A Citizen’s Guide to Greece 2015
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Sticki-gate
Posted January 19, 2013 by DW
Nick Malkoutzis has a probing analysis of the circus act that is the current Greek Parliament in the English pages of Kathimerini. In this instance he writes about the debate this past Thursday over whom to investigate in the ongoing saga of the infamous “Lagarde list.” The debate turned into a finger pointing match between […]
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Understanding children’s participation
Posted April 24, 2016 by Politis
By Maria Patsariki* A couple of days ago, and on the occasion of the Dukakis Center International Conference ‘Civic engagement and the practices of democracy’, a not so surprising theme was brought forward: young people are not interested in, and do not want to do, politics. The quotes were disheartening showing not only a lack […]
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This is not Sparta
Posted December 23, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Nikos Konstandaras Groups of left-wing protesters have been fighting to obstruct university reforms which, among other things, will put an end to their lengthy dominance. At the same time, groups of far-right thugs have stepped out of the shadows and can now be heard bragging that the time of their own dominion is coming. […]
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It happened. It’s done. Now what.
Posted November 14, 2016 by Politis
By Jayde Hansen Regardless of how we feel about the elections, there is absolutely nothing we can do about the selection of the president at this point. What we can do is be catalysts for change. Social media has gone absolutely crazy since the world found out that Donald Trump is now the president of […]
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When push becomes shove: getting citizens to act in their own best interest
Posted August 1, 2013 by DW
It was originally called the “Behavioural Insights Team,” a team of British policy analysts who employed psychological research to persuade citizens in the most subtle of ways to pay their taxes on time, get off unemployment, or insulate their attic. Now Canada has created a “nudge unit,” whose mission is to “nudge citizens into acting […]
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Football activism
Posted June 23, 2013 by DW
A striking scene from the Copacabana.
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The spirit of public service
Posted April 16, 2015 by DW
By David Wisner For EF For the better part of the past decade and a half I have been searching for ways to translate the concept and practice of public service, so commonplace throughout the United States, into the contemporary Greek reality. I learned early on that there is not a direct or literal translation […]
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Center right, center left: How’d we do?
Posted February 5, 2013 by Politis
How’d we do? Not especially well if we give credence to the methodology of the recently published Pew Charitable Trusts’ Election Performance Index. Scores of near-systemic flaws were reported throughout the US in 2008 and again in 2010, giving rise to doubts about the integrity of the voting process across the country. Even states which […]
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Why the media want you to blame Greece
Posted June 11, 2012 by iankehoe
By Ian Kehoe Looking through some of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers recently I found myself shocked and equally intrigued by the vilification of Greece, this corrupt little country that had brought down Europe and irritated those poor suffering markets so much… so much so that I was half expecting a headline saying ‘Greece causes man to […]
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The rally that did not happen
Posted May 15, 2012 by KK
By Krysta Kalachani Athens, May 13, 2012. Nothing about Athens and the rally. No news in the hashtags and no photos, and I thought that when I went there it was late, but I guess people were very few really. Yup! I can imagine, I myself was on the track again with the motorbike… Believe […]
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Greeks seek austerity trial at The Hague
Posted April 25, 2012 by PR
By Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens It is rare for citizens to try to take their government to court, and even more so for a Western European government to be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. But that is what one group based near the Greek capital is now attempting. And […]
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Depositor’s rage
Posted March 21, 2013 by Politis
Helena Smith of the Guardian reports this from Nicosia on the evening of March 21: “At branches in Nicosia, the divided capital, Cypriots queued for hours in the hope of withdrawing cash with lines frequently moving at a snail’s pace because of the inability of cash machines to dispense more than €40 euro at a […]
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Gloomy news about our citizenship values
Posted March 20, 2013 by MK
By Maria Patsarika A lot of gloominess in Asteris Houliaras’ note in Protagon this morning. The piece purports to offer analysis of a table representing “Attitudes to being rich.” The empirical evidence supports the feeling of gloom: Greeks have one of the lowest “mutual trust” indicators among western societies and active citizenship ratio in relation […]
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The Citizenship we need now is about transforming institutions
Posted March 27, 2012 by pdcadmin
By Ian Kehoe In these unprecedented times in Greece, it is more important than ever to question the purposes and outcomes of social projects and institutions in order to make sure we are really tackling the underlying causes and behaviours that led us to this crisis. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in alternative […]
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Crimes against ourselves
Posted April 26, 2012 by iankehoe
Recently I read that a group of Greek anti-austerity campaigners want to bring the government on trial for ‘crimes against humanity’ at the International Criminal Court. Understandably, there is considerable anti-government sentiment at the moment. However I’d like to offer another perspective on what is going on, one that might not be popular. The problem […]
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The Aftermath of Despair and a Cartography of Hope
Posted November 30, 2015 by DW
You are cordially invited To a presentation of photographs by photojournalist Dimitris Bouras “Beyond Dichotomies: Reassembling Global Challenges through the Local: Syria / Iraq | Research Project | 1991, 2003 ~ 2007, 2010 ~ 2015 or, the Aftermath of Despair and a Cartography of Hope ” Tuesday, December 1, 1PM ACT NEW BuILDING A-V ROOM […]
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Sport and politics
Posted February 1, 2013 by Politis
This bit was posted by a wag yesterday on the BBC web site, relative to the transfer of soccer star Mario Balotelli from Manchester City to AC Milan (the latter owned by Sylvio Berlusconi). “When Inter president Massimo Moratti said yesterday that Silvio Berlusconi would have many uses for Mario Balotelli he was absolutely right. […]
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From Delacroix to Dorian Grey
Posted February 10, 2013 by DW
By David Wisner If I were a photographer, I would take portraits of individual sitters. I would try to capture one’s eternal youthfulness, and yet simultaneously project the whole of one’s temporal experience. As I write these lines, I find myself thinking also that I might be able to discern the countenance of their personal […]
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Digital Politics in 2012: coming to Europe soon?
Posted March 2, 2013 by Politis
Findings from a recently published report by the Pew Research Center on digital politics in the 2012 US general election. Should we look for signs that this is the future face of European electoral politics too? 1. Digital Politics:Pew Research findings on technology and campaign 2012 Aaron Smith Research Associate Pew Research Center @pewinternet, #SMWdigitalpolitics […]
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Do we want our politics to be nimble?
Posted August 3, 2014 by Politis
In an article published this past weekend on TechCrunch, Michael Papay and David Timby ask what politics cannot work at the swift pace that contemporary business, aided by developments in information technology, can. In this high political season (the 2014 mid-term elections) “there’s not much constructive debate,” they lament, “and political gridlock has become the […]