The Newly Disadvantaged: Responses to rapid socioeconomic change in Greece
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Speaker
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Alexander Kentikelenis
Research Associate, Department of Sociology, King's College, University of Cambridge
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Chair
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Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis
Associate Professor of Political Economy, LSE
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Date
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Tuesday, 11 November 2014
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Venue
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Cañada Blanch Room, COW 1.11, 1st floor, Cowdray House
European Institute, LSE, Portugal Street, London WC2A 2AE
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Time
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18:00-19:30
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Twitter
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#LSE_HOkentikelenis
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Seminar Poster
Abstract
The deep crisis in Greece has resulted in economic hardship and social dislocation for a substantial proportion of the country’s population. This talk had two objectives. First, it provided a brief overview of reforms to the Greek welfare state, with a focus on changes to entitlements and eligibility criteria. Emphasis was placed on who was primarily affected, and what consequences this had. It was argued that – at a time of heightened need – the welfare state failed those who needed it most.
Second, building on this background, the talk examined how newly unemployed working-class people responded to adversity. Drawing on findings from fieldwork in a community near Greece’s major port, the talk investigates the reconfiguration of reliance on material, institutional, social and cultural resources that people drew on in order to maintain their livelihoods. It was argued that people who until the onset of the crisis were formally employed and enjoyed a range of welfare services have become ‘newly disadvantaged’, and this has been generative of a range of coping mechanisms.
The talk closed by placing these processes in a broader European context. While policy reforms in Greece have had the most visible effects on people’s livelihoods, processes of welfare state retrenchment are observed in a number of European countries and cast doubt on the future of the so-called European Social Model.
PHOTOS
Alexander Kentikelenis, Research Associate, Department of Sociology, King's College, University of Cambridge
Mr Kentikelenis (left) and Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis (right)
The audience at Cañada Blanch Room
Dr Rosa Vasilaki opens the Q&A session
Dr Will Bartlett with a question
Photography supplied courtesy of Antonios Fiala A.Fiala@lse.ac.uk