A nation under attack: perceptions of enmity and victimhood in the context of the Greek crisis

The mobilizing and protective role of national identification in normative and non‐normative collective action

“…In relative to our research, negative stereotyping is often accompanied the portrayal of southern Europeans (e.g., “lazy” and “disorganized”), while southern Europeans perceived the attitudes of other European Union countries as judgmental, negative, and hostile (Van Vossole, ). In this setting, a generalized sense of collective disadvantage in relation to other European countries was salient (Lialiouti & Bithymitris, ).…”

“…This context has interesting connotations regarding not only people's representations of factors that caused the crisis (e.g., individual behaviors or systemic issues) but also for participatory activities that aim to challenge the crisis (Papastamou, Chryssochoou, et al, ; Papastamou, Valentim, et al, ). Drawing upon the literature on perceived disadvantage (e.g., Ellemers & Barreto, ; Lialiouti & Bithymitris, ; Wright & Tropp, ) and the SIMCA (Van Zomeren, Spears, et al, ), we focused on the predictive roles of social identity, and cognitive and affective components of perceived disadvantage, that is perceived prejudice and ostracism by the European Union, and anger, as predictors of intentions to engage in normative action. Contributing to the relatively scarce research on non‐normative action, we also tested the above variables as instigators of support for such action.…”

Domesticating pathogenies, evaluating change: the Eurozone crisis as a ‘hot moment’ in Greek television fiction

“…Inevitably, the implied need for political and socio-cultural change could be read as an instigator of certain reactions from the Greek side (Bickes et al, 2014: 426). Those took the form either of an internalization of a negative self-image which fueled discourses of victimization and collective guilt, or of the emergence of counter-bashing strategies and the development of anti-German feelings as a means to defend the national self and to express popular discomfort (Lialiouti and Bithymitris, 2016; Michailidou, 2016). In many ways, then, the cultural as a category emerged as a dominant frame for assigning meaning to a multifaceted contemporary condition.…”

Ideology as blocked mourning: Greek national identity in times of economic crisis and austerity

“…29 These works demonstrate how national identity and memory was politicised and became an important part of the conflicting discourses in the context of the crisis. Our current research supports these findings, and attempts to explain the emergence of this kind of conflict, pointing to the dynamics that can account for its force.…”

“…Our findings receive some independent empirical support from the work of Lialiouti and Bithymitris, who demonstrate that the pro-and anti-Memorandum camps have mobilised national identity in distinct ways. 66 They argue that while the pro-memorandum camp often deploys a 'self-blaming' interpretive scheme, where Greece is responsible for its economic failures, the antimemorandum camp is more likely to resort to variants of a 'victimisation' scheme, where Greeks are threatened by an external enemy. While these theses share a deep affinity with our own findings, the theoretical-analytical grid we bring to bear on the material gives these findings a very particular twist.…”