History, time, and economic crisis in central greece

HISTORY, TIME, and ECONOMIC CRISIS in CENTRAL GREECE Daniel M Knight History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece Daniel M Knight Foreword by Robert Layton history, time, and economic crisis in central greece Copyright © Daniel M Knight 2015 All rights reserved ® First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States—a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world ® ® Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN: 978-1-137-50148-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Knight, Daniel M History, time, and economic crisis in Central Greece / Daniel M Knight pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-137-50148-6 (hardcover : alk paper) Trikala (Greece)—Economic conditions—1974- Working class—Greece— Trikala—Economic conditions—21st century Poverty—Greece—Trikala— History—21st century Recessions—Greece—Trikala—History—21st century Financial crises—Greece—Trikala—History—21st century Trikala (Greece)—History I Title HC298.T75K55 2015 330.9495'4—dc23 2014045410 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library Design by Amnet First edition: May 2015 10 In memory of Bill, Oliver, Thomas, Eugenia, Giorgos, and Mary Those we lost along the way Contents List of Figures ix Foreword xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Prosperity and Crisis Ethnography on the Plain of Thessaly 21 Return of the Tsiflikades: Crisis and Land Tenure 1881–1923 41 Hungry with the Same Famine 65 Things to Forget, Things to Remember: The Greek Civil War 85 Public Faces: Food and Protest in the Current Crisis 101 Transforming the Public Sphere 121 Status in Crisis 141 Conclusions: Past, Future, and Beyond 165 Notes 173 Bibliography 187 Index 205 List of Figures Figure The location of Thessaly periphery (shaded) and the town of Trikala 22 The four prefectures of Thessaly and their principal urban centers (as of 2010) 23 Trikala prefecture The research for this book was conducted within the “golden triangle” between Trikala, Kalampaka, and Pyli 23 Greek Orthodox Church of Agios Konstantinos with the Ottoman Kursum Tzami in the background 24 Setting up for another day’s trade: early morning on Asklipiou 29 Figure Monday market in central Trikala 29 Figure Examples of midsummer sales on Asklipiou The banner on the shop reads “For two more weeks even lower prices.” 139 The sign on the bottom basket reads “Everything euros.” These were symptomatic of the sales in all establishments in central Trikala during summer 2010 140 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Foreword Dr Knight’s study of contemporary life in a small Greek town is an outstanding example of anthropology in the Malinowskian tradition, with the bonus that it is also a study of dramatic social change Daniel Knight had the good fortune (from an anthropological perspective) to have already started his fieldwork in 2007, before the 2010 collapse of Greek financial institutions threatened the entire economy of the Eurozone and the rest of Western Europe In his account of what followed, vivid case studies of the sufferings of individuals and families are juxtaposed to theoretical insights that emerge, not from armchair speculation but from his overview of the field data: Does hardship strengthen the community or cause division and argument? Can individuals be blamed for the collapse of a system? Why has public life become more animated as people have less money to spend? The collapse of 2010 was not the first period of hardship in modern Greece, and Daniel’s study is exemplary in documenting previous disasters: the oppression by Ottoman landlords, the Nazi Occupation of World War Two and the Great Famine that it brought about, the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising, that now, in his words, press up against the present as if time had been folded and shortened, not so much cyclical as repetitive Daniel also examines why the Greek Civil War, despite the suffering it caused, has not generally joined these iconic events, except in a mountain village where the anarchy of the civil war seems about to return While many recent anthropological studies have shown how landscape can become a source of shared memories and values, in the Greek case recurrent disasters have left people with the sense of alienation from what should be their own landscape Daniel’s vivid and truly Malinowskian case studies not only convey personal hardship but also humor: the insults exchanged between members of the line at the gas station awaiting a rumored delivery of fuel, political graffiti and the symbolism of the cucumber—“the next cucumber is always around the corner”—the trip to the beach frustrated by the fact that the roads programmed into the cars’ satellite navigation systems had never been built xii ● Foreword Cooperation sometimes breaks down during moments of universal scarcity, but solidarity among young friends leads them to share their pocket money, and the intervention of a nongovernment organization to short-circuit entrepreneurial dealings in potatoes restores profit to farmers, and reduces cost to consumers As Daniel’s analysis proceeds there are unexpected twists in the plot While Germany, and Angela Merkel in particular, are identified as the causes of Greek suffering, perhaps, in truth, the Greeks were responsible for their own fall from prosperity The unregulated nature of Greek bank loans from 1981 to 2007 encouraged unrepayable indebtedness During the Greek stock market boom of the 1990s ordinary Greeks speculated in the shares of largely fictitious businesses such as a “fish farm” that only consisted of a pond and two sheds, creating what seems to be money out of nothing, their gaze focused only on the daily rise and fall in share prices and advised by local amateurs Officials and professionals demanding bribes, tax evasion, overemployment in government posts, all added to the unsustainable character of the Greek economy But deregulation of the economy and privatization were imposed on Greece by neoliberal foreigners Trikalinoi know that in northern Europe the Greek people are publicly portrayed as being responsible for the current financial situation due to their participation in “corrupt” practices and a “lazy” work ethic, yet they argue their own misdeeds were trivial compared to those of their political leaders who are now asking everyone to bear the consequences This resonates in Britain, where it was the greed of bankers free to speculate in an unregulated market that caused the financial collapse, yet it is the poor who are bearing the cost of austerity in order to ensure the rich remain wealthy In a further twist, Daniel discovers that history is not just a source of imagery for representing the present; the present culture has itself developed historically through the very social upheavals that provide the imagery The present social system is built of components that arose at different periods of history, “like a late model car” whose present components were added at different times The redistribution of the Ottoman landlords’ holdings created land as private property, which could be divided between children or sold to release the capital Even if this was not an immediate consequence of the land redistribution program, as social ideals began to change during the postwar period, away from wealth based on agricultural land ownership and toward urbanization and education, sellable private property became a valuable asset that could support a child through postgymnasium (secondary school) education in search of skilled employment off the land A sense of stable social hierarchy based on land-ownership broke down, but patronage (originally based on the relationship between landlord and tenant) continues to exist Foreword ● xiii alongside neoliberal economic policies For members of long-established families it is social capital slowly built up over decades that gives status, but for others, descended from tenants who have experienced the increasingly ready supply of cash, consumerism is the new source of status, “coupled with highly influential mass media imports from western Europe and the United States.” The former have survived the economic disaster more successfully than the latter How, finally, is the rise Daniel notes in public socializing in the bars and streets of the local town to be explained? Foreigners, and even Greeks living abroad, are puzzled that despite their complaining, Greeks seem still to be spending money on leisure Daniel’s careful inquiries discover how the constant flow of bad news on television and the lack of food at home drive people into public spaces He discovers how important the public sphere is for sharing suffering and support, and how determined his Greek friends are to show they are not beaten, but resisting northern European neoliberalism Dr Knight’s vivid and thoughtful study takes readers into the heart of the current turbulent conditions affecting Western Europe, on the one hand portraying their effects on ordinary lives, on the other uncovering some of their causes and consequences in an anthropologically enlightening manner Robert Layton .. .History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece Daniel M Knight Foreword by Robert Layton history, time, and economic crisis in central. .. media outlets, and multinational business chains, eventually resulting in 18 ● History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece the death of three people in Athens (known as the Marfin deaths... objects and artifacts, institutionalized nationalism, and the ● History, Time, and Economic Crisis in Central Greece education system During the current economic crisis, the Great Famine of 1941–43,