens.

The difference in numbers between Left (43%) and Right (36%) protesters was not as

great as would have been expected (Public Issue, 2011). This could be a result of the

disillusionment with political parties indicating people were opposed to the governmental

institution on an ethical and moral, rather than political, basis. Moreover, the percentage of

Aganaktismenoi describing themselves as politically non-aligned was equally high at 38%,

providing further proof of the indignation described above. The failure of parties, and

especially the Left, to cater to postmaterialists and the general political disillusionment

prevalent in the country left many voters in limbo and might explain why such a large

percentage of the Aganaktismenoi, if indeed postmaterialists, described themselves as non-

aligned.

The Aganaktismenoi’s demographic shares several characteristics with that of the

Indignados who have already been identified as postmaterialists by a number of academics

(Castells, 2012; Leontidou, 2012; Παπασαραντόπουλος, 2012). University students and

unemployed college graduates in the 20 to 35 age group made up the core of the Spanish

movement (Castells, 2012: 110-112) and are part of a wider postmaterial tendency observed in

Spain (Cantijoch and San Martin, 2009). Similarly to the Greek case, they were later joined by

people from all social backgrounds and ages compelled to act after the threat to their living

standards became too real. The similarities in the experiences of the two groups and the amity

with which they cooperated from afar supports the postmaterial argument for Greece’s

Aganaktismenoi, by drawing out parallels between them and their Spanish postmaterial

counterparts (Χριστίνα, 2011: 75).

32

CONCLUSION

The reasons why the 2011 protesters might be defined as materialists, from their focus

on the economy and social security to their patriotism and union-based action, have been

lengthily presented and argued for by numerous academics, although usually without applying

Inglehart’s terminology (Sotiris, 2011; Simiti, 2014; Τσενέ, 2012). Because copious amounts of

work on the material side exist, this paper has focused on presenting the opposite picture in

an attempt to bring balance to the narrative of the Kinima Aganaktismenon Politon. The qualitative

analysis of news articles and academic material describing the protesters, their actions, and

their demands, revealed evidence of the existence of postmaterial values, especially in the lower

square of the younger, more deeply engaged Aganaktismenoi. Inglehart’s theory of material

relapse during times of crisis fails to encompass the phenomenon observed in Syntagma

Square during the summer of 2011 and therefore the relationship between economic crises

and postmaterial values should be reviewed.

It emerged that a community of self-organised administration and solidarity formed at

the heart of the movement, emphasising postmaterial values such as diversity, communal

action, self-expression and creativity, equality, freedom, and the tolerance of ambiguity. The

feeling of community, previously absent in a country lacking social capital and a strong civil

society, was emphasised by protesters and recognised by many as one of the movement’s most

positive outcomes (Ceamor, 2011: 30). The units formed in the encampment were not all

postmaterial in nature, but they highlighted the shortcomings (especially in social obligations)

of the neoliberal government. The postmaterial values of the Aganaktismenoi and the lack of

outlets for them could also be a strong reason for SYRIZA’s skyrocketing rise in popularity

following the demonstrations as the only protest – and postmaterialist – friendly party in

Greece. Considering that SYRIZA could well be at the head of the next Greek government,

33

their potential ties to postmaterialists should be better documented in order to improve

understanding of the party’s ideology, and that of its voters.

Based on the experience gained through the analysis of the 2011 demonstrations, a

number of theories have been identified as suitable perspectives for future research. Johnson’s

Revolutionary Change could provide a useful theoretical basis for further research into the social

reaction that led to the formation of the Aganaktismenoi. According to Johnson, a crisis-free

society has a social system with an internal, consistent set of institutions based on core ‘value-

orientations’ (Johnson, 1984: 11). Crises and revolutions occur when values and environments

are disjointed and need to be reunited through the foundation of new authorities or renewing

existent ones; a description reminiscent of Greece’s 2011 demonstrations and Vradis’

dichotomy between ‘lived’ and ‘articulated’ lives. Furthermore, Schattschneider’s unfairly

forsaken Semisovereign People contains a description of conflict as a phenomenon split between

a ‘centre’ that initiates and conceptualises conflict, and a ‘periphery’ acting originally as an

audience, until it eventually intervenes (Schattschneider, 1975: 1-3; Brown, 2002: 258). Due to

the larger size of the periphery, compared to the centre, its intervention gives conflicts their

character, which could explain why the postmaterial values of the lower square did not spread

to the entirety of the movement. Finally, Snow and Benford’s frame alignment theory (Snow

and Benford, 1988) could prove useful for understanding how and why postmaterial values

were adopted by the protesters in the first place.

There is a number of reasons why the protesters’ postmaterialism has hitherto not

been discussed. Postmaterialism is not a popular concept in Greece, neither socially nor

academically; exemplified by the lack of academic work on it in some of the most specialised

libraries in Athens. The social pressure put on postmaterialists in Greece, a result of the

country’s traditional society, means that contentious, anti-systemic action is the only outlet for

their values. The sophistication of the 2011 protests enabled those values to receive a far more

34

stable platform of expression. The salience of their ideas, hampered by a mainly materialist

society, failed to typify the protests as a whole; a result of the media’s reluctance to embrace

the ambiguity and variety of their demands. Being accustomed to partisan demonstrations, the

Greek media failed to comprehend the novel and unusual characteristics of the protesters, but

focused instead on older, traditional topics popular when reporting on demonstrations such

as party politics, job security, the economy and violence. What most commentators failed to

point out, however, was that the demonstrations were primarily a protest against the political

corruption of the country that resulted in the economic crisis: protesters were attacking the

perceived root of the problem. The postmaterial values expressed by the protesters were salves

to the materialist values that had ruined the country, both socially and economically.

What was observed in the 2011 demonstrations in Athens might not have been the

beginning of a Greek postmaterial culture but rather its end; the swan song of a culture that,

after forty years of economic and social stability, was cut short, never to fully realise its

potential. It is not easy, or perhaps even possible, to predict the future of postmaterialism in

Greece, nor was that the intention of this paper. The aim was to discover whether evidence of

postmaterialism was present in the Aganaktismenoi, and it has been shown that it was. This,

however, was three years ago. It would be interesting to conduct a long-term study into the

effects of the economic crisis on Greece’s postmaterialism, as the Aganaktismenoi realise that

their past of economic and social prosperity, on which their postmaterial ideals were based, is

proven to be nothing but an illusion. For that matter, whether the postmaterial values

identified during the protests were carried into people’s personal lives beyond the

demonstrations, as Ceamor suggests they were, would also be important for estimating the

true salience of this unusual example of protest-based postmaterialism (Ceamor, 2011: 33).

Given the lack of data on postmaterialism in Greece, the Aganaktismenoi represent a

suitable case study for future research, as they have displayed a remarkable ideological

35

resilience to the crisis, partially due to their opposition to older, material values. Furthermore,

the variety of social backgrounds involved in the movement makes it an extraordinarily

inclusive and representative sample group. These values, even if not prioritised in comparison

to the more immediate material needs of welfare, employment and social security should give

researchers pause and encourage them to further investigate the matter. The fact that Greek

postmaterialists are found in the midst of a protest movement should be seen as part of the

national peculiarity of Greece’s ‘version’ of postmaterialism.

The present paper used an illustrative and descriptive method to map the values and

actions of the protesters. This was necessary due to the lack of written material on

postmaterialism on the Aganaktismenoi. Once an acceptable literary basis has been established

for the subject, theoretical methods such as those suggested here will prove invaluable in

understanding the break with tradition that was the Aganaktismenoi movement and to better

conceptualise the phenomenon that caught both Greek academia and society unprepared.

36

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Academic Books

Alivizatos, N. Η Πρόκληση της Βίας: Μία Ήττα των Μεταρρυθμιστών [The challenge of violence:

a defeat of the reformers] (Athens, 2009)

Anastasakis, O. ‘The New Politics of the New Century’, p.5-8, Economides, S. and

Monastiriotis, V. (eds.) The Return of Street Politics? Essays on the December Riots in Greece

(London, 2009)

Baerentzen L. ‘Introduction’ pp.3-11, Baerentzen, L. Iatrides, J. and Smith, O. (eds.), Studies

in the History of the Greek Civil War: 1945-1949 (Copenhagen, 1987)

Berelson, B. Content Analysis in Communication Research (Glencoe, 1952)

Castells, M. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age (Cambridge, 2012)

Ceamor. ’Από την Αθωότητα στην Επίγνωση’ pp.23-30, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χρήστος and

Μητρόπουλος, Δημήτρης (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction (Athens, 2011)

Chryssochoou, D.N. Democracy in the European Union (New York, 2000)

Dafermos, O. ‘The Society of Aphasia and the Juvenile Rage’ pp.9-13, Economides, S. and

Monastiriotis, Vassilies (eds.) The Return of Street Politics? Essays on the December Riots in Greece

(London, 2009)

Davies, N. Europe: A History (Oxford, 1996)

Della Porta, D. Eventful Protest, Global Conflicts: Social Mechanisms in the Reproduction

of Protest, pp.256-275, Goodwin, J. and Jasper, J. M. (eds.), Contention in Context: Political

Opportunities and the Emergence of Protest (San Franscisco, 2012)

37

Diamandouros, P. N. ‘Greek Politics & Society in the 1990s’ pp.23-38, Allison, Graham T.

and Nicolaïdis, Kalypso (eds.). The Greek Paradox: Promise vs. Performance (Cambridge, 1997)

Eysenck, H.J. The Psychology of Politics (London, 1954)

Featherstone, K. ‘Street Protests in ‘Une Société Bloquée’ pp.1-4, Economides, S. and

Monastiriotis, V. (eds.) The Return of Street Politics? Essays on the December Riots in Greece

(London, 2009)

Gavrilidis, A. ‘[Greek riots 2008:] – A Mobile Tiananmen’ pp.15-19, Economides, S. and

Monastiriotis, V. (eds.) The Return of Street Politics? Essays on the December Riots in Greece

(London, 2009)

Giovanopoulos, C. and Dalakoglou, D. ‘From Ruptures to Eruption: A genealogy of post-

dictatorial revolts in Greece’ pp.91-114, Vradis, A. and Dalakoglou, D. (eds.), Revolt and Crisis

in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come (London, 2011)

Harvey, D. A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York, 2005)

Ignazi, P. Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe (Oxford, 2003)

Inglehart, R. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43

Societies (Chichester, 1997)

Johnson, C. Revolutionary Change (San Francisco, 1984)

Kerlinger, F.N., Liberalism and Conservatism: The nature and structure of social attitudes (Hillsdale,

1984)

Maslow, A. Motivation and Personality (New York, 1954)

Mouzelis, N.P., Modern Greece: Facets of Underdevelopment (London, 1979)

38

Papadimitriou, D. ‘A More Mundane Reading of the December 2008 Riots in Athens’ pp.49-

52, Economides, S. and Monastiriotis, V. (eds.) The Return of Street Politics? Essays on the

December Riots in Greece (London, 2009)

Rivat, E. ‘The Continuity of Transnational Protest: the anti-nuclear movement as a precursor

to the Global Justice Movement’ pp.61-75, Fleschev Fominaya, C. and Cox, L (eds.)

Understanding European Movements: New Social Movements, Globalised Justice Struggles, Anti-Austerity

Protest (Abingdon, 2013)

Schattschneider, E.E., Semisovereign people: a realist's view of democracy in America (Andover, 1975)

Smith, H. ‘Greece, December 2008: A Tragedy in the Waiting’ pp.57-61, Economides, S. and

Monastiriotis, V. (eds.) The Return of Street Politics? Essays on the December Riots in Greece

(London, 2009)

Thomakakis, S. B. ‘The Greek Economy: Performance, Expectations & Paradoxes’ pp.39-60,

Allison, G. T. and Nicolaïdis, K. (eds.). The Greek Paradox: Promise vs. Performance (Cambridge,

1997)

van Evera, S. Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science (New York, 1997)

Ανδριωτάκης, Μ. Πολιτικός Ακτιβισμός: Η Ναόμι Κλάιν, ο κόσμος των λογοτύπων και οι

μεταμοντέρνοι αρνητές του καπιταλισμού [Political Activism: Naomi Klein, the world of logos and

postmodern deniers of capitalism] (Athens, 2003)

Γιαννίτσης, Τ. Η Ελλάδα στην Κρίση [Greece during the Crisis] (Athens, 2013)

Γιατράκος, Ν.Γ., Η Πλατεία Συντάγματος: Η αλήθεια για την ανάπλαση της [Syntagma Square: The

Truth about its Restructuring] (Athens, 1995)

Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. ‘Αγανακτισμένοι με τα ΜΜΕ: η Εξέγερση στα Μέσα; Μεταξύ Ψηφιακής

και Πραγματικής «Αγοράς»!’ [Indignant with the Media: the Revolution in Media; Between a

39

Digital and a Real ‘Market’] pp.227-267, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.)

Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. ‘Οι Πλατείες ως Ζωντανός Οργανισμός: η Επανακοινωνικοποίηση της

Αγοράς’ [The Squares as a Live Organism: the Re-socialisation of the Market] pp.41-60,

Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy

Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

Γκρίτζαλης, Δ.Α. Αυτονομία και Πολιτική Ανυπακοή στον Κυβερνοχώρο [Autonomy and Political

Disobedience in Cyberspace] (Athens, 2004)

Δασκαλάκης, Δ.Ι. και Φασούλης, Κ.Β. Το Οργανωτικό Φαινόμενο στο Διαδίκτυο [The

Organisational Phenomenon on the Web] (Athens, 2013)

Δεληγκιαούρη, Α. ‘Διαβουλευτική και διαδικτυακή δημοκρατία: Οι επικοινωνιακές προκλήσεις

της σύγχρονης μεταδημοκρατίας’ [Parliamentary and Digital Democracy: Communicational

challenges of modern metademocracy] pp.175-197, Μανιτάκης, Α. (ed.) Η Δημοκρατία Μεταξύ

Ουτοπίας και Πραγματικότητας: Μελέτες χαριστήριες στον Ζήση Παπαδημητρίου [Democracy

Between Utopia and Reality: Studies in honour of Zisi Papadimitriou] (Athens, 2011)

Δήμου, Ν. Μιλώντας με έναν Αγανακτισμένο Νέο για Επαναστάσεις: Τεχνολογικές και Άλλες

[Speaking with an Aganaktismeno Youth about Revolutions: Technological and Others]

(Athens, 2013)

Δουζίνας, Κ. ‘Το Πλήθος στην Πλατεία και στο Κέντρο των Πολιτικών Εξελίξεων’ [The Crowd

at the Square and the Centre of Political Developments] pp.135-142. Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and

Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction]

(Athens, 2011)

Δουζίνας, Κ. Αντίσταση και Φιλοσοφία στην Κρίση: Πολιτική, Ηθική και Στάση Σύνταγμα [Resistance

and Philosophy in Crisis: Politics, Ethics and Syntagma station] (Athens, 2011)

40

Ζέρβας, Μ. ‘Οικονομική Κρίση και Περιβάλλον’ [Economic Crisis and the Environment]

pp.223-254, Μοσχούδης, Μ. (ed.), Ο Χάρτης της Κρίσης: Το Τέλος της Αυταπάτης [The Map of

the Crisis: The end of the Illusion] (Athens, 2010)

Καβάδας, Α. ‘Ο Ρόλος του Διαδικτύου στον Σύγχρονο Παγκόσμιο Ακτιβισμό’ [The Role of

the Web in Modern Global Activism] pp.392-411, Παπαθανασόπουλος, Σ. (ed.) Τα μέσα

επικοινωνίας στον 21ο Αιώνα [Communication Media in the 21st Century] (Athens, 2011)

Κασσίου, Δ. Ε., Η Ποίηση των Συνθημάτων: Έμμετρα Ομοιοκατάληκτα Συνθήματα των Διαδηλωτών

στις Συγκεντρώσεις και τις Πορείες την Τελευταία Δεκαετία [The Poetry of Slogans: Metre

Rhyming Slogans of Protesters in Demonstrations and Marches during the Last Decade]

(Athens, 1997)

Κολτσίδα, Δ. Κρίση και Κοινωνικό Κεφάλαιο: Βιώνοντας την Κρίση σε Ελλάδα, Ιρλανδία, Πορτογαλία

και Ισπανία [Crisis and Social Capital: Experiencing the Crisis in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and

Spain] (Athens, 2012)

Κοντοχρήστου, Μ. ‘Ο ρόλος των ελληνικών ΜΜΕ στη διαμόρφωση μιας ευρωπαϊκής

ταυτότητας: Η κάλυψη της ένταξης της Ελλάδας στην ευρωζώνη από την τηλεόραση και τον

Τύπο’ [The role of Greek Media in the formation of a European identity: the coverage of

Greece’s entry into the Eurozone by the television and the press] pp.232-284,

Κοντοχρήστου, Μ. (ed.) Ταυτότητα και ΜΜΕ στη Σύγχρονη Ελλάδα [Identity and the Media in

Modern Greece] (Athens, 2007)

Κοσματόπουλος, Ν. ‘Μία Λοξή Ματιά στην Αγανάκτηση: Δέκα Μικροί Μύθοι για το

«Σύνταγμα»’ [A Side-glance at Indignation: Ten Myths about ‘Syntagma’] pp.127-133,

Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy

Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

41

Κότζιας, Ν. Η Πολιτική Σωτηρίας Ενάντια στην Τροϊκα: Κρίση Κυριαρχίας και δημοκρατίας –

Κοινωνία και Πολιτική Διέξοδος [The Politics of Saving Against Troika: Crisis of Sovereignty

and Democracy – Society and the Political Solution] (Athens, 2012)

Λ. Χριστίνα ‘Ανιχνεύοντας Οράματα, Ψάχνοντας Απαντήσεις’ [Identifying Visions, Searching

for Answers], pp.75-83, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χρήστος and Μητρόπουλος, Δημήτρης (ed.)

Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

Λαδή, Σ. ‘Παγκοσμιοποίηση, ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα και μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης: η

περίπτωση της Ελλάδας και της Ισπανίας’ [Globalisation, European Identity and media: the

case of Greece and Spain] pp.285-315, Κοντοχρήστου, Μ. (ed.) Ταυτότητα και ΜΜΕ στη

Σύγχρονη Ελλάδα [Identity and Media in Modern Greece] (Athens, 2007)

Λέανδρος, Ν. Το Διαδίκτυο: Ανάπτυξη και Αλλαγή [The Web: Development and Change]

(Athens, 2005)

Λουλούδης, Λ.Π., ‘Κοινωνικές Διεκδικήσεις: Από την Προστασία του Περιβάλλοντος στην

Πολιτική Οικολογία [Social Claims: From the Protection of the Environment to Political

Ecology], pp.8-33, Ορφανίδης, Χ. (ed.), Το Οικολογικό Κίνημα στην Ελλάδα: Συλλογή Κειμένων για

την μέχρι τώρα πορεία, το παρόν και το μέλλον του [The Ecological Movement in Greece:

Collection of Texts for the progress so far, the present and the future] (Athens, 1987)

Λύτρας, Α.Ν. Αναλύσεις Περί Κοινωνικής Δομής: Κοινωνική Οργάνωση και Πολιτική στον Εικοστό

Πρώτο Αιώνα [Analyses on Social Structure: Social Organisation and Politics in the Twenty-

First Century] (Athens, 2007)

Μακρίδης, Π. and Παγιάτσος Α. Οι Αγανακτισμένοι: ένα κίνημα που συγκλόνισε την Ελλάδα το

καλοκαίρι του 2011 [The Aganaktismenoi: A movement that shook Greece in the summer of

2011] (Athens, 2011)

42

Μητρόπουλος, Δ. ‘Ανοιχτά Μικρόφωνα: Προβληματισμός για την Λαϊκή Συνέλευση της

Πλατείας Συντάγματος’ [Open Microphones: Consideration on the Public Assembly of

Syntagma Square’], pp.61-74, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.) Δημοκρατία

Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

Μητροπούλου, Γ.Α. Σύντομη Διαλεκτική Ερμηνεία της Νεοελληνικής Κοινωνίας [A Brief Dialectic

Interpretation of Modern Greek Society] (Athens, 1984)

Μιχοπούλου, Σ. Αναπτυξιακές και κοινωνικές επιπτώσεις των πολιτικών σταθερότητας του ΔΝΤ

[Effects on Development and Society of the Stabilisation Policies of the IMF] (Athens, 2012)

Παπασαραντόπουλος, Π. Μύθοι και Στερεότυπα της Ελληνικής Κρίσης [Myths and Stereotypes of

Crisis-Hit Greece] (Thessaloniki, 2012)

Πούπος, Η. Το Κοινωνικό Κεφάλαιο στην Ελλάδα [Social Capital in Greece] (Athens, 2010)

Σταύρου, Α. ‘Η «Πάνω Πλατεία» ή Όταν Μιλάνε οι Μάζες: «Οε, οε, οε, Σηκωθήκαμε απ’τον

Καναπέ»’ [The ‘Upper Square’ or When the Masses Speak: ‘Oe, oe, oe, We got up off the

Sofa’] pp.31-40, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χρήστος and Μητρόπουλος, Δημήτρης (ed.) Δημοκρατία

Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

Στεφανάκις, Γ.Δ. ‘Η Πλατεία, Ένα Τεράστιο Καλλιτεχνικό Ακτιβιστικό Δρώμενο’ [The Square,

A Giant Event of Artistic Activism], pp.85-90, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and Μητρόπουλος, Δ.

(eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

Τσενέ, Λ. Από την Κρίση των ΜΜΕ στα Social Media [From the Crisis of the Media to Social

Media] (Athens, 2012)

Τσώμου, Μ. ‘Zoom Out: Οι Πλατείες της Ελλάδας από το Εξωτερικό’ [Zoome out: The

Squares of Greece (Viewed) from Abroad] pp.119-124, Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. and

43

Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction]

(Athens, 2011)

Χριστίδης, Κ.Χ. Νηπιαγωγείον η Ελλάς: Πως Μπορεί να Επιταχυνθεί η Πορεία Προς την Πολιτικο-

οικονομική Ενηλικίωση [Kindergarten Greece: How Can the Process of Political and Economic

Maturation be Accelerated] (Athens, 2013)

Academic Articles

Andronikidou, A. and Kovras, I. ‘Cultures of rioting and anti-systemic politics in Southern

Europe’, West European Politics, Volume 35, Issue 4, pp.707-725

Brown, R. ‘The Contagiousness of Conflict: E.E. Schattschneider as a theorist of the

information society’, Information, Communication & Society, Volume 5, Issue 2 (2002) pp.258-

275

Cantijoch, M. and San Martin, J. ‘Postmaterialism and Political Participation in Spain’, South

European Society and Politics, Volume 14, Issue 2 (2009), pp.167-190

Dalakoglou, D. ‘Beyond Spontaneity’ City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action,

Volume 16, Issue 5 (2012), pp.535-545

Danopoulos, C. ‘Religion, civil society, and democracy in Orthodox Greece’, Journal of

Southern Europe and the Balkans, Volume 6, Issue 1 (2004), pp.41-55

Duch, R.M. and Taylor, M.A. ‘Postmaterialism and the Economic Condition’, American

Journal of Political Science, Volume 37, Issue 3 (August, 1993), pp.747-779

Fokas, E. ‘A New Role for the Church? Reassessing the Place of Religion in the Greek

Public Sphere’, Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe, GreeSE Paper No17

(August, 2008)

44

Hellevik, O. ‘Postmaterialism as a dimension of cultural change’, International Journal of Public

Opinion Research, Volume 5, pp.211-233

Hugh-Jones, D. Katsanidou, A. and Riener, G. ‘Political Discrimination in the Aftermath of

Violence: the case of the Greek riots’, Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe,

GreeSE Paper No30 (December, 2009)

Inglehart, R. ‘The Silent Revolution in Europe: Integrational Change in Post-Industrial

Societies’, The American Political Science Review, Volume 65, Issue 4 (December, 1971), pp.991-

1017

Inglehart, R. and Baker, W.E. ‘Modernization, Cultural Change, and the Persistence of

Traditional Values’, American Sociology Review, Volume 65, Issue 1 (February, 2000), pp.19-51

Inglehart, R. and Flanagan, S.C. ‘Value Change in Industrial Societies’, The American Political

Science Review, Volume 81, Issue 4 (December, 1987), pp.1289-1319

Kaldor, M. Selchow, S. and Deel, S. and Murray-Leach, T. ‘The ‘bubbling up’ of

subterranean politics in Europe’, Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, London School

of Economics and Political Science (London, 2012)

Karamichas, J. ‘The December 2008 riots in Greece’, Social Movement Studies, Volume 3, Issue

8 (2009), pp.289-293

Kern, T. and Nam, S. ‘From “Corruption” to “Democracy”: Cultural Values, Mobilization,

and the Collective Identity of the Occupy Movement, Journal of Civil Society, Volume 9, Issue

2 (May, 2013), pp.196-211

Kornetis, K. ‘No More Heroes? Rejection and Reverberation of the Past in the 2008 Events

in Greece’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 28, Issue 2 (October, 2010), pp.173-197

45

Leontidou, L. ‘Athens in the Mediterranean ‘movement of the piazzas’: Spontaneity in

material and virtual public spaces’, City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action,

Volume 16, Issue 3(2012), pp.299-312

Leontidou, L. ‘Urban Social Movements in ‘Weak’ Civil Societies: The Right to the City and

Cosmopolitan Activism in Southern Europe’, Urban Studies, Volume 46, Issue 6 (May, 2010),

pp.1179-1203

Madden, D.J. and Vradis, A. ‘From Athens to Occupy and Back’, City: Analysis of Urban

Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, Volume 16, Issue 1-2, pp.235-236

Mason, P. ‘Why it’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere: Are we Witnessing a Global Revolt

against Neoliberalism?’, Soundings: A journal of politics and culture, Issue 53 (Spring, 2013) pp.44-

55

Mudde, C. ‘The Populist Zeitgeist’, Government and Opposition, Volume 39, Issue 4 (Autumn,

2004), pp.542–563

Otto, S. ‘Coding one-sided Violence from Media Reports’, Cooperation and Conflict, Volume

48, Issue 4, 2013 pp.556-566

Papadimitriou, F. ‘A geography of ‘Notopia’’ City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy,

action, Volume 10, Issue 3 (2006), pp.317-326

Paraskevopoulos, C.J., ‘Social Capital and Public Policy in Greece’, Hellenic Observatory Papers

on Greece and Southeast Europe, GreeSE Paper No9 (December 2007)

Petropoulou, C. ‘From the December Youth Uprising to the Rebirth of Urban Social

Movements: A Space-Time Approach’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research,

Volume 34, Issue 1 (March, 2010), pp.214-224

46

Pollis, A. (1993) ‘Eastern Orthodoxy and Human Rights’, Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 15,

Issue 2 (1993), pp.339-352

Purcell, M. ‘Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the

inhabitant’, GeoJournal, Volume 58 (2002), pp.99–108

Rüdig, W. and Karyotis, G. ‘Who Protests in Greece? Mass Opposition to Austerity’, British

Journal of Political Science Volume 44, Issue 03 (July, 2014), pp.487-513

Samatas, M. ‘Greek McCarthyism: a comparative assessment of Greek post- civil war

repressive anticommunism and the US Truman-McCarthy era’, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora

Volume 13, Issues 3-4 (1986), pp.5–75

Simiti, M. ‘Rage and Protest: The case of the Greek Indignant Movement’, Hellenic Observatory

Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe, GreeSE Paper No82 (February, 2014)

Snow, D.A., and Benford R.D. ‘Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization’,

International Social Movement Research, Volume 1, Issue 1 (1988), pp.197-217

Sotiris, P. ‘Rebels with a Cause: The December 2008 Greek Youth Movement as the

Condensation of Deeper Social and Political Contradictions’, International Journal of Urban and

Regional Research, Volume 34, Issue 1 (March, 2010), pp.203-209

Tasić, S. and Ratkivić, M. ‘The Issues in the Measurement of Postmaterial Values’, Serbian

Journal of Management, Volume 7, Issue 1, (2012) pp.103-114

Theocharis, Y. ‘Young people, Political Participation and Online Postmaterialism in Greece’,

New Media Society, Volume 13 (2011), pp.203-223

Tsoucalas, C. ‘Nemesis: From the Cruellest of Aprils to the Most Unpredictable of May

Days’, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 28, Issue 2 (October, 2010), pp.311-320

47

van Deth, J.W. ‘The Persistence of Materialist and Post-Materialist Value Orientations’,

pp.63-79, European Journal of Political Research, Volume 11, Issue 1 (March, 1983)

Άξελος, Λ. ‘Ψωμί, Παιδεία, Ελευθερία, Η Χούντα δεν Τελείωσε το ‘73’ [Bread, Education,

Freedom, The Junta did not end in ‘73] pp.3-10, Τετράδια, Issue 60 (Summer, 2011)

News Articles

Chaffin, J. ‘Crisis takes toll on Greeks’ mental health’ Financial Times, 27 December 2012,

found at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c7f2302-49c0-11e2-a625-

00144feab49a.html#axzz3941gvUOm, last viewed: 31/07/2014

Kollia E., ‘Η πλατεία ήταν γεμάτη... αγανακτισμένους. Τι κατέγραψε έρευνα που διεξήχθη

παράλληλα με τις συγκεντρώσεις από τον Μάιο του 2011 και μετά’ [The square was full of…

indignant. What the survey conducted during the demonstration of May 2011 and later

recorded], To Vima Online (2012, July 22), found at:

www.tovima.gr/society/article/?aid=467898, last viewed: 10/08/2014

Kouki, H. and Vradis, A. ‘Grassroots politics flourish in Greek turmoil’, Al Jazeera

17/6/2011, found at:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/06/2011617112541750476.html, last

viewed: 3/7/2014

Kyriakidou D. ‘Protesters Rule the Web in Internet Backwater Greece’. Reuters 2008, found

at: http://blogs.reuters.com/global/tag/sms-messages/, last viewed: 02/08/2014

Salles, A. ‘Orthodox Church Appears to be Exempt from Austerity Measures’, The Guardian

4/10/2011, found at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/04/greece-orthodox-

church-economic-crisis, last viewed on 1/8/2014

48

Veremis, T. ‘Ατομική και Συλλογική Ευθύνη’ [Individual and collective responsibility], I

Kathimerini 14 December 2008, found at:

http://news.kathimerini.gr/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_ 1_14/12/2008_296061, last viewed:

13/08/2014

Vradis, Antonis ‘A crisis of presence: the war on Greek cities’, Open Democracy 17 July 2013,

found at: www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/antonis-vradis/crisis-of-presence-war-on-

greek-cities, last viewed 15/7/2014

Κυριακοπούλου, Α. ‘ «Estamos aqui», δηλαδή «είμαστε εδώ» στα ισπανικά, φώναζαν χθες το

απόγευμα χιλιάδες αγανακτισμένοι πολίτες, που κατέκλυσαν στην κυριολεξία την πλατεία

Συντάγματος’ [‘Estamos aqui’, meaning ‘we are here’ in Spanish, was shouted yesterday

evening by thousands of indignant citizens who literally flooded Syntagma Square],

Eleutherotypia 26/5/2011, found at: http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.politikh&id=278646, last

viewed 20/07/2014, accesed on: 12/08/2014

Data Set News Articles

All data set news articles were published between 15/5/2011 and 28/10/2011 and were found online in the websites below:

Eleutherotypia: http://www.enet.gr/

I Kathimerini: http://www.kathimerini.gr/

SKAI TV: http://www.skai.gr/

To Vima Online: http://www.tovima.gr

49

Statistics

European Economy 4, ‘The 2012 Ageing Report: Underlying Assumptions and Projection

Methodologies’, Commissioned in Brussels by the European Commission (2011), found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2011/pdf/ee-

2011-4_en.pdf, last viewed: 29/7/2014

Eurostat 2008, ‘Gross domestic product at market prices’, found at:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tec

00001&plugin=1, last viewed 31/07/2014

Eurostat 2008, ‘Regional gross domestic product (PPS per inhabitant), by NUTS 2 regions’

found at:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/graph.do?tab=graph&plugin=1&pcode=tgs00005&la

nguage=en&toolbox=sort, accessed 31/07/2014

EUROSTAT 2012, Population Projections, found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2011/pdf/ee-

2011-4_en.pdf, last viewed: 2/8/2014

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), Religious Freedom in Greece (September, 2002)

Hellenic Statistical Authority (EL.STAT.), Last update: 2013, found at:

http://www.statistics.gr/portal/page/portal/ESYE/PAGE-themes?p_param=A1605, last

viewed: 02/08/2014

Metapolls, found at: http://metapolls.net/tag/greek-polls/, last viewed: 12/08/2014

Public Issue, Το Κίνημα των Αγανακτισμένων Πολιτών: Έρευνα κοινής γνώμης για τις νέες

μορφές της κοινωνικής κινητοποίησης (June 2011), Flash Barometer, no. 159 (found at at

www.publicissue.gr/?cat=79, last viewed 12/08/2014

50

Κάπα Research [Kapa Research], ‘Polls, Predictions and Election Results’, published on

26/05/2014, found at:

http://kaparesearch.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=81:polls-predictions-

results-2014&Itemid=204&lang=en, last viewed 15/08/2014

Conference and Unpublished Papers

Christoforou, A. and Tsakalotos, E. ‘On the Empirical Aspects of Social Capital and Its

Impact on Economic Growth’ Paper Presented at the 12th Economic Policy Conference on

Competitiveness, New Technologies and Sources of Growth, IMOP 2003

Diakoumakos, G. ‘Greek Politics and Culture: The main Greek (political) subcultures’, paper

presented in the 6th Biennial Hellenic Observatory PhD Symposium on Contemporary

Greece and Cyprus on 6-7/6/2013

Diakoumakos, G. ‘Post-materialist values and crisis: Explaining the Greek political crisis

according to Inglehart’s Theoretical Framework’, Paper presented in the European

Sociological Association Social Theory Conference Crisis and Critique, 6-8 September 2012,

Athens

Hansen, O. and Tol, R.S.J. ‘A Refined Inglehart Index of Materialism and Postmaterialism’,

Working Paper FNU-35, 21 October 2003

Lyberaki, A. and Paraskevopoulos, C. J. ‘Social Capital in Greece’, OECD-ONS

International Conference on Social Capital Measurement, London 25-27/9/2002

Theocharis, Y. Lowe, W. van Deth, J.W. García-Albacete, G.M. ‘Using Twitter to Mobilise

Protest Action: Transitional Online Mobilisation Patterns and Action Repertoires in the

Occupy Wall Street, Indignados and Aganaktismenoi movements’, delivered at the 41st

ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Panel on ‘The

51

Transnational Dimension of Protest: From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street’, 11-

16/3/2013

Tzatha, A. ‘Street Politics and Social Movements: A list of opportunities or a multitude of

desires. Lessons from Greece, December 2008’, Unpublished MA Thesis, Utrecht University

August, 2009

Διακουμάκος, Γ. Διδακτορική Διατριβή: "Πολιτιστικές πρακτικές και πολιτικές αντιλήψεις. Οι

κεντρικές ελληνικές (πολιτικές) υποκουλτούρες" [PhD Thesis: ‘Cultural Practices and Political

Perceptions: The Main Greek (political) subcultures’] Thesis committee: Pantelidou

Maloutas, Maro, Doxiadis, Kyrkos, Nikolakopoulos, Elias (Athens, 2011: Third Revision:

2013)

Διακουμάκος, Γ. και Τσουπαροπούλου, Ε. ‘Το δίπολο δέον/είναι στην πρόσληψη της πολιτικής

από μαθητές/μαθήτριες γυμνασίου και οι συνέπειες της στο πολιτικό σύστημα’ [The bipolar

problem of understanding politics by middle school students and its effects on the political

system], Entry to the Conference on Thematic Voting and Party Identity, Thessaloniki, 16-

17/6/2011

Videos

Δημοκρατία Under Construction [DVD] Athens: Ομάδα Multimedia [Multimedia Team], DVD

attached to: Γιοβανόπουλος, Χ. και Μητρόπουλος, Δ. (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction

[Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011)

52

APPENDIX A: Timeline of Demonstrations (2010-2011)

5 May 2010

General strike called by ΓΣΕΕ-ΑΔΕΔΥ against the voting into law of the first round of

austerity measures. 250,000 people march on the street of Athens and non-partisan citizens

attempt to storm the parliament. Three employees of Marfin Bank are killed, an event that

stalls the movement and makes it doubt itself.

23 February 2011

Beginning of the movement “Go to the Square- Stay at the Square”. Syntagma Square is

emptied three times by the police (with the use of teargas and violence).

15 May 2011

Demonstration of Spanish Indignados at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid and the Plaça de Catalunya

in Barcelona. Important to note is the anger caused among Greek as a result of the (false)

rumour of a Spanish piquet which read ‘Quiet, we might wake the Greeks’. It was perceived

as an insult and was later used in demonstrations (ie. “We are awake! Where are the Italiens?”

on the Sunday 29 May, Syntagma Square in Athens)

19 May 2011

A group of Greeks and Spaniards camp outside the Spanish embassy as a sign of solidarity

with the Spanish demonstrators

20 May 2011

The call to demonstration begins on Facebook, for people to assemble outside the Parliament

in Athens and the White Tower in Thessaloniki

25 May 2011

Between twenty and thirty thousand demonstrators assemble in Athens. The first Popular

Assembly takes place at Syntagma Square.

27 May 2011

Lists are opened for the registration of volunteers. Three to four thousand people sign-up in

the first few days and the need to organise this manpower leads to the first Elected Message

of the Popular Assembly:

29 May 2011

53

First of the largest demonstrations to take place. Approximately 150,000 citizens march from

6pm onwards towards Parliament and stay until late. Similar events are help in fifty five cities

across the country. In Popular Assemblies, the main enemy is seen to be corruption and the

lack of democracy. One of the most important features to be shaped on this day was the

creation of units of medical and legal help at the squares and the building of stages for the

assemblies

5 June 2011

Approximately 500,000 citizens fill Syntagma Square and the surrounding area. This is done

as part of the second Pan-European mobilisation day and several thousand Aganaktismenoi

took to the streets of other Greek cities, including Patra, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Lamia and

Volo. A live streming connection is established between Syntagma Square and Puerta del Sol

in Madrid and messages of solidarity are exchanged.

6 and 10 June 2011

The first day of open debate commences at Syntagma Square on the topic of public debt (and

another one follows on 10 June). It is yet another expression of open public deliberation in

which specialists, academics, and other citizens have the chance to offer alternative ideas on

political, social and economic matters.

15 June 2011

The parliament house is surrounded following continuous announcements via speakers which

relayed the elected decisions of the Popular Assembly. For the first time since the peaceful

Aganaktismenoi movement was formed, the government and police unleashed a violent attack

against the protesters, breaking the siege of the parliament with the use of violence and

chemicals. The crisis has now permanently shifted from being simply economic, to being

perceived as both social and political in the minds of protesters.

17-18 June 2011

Major open debating event is organised and attracts famous Greek personalities. The following

day the Cirque de Soleil takes part in the demonstration with the use of its own props and

carrying placards with literary quotes against hegemony and suppression.

21 June 2011

The Popular Assembly votes ‘no’ at a vote of confidence in the new government which still

manages to gather 155 (of 300) votes, thus establishing the new governing body of the country.

The police make use of chemicals against protests in the upper and lower square without

previous provocation.

54

9-10 July 2011

First PanHellenic meeting of Public Assemblies from across the country (24 in total).

28 July 2011

First warnings for the eventual evacuation of Syntagma square from the government and

police on the grounds of illegal camping on public land.

August

Significant de-escalation of demonstrations at Syntagma Square. A month-long lull of activities

follows with irregular breaks for debates, most important of which was the one on 21 August

on the topic of education (primary, secondary and higher).

17 September 2011

March towards the Bank of Greece and a special event organised by various artists. On this

day in New York, the Occupy Wall Street movement takes shape with the establishment of an

encampment at Zuccotti Park.

5 October 2011

First general strike after the end of the summer with 40,000 participants. Police makes violent

assaults on the protesters, even inside the metro station of Syntagma.

15 October 2011

Global day of mobilisation, mostly fuelled by the Occupy movement. 10,000 people assemble

at Syntagma Square and there is also a large concert that takes place.

19-20 October 2011

Beginning of two-day general strike. On the first day, half-a-million people assemble in Athens,

and 40,000 on the second day.

28 October 2011 (National Day)

Traditional school and military parades are held across the country, but some are interrupted

by demonstrators (in a few cases, the VIP platforms were stormed and in the place of the

guests of honour, protesters placed students, children with special needs etc.) while in

Thessaloniki, the parade was interrupted when the President of the Hellenic Republic (head

of the state) was forced to leave the event after continuous pressure from the protesters.

55

APPENDIX B: Manifestoes

A translated version of the Indignados manifesto was found on the Democracia Real Ya website

(http://www.democraciarealya.es/manifiesto-comun/manifesto-english/, viewed on

30/07/2014). As the Greek version of the website has since been taken down, a copy of the

Aganaktismenoi manifesto was found in Greek in Γιοβανόπουλος, Χρήστος και Μητρόπουλος,

Δημήτρης (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens,

2011) and was translated by the author.

Manifesto of the Spanish Indignados

We are ordinary people. We are like you: people, who get up every morning to study, work or

find a job, people who have family and friends. People, who work hard every day to provide

a better future for those around us.

Some of us consider ourselves progressive, others conservative. Some of us are believers, some

not. Some of us have clearly defined ideologies, others are apolitical, but we are all concerned

and angry about the political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us: corruption

among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless, without a voice.

This situation has become normal, a daily suffering, without hope. But if we join forces, we

can change it. It’s time to change things, time to build a better society together. Therefore, we

strongly argue that:

The priorities of any advanced society must be equality, progress, solidarity, freedom of

culture, sustainability and development, welfare and people’s happiness.

These are inalienable truths that we should abide by in our society: the right to housing,

employment, culture, health, education, political participation, free personal development, and

consumer rights for a healthy and happy life.

The current status of our government and economic system does not take care of these rights,

and in many ways is an obstacle to human progress.

Democracy belongs to the people (demos = people, krátos = government) which means that

government is made of every one of us. However, in Spain most of the political class does not

even listen to us. Politicians should be bringing our voice to the institutions, facilitating the

political participation of citizens through direct channels that provide the greatest benefit to

the wider society, not to get rich and prosper at our expense, attending only to the dictatorship

of major economic powers and holding them in power through a bipartidism headed by the

immovable acronym PP & PSOE.

Lust for power and its accumulation in only a few; create inequality, tension and injustice,

which leads to violence, which we reject. The obsolete and unnatural economic model fuels

the social machinery in a growing spiral that consumes itself by enriching a few and sends into

poverty the rest. Until the collapse.

56

The will and purpose of the current system is the accumulation of money, not regarding

efficiency and the welfare of society. Wasting resources, destroying the planet, creating

unemployment and unhappy consumers.

Citizens are the gears of a machine designed to enrich a minority which does not regard our

needs. We are anonymous, but without us none of this would exist, because we move the

world.

If as a society we learn to not trust our future to an abstract economy, which never returns

benefits for the most, we can eliminate the abuse that we are all suffering.

We need an ethical revolution. Instead of placing money above human beings, we shall put it

back to our service. We are people, not products. I am not a product of what I buy, why I buy

and who I buy from.

For all of the above, I am outraged.

I think I can change it.

I think I can help.

I know that together we can. I think I can help.

I know that together we can.

First Voted Announcement by the People’s Assembly of Syntagma Square

For a long time decisions have been made for us, without our consent.

We are workers, unemployed, retirees, youth, who have come to Syntagma Square to fight and

struggle for our lives and our future.

We are here because we know that the solutions to our problems can come only from us.

We call all residents of Athens, workers, unemployed and youths, to come to Syntagma Square,

so that the whole of society will fill the public squares and take life into its own hands.

In these public squares we will shape our claims and our demands together.

We call on all workers who are going on strike in the coming days to joins us and remain in

Syntagma Square.

We will not leave the squares until those who compelled us to come here go

away: Governments, Troika (EU, ECB and IMF), Banks, IMF Memoranda, and everyone that

exploits us. We send them the message that the debt is not ours.

DIRECT DEMOCRACY NOW!

EQUALITY – JUSTICE – DIGNITY!

The only struggle that is lost is the one that is never fought!

57

APPENDIX C: Units and Announcements

The full list of units to operate daily in Syntagma Sqaure and a selction of their proclamations

were found in Γιοβανόπουλος, Χρήστος και Μητρόπουλος, Δημήτρης (eds.) Δημοκρατία Under

Construction [Democracy Under Construction] (Athens, 2011) and were cross-referenced with

those units mentioned in articles. Their titles and a selection of their announcements were

translated by the author and are presented below.

Work Units

1. Homelessness

2. Reception and Bureaucratic Assistance

3. International Solidarity

4. Communications/Multimedia

5. Events

6. Alternative Communities Workshop

7. Supplies and Storage

8. Environment and Cleaning

9. Artistic

10. Translations

11. Legal Support

12. Organisation of Mobilisation and Resistance Against Austerity Measures

13. Square Protection and Respect (Peace Promoters)

14. First Aid and Health

15. Food

16. Technical Support

17. Documentation of Local Assemblies

18. Calm

Thematic Work Units

1. Direct Democracy

2. Resistance to Austerity Measures

3. People with Special Needs

4. Justice – Legal Issues

5. Work and Unemployment

6. Social Solidarity

7. Economy

8. Education

9. Politics

10. Technological Developments

11. Health and Safety

12. Gender

58

Selection of Elected Announcement of the Syntagma Public Assembly

and its affiliated Units

Elected Announcement of the Artistic Unit of Syntagma Square on 13 June 2011

“We are artists, working and unemployed, amateurs and we have come together for various

reasons, not different from those that brought together thousands of people in the latest weeks

in square all over Europe.

We are experiencing unemployment, the price-spike, the demolition of work relations and the

alienation of our daily lives. From today we have agreed to act collectively against the injustice

and the antisocial policies of the latest years.

The group of artists of Syntagma Square is a group of creative expression and action open to

everyone. Beyond the initiatives of individuals or groups for artistic action in the square, which

are free, the group hopes that it will be the artistic vessel that, starting with the programs and

policies voted every day by the directly-democratic Public Assembly of Syntagma Square, will

contribute to the promotion and inclusivity of the struggle it represents.

We doubt the ‘civilisation’ of TV channels and the second-hand market-based stereotypes

which aim at our pacification.

We reinforce art with the new wind of the social movements.

We show our superiority by promoting the ‘us’ over them miserable ‘me’.

We call all who are involved in the art world, and those who are not, to meet with us, to take

part and to shape our platform and the actions of our group.

The group of artists functions with the use of direct democratic assemblies.

Its headquarters is point 3 in Syntagma Square.”

Elected Announcement of the Gender Unit of Syntagma Square (14 June 2011)

“We are women, working and unemployed, syndicalists, women with special needs,

immigrants, LGBT who have come together to project the gendered dimension fo the crisis,

to describe the consequences on women’s work and other areas of life which, under the

current policy and thought frame, stands at a disadvantage.

Our aim is to act collectively against unemployment, women’s poverty, the sexual harassment

in the workspace, the sexist models produced by urban media, the worsening violence against

women and the new forms of gendered violence that are the result of the crisis, and the forced

silencing of the victims. We also wish to condemn the legal system of violence, that is to say a

legal system that does not offer justice or punishment.

We abhor the conditions of female prisoners and stand in defence of their rights. Furthermore,

we support the right of women with special needs, which are shrinking under the crisis. We

also abhor human trafficking and the racist threats levelled against immigrant women and

transsexuals.

59

We wish to show our solidarity with all women who are fighting through collectivities and

syndicates or individually, for their rights, freedom, democracy and equality.

The Unit of Gender of Syntagma Square is a group open to everyone. It hopes to act towards

the abolishment of patriarchy and sexist stereotypes through the arts, social activism and other

actions. As a practical and real form of social solidarity for women and an extension of the

concept of solidary economy, we hope to organise a bazaar on the Square.

We call everyone, men and women, to meet with us and help shape the actions of our group.”

Elected Announcement of the Social Solidarity Unit of Syntagma Square on the

action of the Freedom Flotilla (2/07/2011)

“The Public Assembly of Syntagma Square, following the detailed report it received from the

members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, condemns any damage done to the ships.

We demand the immediate nullification of the Licence of Sailors that was authorised by the

minister of Citizens’ Security, Christos Papoutsis, with the purpose of denying the embarkation

of the ships, as well as the immediate release of the American captain who attempted to break

the blockade today.

The recall of all suppression units from on board the Freedom ships. The immediate command

to Greek security forces to stop using the search of the ships and their personnel for supposed

terrorist allegation as an excuse for forbidding the embarkation of the ships.

We call to the people of Israel to condemn the practices of its government against the peaceful,

humanitarian expedition of solidarity, and to all the citizens [of Israel] to put pressure in any

way possible to allow the ships to reach their destination.

We demand that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek government helps with any

legal mean the said expedition and to face the severity of the situation with the due respect

and against the pressure of any other foreign government.

We do not leave, until they leave their dilemmas!

The squares belong to us. Right is on our side.

We claim what is obvious: FREEDOM-JUSTICE-DIGNITY!

Belief in our strength!

Either Us or Them! We are doomed to win!

Direct Democracy Now!”

The Elected Announcement Against Racism of Syntagma Square’s Public Assembly

“At a time when hundreds of thousands of working, unemployed, young, pensioners,

immigrants are fighting for the ability to live with dignity, at a time when the great battle against

the politicians of the Memorandum, the Troika and the new policy programs is coming to a

climax (…) some are attempting to persuade us that our basic problems are caused by poor

60

immigrants and refugees, who find themselves here and fight, like all of us, for a better

tomorrow.

Because:

The jobs lost to those who have been made redundant by the public sector are not being

occupied by immigrants.

From the uninsured work of immigrants, which the state refuses to amend by offering work

permits, only employers gain, while all those insured lose out.

Criminality is not in anyone’s genes, but the creation of poverty, unemployment and the

desperation caused by the crisis and the memoranda.

Treaties of the European Union, which Greece has signed, trap here thousands of immigrants

who wish to travel to other destinations.

The militarisation of borders leads only to murders of innocent people and rises the tariffs of

trafficking networks.

Immigration will only end when the poverty, war and dictatorships that cause it end.

The ten million Greek immigrants faced incredible hardships when they first left to live abroad.

Fascist gangs that unleash pogroms against innocent people have no place in our

neighbourhoods and schools.

Many immigrants are among us, in our squares, in our strikes and demonstrations to help us

be rid of robbing memoranda.

We state that immigrants and refugees are not our enemies but our allies and co-fighters.

We claim security for each uninsured worker, residence and work permits for each immigrant

who lives in Greece.

Asylum for each refugee of the wars and dictatorships of the West.

Freedom of movement of people which will go against a Europe-Fortress and a Greece-

Prison.

Money for the unemployed, the underpaid and those receiving low pensions, and not for

bankers.

Deport now the government-Troika-Memoranda.”

61

APPENDIX D: Table of Values and Data Results of Article

Coding

Material and Postmaterial Values

Table 4.0: Material and Postmaterial Values, Considerations and Interests

MATERIALIST (-) POSTMATERIALIST (+)

Economy/Οικονομία Environment/Περιβάλλον

Security/Ασφάλεια European Solidarity/Ευρωπαϊκή Αλληλεγγύη

Cuts/Περικοπές Self-Expression/Αυτοέκφραση

Austerity/Λιτότητα Rejection of Rationality/Απόρριψη του Ορθολογισμού

Family/Οικογένεια Social Diversity/Κοινωνική Διαφορετικότητα

National Sovereignty/Eθνική Kυριαρχία Real or Deep Democracy/Αληθινή ή Βαθιά Δημοκρατία

Immigration/Μετανάστευση Collective Blame/Κοινή Ενοχή

Violence/Βία Self-governance/Αυτοδιοίκηση

National Solidarity/Εθνική Αλληλεγγύη

Lack of Respect for Absolute Rules/Έλλειψη Σεβασμού Προς Απόλυτους

Κανόνες

Corruption/Διαφθορά Revaluation of Tradition/Επανεξέταση Παράδοσης

Tradition/Παράδοση Equality/Ισότητα

Political Blame/Πολιτική Ενοχή Peaceful and Pacifist/Ειρήνη και Ειρηνισμός

Economy as Source of Social Status/Οικονομία ως Πηγή Κοινωνικού

Κύρους

Communal Action and Responsibility to Act/Κοινωνική Δράση και Υποχρέωση για

Δράση

Authority and Order/Εξουσία και Τάξη Pro-European Union/ Υπέρ της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης

Realism/Ρεαλισμός Tolerance of Ambiguity/Ανοχή Ασάφειας

No Social Responsibility/Καμία Κοινωνική Υποχρέωση

Artistic and Creative Protest/Καλλιτεχνική και Δημιουργική Διαμαρτυρία

Partisanship/Κομματισμός Non-partisanship/Μη-κομματισμός

62

Tables of Results of the Coding Process on News Articles

To Vima

Table 4.1: Individual Results of the Coding process for the Articles from To Vima

Table 4.2: Results of the Coding process for the Articles from To Vima

Eleutherotypia

Table 4.3: Individual Results of the Coding Process for the Articles from Eleutherotypia

Table 4.4: Results of the Coding Process for the Articles from Eleutherotypia

+6 +14 -7 -4 -5 -4

+15 -10 +6 -2 +2 -6

-3 0 +5 0 +6 -6

+7 +9 +12 0 +9 +4

+3 +6 +1 +6 +7

0 -6 +7 +7 +3

+4 -4 -4 +9 +6

+2 -8 -10 +5 +11

+10 -8 0 -2 +4

+6 +5 +6 -8 -5

Positive Articles Negative Articles Inconclusive Articles

Total No of Articles 26 (52%) 14 (28%) 10 (20%)

Total Aggregate Score 201 -95 –

Average Score per Article 7.7 -6.8 –

-4 +3 +10 -7 +4

-6 +6 +4 +5

0 -5 +3 +4

+4 -7 +8 0

+6 0 +6 -5

-8 -9 +6 +6

-6 +4 +2 +8

+5 +9 +12 -5

0 +3 +7 -5

+9 -12 0 +2

Positive Articles Negative Articles Inconclusive Articles

Total No of Articles 20 (49%) 12 (29%) 9 (22%)

Total Aggregate Score 123 -79 –

Average Score per Article 6.1 -6.5 –

63

I Kathimerini

Table 4.5: Individual Results of the Coding Process for the Articles from I Kathimerini

Table 4.6: Results of the Coding Process for the Articles from I Kathimerini

SKAI TV

Table 4.7: Individual Results of the Coding Process for the Articles from SKAI TV

Table 4.8: Results of the Coding Process for the Articles from SKAI TV

+9 -4 +9 -5 -9 -7

+4 +12 -7 -7 -6 +4

-3 0 -6 -8 -5 +1

-11 -7 +6 -5 +6

+4 +10 +15 -6 -9

+6 +1 -18 +2 -3

-8 -2 +7 +4 +5

-6 +4 +9 +1 0

+5 0 -4 +6 -4

+4 -5 +6 +4 -6

Positive Articles Negative Articles Inconclusive Articles

Total No of Articles 21 (40%) 22 (41%) 10 (19%)

Total Aggregate Score 139 -153 –

Average Score per Article 6.6 -7 –

+4 +2 -2 +5 +6

+5 +6 +5 -5 +5

-3 -4 +5 -7

-4 +8 -3 +4

+3 0 -5 +1

-6 +4 +4 -5

+2 +5 +6 -3

-3 -9 -4 -2

+3 -7 +2 +9

+4 -6 -4 +6

Positive Articles Negative Articles Inconclusive Articles

Total No of Articles 17 (40%) 12 (29%) 13 (31%)

Total Aggregate Score 91 -66 –

Average Score per Article 5.3 -5.5 –

64

Composite Tables of Results

Table 4.9: Overall Positive Results of the Coding Process

Table 4.10: Overall Negative Results of the Coding Process

Table 4.11: Overall Inconclusive Results of the Coding Process*

* No aggregate or average scores were calculated for the inconclusive articles because the ambiguous nature of the statistics render all further analysis of the scores moot.

Total No of Articles Total Aggregate Score

Average Score per Article

To Vima 26 (52%) 121 7.7

Eleutherotypia 20 (39%) 123 6.1

I Kathimerini 21 (40%) 139 6.6

SKAI TV 17 (40%) 91 5.3

Total No of Articles Total Aggregate Score

Average Score per Article

To Vima 14 (28%) -95 -6.8

Eleutherotypia 12 (29%) -74 -6.5

I Kathimerini 22 (41%) -153 -7

SKAI TV 12 (29%) -66 -5.5

Total No of Articles

To Vima 10 (20%)

Eleutherotypia 9 (22%)

I Kathimerini 10 (19%)

SKAI TV 13 (31%)

65

Diagrammed Results

Diagram 4.0: Percentage of Positive Articles in each Data Set

Diagram 4.1: Average Score per Positive Article in each Data Set

5249

40 40

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

To Vima Eleutherotypia I Kathimerini SKAI TV

Articles Presenting Positive Values

% of Articles

7.7

6.16.6

5.34

6

8

10

12

14

To Vima Eleutherotypia I Kathimerini SKAI TV

Average Positive Scores per Data Set

Average Score per Article

66

Diagram 4.2: Percentage of Negative Articles in each Data Set

Diagram 4.3: Average Score per Negative Article in each Data Set

28 29

41

29

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

To Vima Eleutherotypia I Kathimerini SKAI TV

Articles Presenting Negatives Values

% of Articles

-6.8 -6.5-7

-5.5

-18

-16

-14

-12

-10

-8

-6

-4To Vima Eleutherotypia I Kathimerini SKAI TV

Average Negative Scores per Data Set

Average Score per Article

67

Diagram 4.4: Percentage of Inconclusive Articles in each Data Set

20 2219

31

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

To Vima Eleutherotypia I Kathimerini SKAI TV

Articles Presenting Inconclusive Values

% of Articles

68

APPENDIX E: Pictures

All pictures presented here were taken by the author on the 10th June 2011, the last day of deliberation by citizens and experts on the social and economic condition of the Greece.

Picture 5.0: Protesters on the steps between the Lower and Upper Square

69

Picture 5.1: The encampment in the Lower Square

Picture 5.2: Banner in front of Parliament proclaiming “Here and Now, Deep

Democracy. End the Hovel [Parliament] and the Mockery”

70

Picture 5.3: View of the Lower Square from the Upper Sqaure

Picture 5.4: The interior of one of the Unit tents (Environment and Cleaning Unit)

71

Picture 5.5: Banner raised in the encampment proclaiming: “RESISTANCE – SELF-

ORGANISATION, SOLIDARITY: SOCIAL REVOLUTION: FOR A WORLD OF

FREEDOM AND EQUALITY”