crisscrossed through and out of the Attica plain. One of my key sites was Halandri, a
suburb near the core, famous for being the birthplace of Euripides and, in more recent
history, for being the rich cottage country of the Athenian elite. Today, the place remains
a well-to-do area containing a thin, but celebrated stretch of green space surrounding a
small creek that runs near its exclusive shopping and residential areas. I also spent a lot
of time in Kifissia and Vrilissia, both of which were once considered separate from
Athens, but because of better road access and the new Metro subway system are rapidly
expanding as upper-middle class commuter neighborhoods. Closer to the core of Athens
I also conducted research in Kypseli, a neighborhood with a complex and changing
demographic, and in Athens itself near Omonia Square, Victoria Square, and in and
around the Monastiraki area.
*
My dissertation is based on over one-and-a-half years of ethnographic field
research conducted among various, diverse populations practicing unconventional modes
of citizenship. I use the term unconventional citizenship to denote any group that aspires
to some form of civic or collective life, but that for whatever reason is denied access to,
or in turn rejects, current civic identities. Unconventional citizens are therefore not
necessarily insurgent citizens as Holston (2008; 2009) formulates, although these are
included too. Instead, I also consider non-insurgent, generally acquiescent, but
rejected∕marginalized populations and “inside groups” like current, participating, but
disaffected or “dangerous” citizens, to use Panourgia’s term (2009), as unconventional
citizens. This broad definition allows me to examine the multiple interconnections
between seemingly disparate communities and the multiple complex direct and indirect