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Over the last 18 months Greece has become the epicentre of consecutive crises, not only economic and political, but also of image and belonging. Statistics about rising unemployment, falling GDP, the mass exodus of young people, refugee and migrant flows and detentions do not fully capture contemporary realities of ordinary Greeks. The psychological pressures exerted by government, elite politicians and mainstream media domestically and abroad is overwhelming, all competing to dictate the urgency of austerity measures.
These very crises have produced different waves and scales of mobilizations, channelled by newly formed grass-roots structures and assemblies, solidarity and cooperative initiatives, nurturing a civic culture that strives for social change and symbolic recognition. I have previously argued how this civic culture diverts from mainstream civil society in Greece and have highlighted, along with others, the existing tensions between state power and non-partisan political movements. It is important to focus on the ways in which evolving communication practices on social media have shaped the nature and character of the solidarity and cooperative initiatives in the last few years.
