The spatialization of democratic politics: Insights from Indignant Squares

Abstract

This article departs from accounts that either deify Indignant Squares as a model for 21st century political praxis or demonize them as apolitical/post-political crowd gatherings. By performing a closer ethnographic reading of the Indignants’ protests at Athens’ Syntagma Square, we depict the Indignant Squares as a consensual and deeply spatialized staging of dissent, which nevertheless harbours in its underbelly internally conflicting and often radically opposing political imaginaries. A closer reading of the organization, practice and discourses that evolved at Syntagma Square unearths the existence of not one, but two distinct Indignant Squares, both at Syntagma, each with its own topography (upper and lower square), and its own discursive and material practices. Although both squares staged dissent, they nevertheless generated different (opposing, even) political imaginaries. The ‘upper square’ often divulged nationalistic or xenophobic discourses; the ‘lower square’ centred around more organized efforts to stage inclusive politics of solidarity. The paper suggests that, rather than focusing on the homogenizing terms Indignants’ movement/ Indignant Squares we should instead be trying to develop a more nuanced theoretical understanding and a more finely grained empirical analysis of the discursive and spatial choreographies of these events. This, we argue, would allow us to go beyond either celebrating them as new political imaginaries, or condemning them as expressions of a post-political era. Talking of ‘Indignant Squares’ in the plural helps one explore in more grounded ways both the limitations and the possibilities that these events offer for opening up (or closing down) democratic politics.

Staging Equality in Greek Squares: Hybrid Spaces of Political Subjectification

“…There is now an emerging body of geographical work that mobilizes Jacques Rancière's work to inform readings of emancipatory politics (Dikeç, ; Swyngedouw, ; Dikeç ; ; Davidson and Iveson, ; Swyngedouw, ), which often explicitly focus on the urban uprisings that have been unfolding since 2011 (Bassett, ; Davidson and Iveson, ; Kaika and Karaliotas, ). This article seeks to contribute to this body of work by engaging with Rancière's notion of political subjectification.…”

“…As was to be expected, not all protesters shared the Popular Assembly's political imaginary. Soon a porous and fluid topographic differentiation emerged between ‘upper' and ‘lower' Syntagma Square (Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, ; Kaika and Karaliotas, ). In this subsection I look more closely at the discourses and repertoires of these two spaces.…”

“…From the end of May to the end of July 2011, hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied Syntagma Square in Athens and other public squares across the country to stage their dissent from the state of the situation. Protesters in the squares, who came to call themselves the Indignants ( Αγανακτισμένοι ), were a socio‐economically and ideologically heterogeneous multitude (Sotirakopoulos and Sotiropoulos, ; Kioupkiolis, ; Kaika and Karaliotas, ). Although most were variously affected by the imposed austerity measures, they differed in ‘their social situations, coping strategies, and narratives of blame, thus creating a plural embodied space of discontent' (Athanasiou, : 3).…”

Constructing solidarity as resistive and creative agency in austerity Greece

“…The stifling of public spending has seriously deteriorated, and brought to their knees, key services and infrastructure, such as welfare and provision, and the health and educational systems. At the same time, conditions of the loans have included large-scale privatisations of public assets and ÔcommonsÕ, such as ports, airports and land (Hadjimichalis 2014 Ôwho is to blameÕ for the crisis, demanded (but most importantly, re-modelled) deliberative democratic practices and organised their everyday life in the occupation through selforganisation, solidarity and horizontal decision-making (Leontidou 2012, Kaika and Karaliotas 2014, Arampatzi 2016. This intense politicisation dynamic that converged at the squares, was later dispersed across the city of Athens and other cities and became grounded in local neighbourhood assemblies, social centers, solidarity initiatives and networks, to name a few.…”

“…The intense activity and mobilisations taking place in urban squares across the country not only marked a cycle of protest that managed to bring together traditional actors and movements; but also initiated the diffusion of new practices that people experimented with at the occupied squares. In organising their day-to-day lives in the occupations, mutual aid, solidarity and self-organisation became particularly prominent means of collective action (Leontidou 2012, Kaika andKaraliotas 2014). In Athens, following the forced eviction of the Syntagma occupation in the summer of 2011, such practices became transposed in local squares across neighbourhoods, where popular assemblies formed and picked up the thread of counter-austerity struggle.…”