Geographies of politics and the police: post-democratization, SYRIZA, and the politics of the “Greek debt crisis”

Karaliotas, L. (2021) Geographies of politics and the police: post-democratization, SYRIZA, and the politics of the “Greek debt crisis”. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 39(3), pp. 491-511. (doi: 10.1177/2399654419876650)

Abstract

This paper explores the entangled dynamics of de-politicization and re-politicization in the midst of the “Greek debt crisis.” Critically revisiting Jacques Rancière’s political writings, it argues that, despite common criticisms to the contrary, his oeuvre foregrounds the impurity of democratic politics. Rancière, the paper contends, offers critical heuristic tools in understanding and engaging with how processes of post-democratization and democratic politics intersect, become entangled, and are mutually constituted. Simultaneously, however, it also challenges Rancière’s almost exclusive emphasis on political subjectification to argue for a plural understanding of the modalities and spatialities of democratic politics. Reading the politics of the “Greek debt crisis” through this lens, the paper unpacks how post-democratization has unfolded through an uneven and contested geography articulated at multiple scales. In parallel, it also maps the diverse and impure modalities of democratic politics in crisis-ridden Greece: from the staging of disagreement through the 2011 squares movement to the articulation of everyday commoning and solidarity movements to SYRIZA’s meteoric rise to power. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how post-democratization and democratic politics are being shaped in constant relationship and tension.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: An earlier version of this paper was discussed at a workshop at the University of Glasgow in April 2017. I am grateful for the travel funding provided by the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) and Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. Thanks also to Dave Featherstone, Aliki Koutlou and Gesa Helms for comments on an earlier draft.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Karaliotas, Dr Lazaros
• Authors: Karaliotas, L.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 2399-6544
• ISSN (Online): 2399-6552
• Published Online: 19 September 2019
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 The Author
• First Published: First published in Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 39(3): 491-511
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy