Lila Leontidou

Postmodernism and the City: Mediterranean Versions

Elements of postmodernism in social and cultural life seem to have been dominant in Mediterranean Europe before the concept was even coined in the 1970s. It is argued here that, by focusing on areas of the world with cultures and political histories different from those of the core of Europe and the USA, we can claim that postmodernism is not as new, nor does it follow modernism as distinctively and neatly as is believed. It has a longer itinerary and has emerged, as a culture, in different social formations at different periods. Is postmodernism perhaps a retrieved subordinate culture alternative to modernism, rather than a previously inexistent condition? This question, raised here, is answered only partly.

Urban Social Movements in ‘Weak’ Civil Societies: The Right to the City and Cosmopolitan Activism in Southern Europe

The transition from fast spontaneous urbanisation in southern Europe, with popular squatting as a form of civil disobedience, to ‘new social movements’ (NSMs) for democratic globalisation in cities, is taking place in the context of a broader transition. In the 20th century, there were unstable politics, civil wars and also still dictatorships in the south, which contributed in a north—south divide in Europe, engulfing civil societies, the welfare state, planning and grassroots mobilisations for a ‘right to the city’. This paper focuses on social transformation during the 21st century and points to three directions. First, it explores the nature of several NSMs as urban social movements (USMs) organised by loosely networked cosmopolitan collectivities, social centres and flâneur activists demanding a ‘right to the city’, and interprets this with reference to globalisation, democratisation and the Europeanisation of southern civil societies. Secondly, it unveils innovative forms of ‘urban’ mobilisations in the south, influencing the rest of the Europe: squatting in the past, social centres and the ESF (both starting in Italy) at present. Thirdly, it traces transformations of USMs between two centuries and argues about the deconstruction of the north—south divide in Europe with regard to movements and definitions of the ‘right to the city’. Mediterranean USMs have offered new insights and have broadened geographical imaginations in Europe.

Towards the development of quality of life indicators in the 'digital' city

Cities are central to the economic and social development of European society, not only because over 80% of European citizens live in urban areas, but also because cities are at the same time centres of production, innovation, employment, and culture, and loci of segregation, deprivation, and ethnic conflict. The emergence of a European-wide urban policy, has given new impetus to the need for comparable indicators of the quality of life to monitor development and policy implementation. This paper reviews the literature on quality of life indicators, and argues that traditional measures of the quality of life need to be supplemented with two new dimensions that reflect more recent postmodernist thinking about the composition of urban landscapes, and the contribution to the quality of life of the emerging information society. We argue that the challenges of building appropriate indicators reflecting these new dimensions are considerable, even in urban environments so rich in information systems and data sources, if they are to qualify as ‘digital cities’. There are difficulties in finding common workable definitions of the indicators themselves, as well as definitions of the relevant populations, including city residents, and users. By raising these issues and suggesting possible avenues for addressing these challenges we contribute to a much-needed debate on how to define such indicators, which is the prerequisite for their development and use.

The Boundaries of Europe: Deconstructing Three Regional Narratives

The shifting boundaries of Europe as lines of enclosure and mobility restriction in the ‘longue duree’are analysed here at the European/supranational level through the deconstruction of three regional narratives on “Europe” and its reborderings in different millennia. These narratives have had a lasting significance in identity construction and spatialities around the Mediterranean and are evidence of the historically specific and constructed nature of the boundaries of Europe, as well as the power relations involved in changing spatialities. Europe is a cultural construct that emerged around the Mediterranean in a captivating Greek myth, much earlier than the period of written history. The notion of Europe then ‘shifted’ to the northwest as a colonial cultural–religious construct of ‘Christendom’ during the Middle Ages, before nation-states emerged. Much later, European integration—in the context of globalization after the end of bipolarity—not only did not melt borders, but in fact created some new and often bizarre hierarchies supported by a bureaucratic narrative and an institutional discourse for unification after two devastating world wars. Unpacking these narratives is important in understanding sociopolitical constructions of ‘Europe’ and its boundaries, their hardening or relaxation, and criticizing essentialism, as well as commenting upon the ambivalent placing in the European Union of certain candidate and neighboring nations.

Antinomies of flexibilization and atypical employment in Mediterranean Europe: Greek, Italian and Spanish regions during the crisis

Until recently, Mediterranean countries were called on by European Union officials to provide for a “less-rigid” regulatory framework, in order to enhance “flexicurity”. This paper critically examines post-2008 flexibilization trends by focusing on Spanish, Italian and Greek regions. Starting from a contextualization of atypical employment and security, it then moves in a twofold direction; firstly, it presents the Flexible Contractual Arrangements and Active Labour Market Policies composite indicators, calculated for the NUTS-II regions of 12 member states for 2008 and 2011. These indicators reveal the changing ranking, especially of the Greek regions, towards higher labour market flexibility and relatively low levels of employability security; secondly, it focuses on the changing forms of atypical labour in the six regions that host the capital and the most important port city of Greece, Italy and Spain, respectively, by offering data on the expansion of flexible arrangements therein. The uneven flexibilization trends found in the study regions are seen as an outcome of the interaction between the general devaluation trends, different backgrounds and regionally specific patterns of labour market adjustment, while employment is found to be neither “rigid” nor “flexicure”. The paper concludes with some remarks on the relation between post-2008 dismantling of local labour regimes, restructuring and flexicurity.

Atypical employment in crisis-hit Greek regions: Local production structures, flexibilization and labour market re/deregulation:

The article addresses the shifting patterns of atypical employment across the regions of Greece, severely hit by the 2009 crisis. Changes are depicted by NUTS-II level data for the pre- and post-crisis periods of 2005–2009 and 2009–2011. A regional categorization is suggested, as different forms of atypical employment, namely part-time, temporary, solo self-employment and family work, have expanded unevenly across space. The authors argue that different patterns are related to regional specialization and industrial structures differently affected by the crisis. Established forms of atypical employment have been shaken, while new highly precarious ones have been boosted. Moreover, regulatory reforms for higher labour flexibilization have also defined the emergent atypical employment patterns in Greece. The article points out that in the Greek labour market, already marked by high flexibility and poor job security and social benefits, recent regulatory reforms increasing flexibilization have deteriorated labour and devalued atypical employment.