Crisis reflexivity: the fragile regime of citizenship in Greece’s compounded crises

Afroditi Koulaxi

doi:10.7146/mk.v40i77.140829

Authors

Afroditi Koulaxi LSE Fellow

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/mk.v40i77.140829

Keywords:

crisis, reflexivity, citizen identity, imaginary, mediation, encounters

Abstract

The paper explores how the crisis imaginary shapes citizen identity in relation to the migrant noncitizen as well as the media’s role in enhancing or containing the crisis. The communicative process of crisis reflexivity offers a conceptual tool to understand the consequences of limited or absent encounters with noncitizen Others for the citizens’ construction of identity. Within the spatio-temporality of compounded crises in an Athenian neighbourhood, the study’s multi-method approach combines 30 in-depth interviews with Greek citizens with offline and online participant observation. The empirical findings reveal that embodied encounters shape the perception of citizens as victims in light of structural inequalities and the existential uncertainty tied to media disinformation and fear. However, for those with progressive views, predominantly mediated encounters can open up an avenue for a politics of justice and generate feelings of cosmopolitanism towards citizens-in-the-making.

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Crisis reflexivity: the fragile regime of citizenship in Greece’s compounded crises

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