Simiti, Marilena, (2015), “‘Social Need’ or ‘Choice’? Greek Civil Society during the Economic Crisis”, GreeSE Paper No.95,
Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe, November.
The paper analyses the impact of the economic crisis on Greek civil society. It explores currents trends in the non-profit sector as well as the proliferation of new alternative networks. Academic research has documented that civil society’s density has increased and its autonomy vis-à-vis the state has strengthened. These trends have led to an emerging academic consensus on the revitalisation of Greek civil society following the onset of the crisis. However, this revitalisation has taken place during a period of severe economic crisis with devastating social effects. The paper argues that the density of civil society may be a misleading indicator of its strength if abstracted from the broader political and economic context. Thus the rapid deterioration of the quality of citizenship during the crisis has seriously undermined the strength of civil society, despite the significant rise in associationism.
Relevant Posts
- Zafiropoulou, Μ. (2015) “Exclusion from Healthcare Services and the Emergence of New Stakeholders and Vulnerable Groups in Times of Economic Crisis: A Civil Society’s Perspective in Greece”, Social Change Review, Winter 2014, Vol. 12(2): 25-42, 12 February.
- Etienne, Julien, (2013), “Controlled negative reciprocity between the state and civil society: the Greek case”, Hellenic Observatory of the European Institute at the LSE, June.