170
The approach I have taken here reveals how the interconnections between groups of
variously abused, disempowered and disenfranchised people, that often appear sporadic
and even temporary, may in fact hold deeper and evolving socio-cultural implications
within those groups and may come to form complex webs of sustained influence (acting
at various points) on the mainstream. This work has shown that understanding the
growing networks of unconventional citizens across Europe, the internal sociality and
broader influence of which may prove to be surprisingly transnational, may be important
when considering issues related to broader socio-political change.
This, of course, begs the question whether the emerging political reality in Greece
is specific to that country or whether this can be considered the local instance of a
broader trend towards popular political change influenced by unconventional citizens
across Europe. Balibar has argued that Greece is one of the centers of Europe, not
because of the mythical origins of its civilization, but because it condensates the political
problems and conflicts facing the continent (2004:2)153. Indeed, Greece’s exposure to the
human and other effects of international conflict, economic crisis, and political tumult
outside its borders, and within its borders Greece’s deep economic, political, and social
problems make the country a privileged space where established European struggles are
intensified and new forms of conflict emerge. Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a
drastic reconfiguration of Greek, and therefore of European politics, the emergence of
new political subjects, and the actualization of new, and reinterpretation of old, civic
struggles. .
153 Of note, Balibar argues this is because, the country’s shifting post-Cold War geopolitical significance
and because of the political reforms the country introduced during the mid-eighties (2004).