IOO
establishment collectives failed to proliferate during this time. It wasn’t until after 2004,
during the deepening political-economic failure of post-Olympic Greece106, that broader
popular anti-state youth action began to occur. The reasons for this are twofold: first,
during this period anxiety and frustration over the conditions young people faced had
deepened among this population considerably, especially as the promise of a “Modem
European Greece” slipped away (Papahelas 2009); second, anti-establishment discourses,
and the publics they contributed to, came to inform intersubjective practice within micro-
scale youth sociality (see Agre 1999:4; Brown & Duguid 2000 on "communities of
interest"; Lave & Wenger 1991 on "communities of practice"). As the following will
demonstrate, large-scale anti-establishment, and indeed anti-state youth action during this
time, was enabled by the taking-up of micro-scale anti-establishment activity.
Into 2004 and afterwards downloaded digital music and video was often shared
between friends in person or remotely using mobile messaging technology and email. As
more sophisticated mobile phones became available, young people began to load them
with small caches of their favorite anti-establishment material which they would share
among friends and especially new acquaintances, adding a layer of popular dissident
meaning to established greeting practice among Greek youth (see Wilson & Peterson
2002). For example, upon meeting someone new, individuals would typically exchange
mobile phone numbers. The new relationship would then be negotiated, at least in part,
over mobile text message over the coming days and weeks. In place of deliberately
106 During this period the newly elected New Democracy government discovered an exceptionally high
budget deficit, verified by Eurostat, thus initiating the Excessive Deficit Procedure by the European
Commission. By 2006, the dept was coming under control, but the subsequent global economic downturn
tied to the American sub-prime market collapse and increasing oil prices coupled with a lack of Greek
structural economic improvements, sent the country back into national dept. This occurred while the
Imemployment rate increased, inflation rose, GDP dropped, and government expenditures grew (see
Monastiriotis 2009).