Tuesday, June 25, 2013
C2.17 (Oudemanhuispoort)
The mounting contention which has surfaced in the Greek case and the global attention it has received, move beyond and above the EU as a transnational space of opportunities and threats which has mostly referred to liberalization policies (Imig and Tarrow 2001). It illustrates a shift towards the importance of the financial sector and the impacts of the financial crisis of an ever more interdependent global economic and political arena. Greece was the starting point of speculator attacks on other Eurozone peripheral states. Along with Greece, through the domino effect and under the threat of these attacks, Southern European states also pose threats to the euro’s existence, and are therefore pressured by global economic actors to implement radical neo-liberal policies and harsh austerity measures. Within a Tillian perspective, the paper aspires to understand how the transnational economic opportunities and threats have affected the large protest events against austerity policies and neoliberalism in Greece, from February 2010 to the end of 2012. Protest event analysis is applied to examine mega protest events produced under the “Mediterranean Environment, Networks and Actions” project, using five news media sources offering wider coverage of protests were selected: Eleftherotypia, the primary source, as well as Rizospastis and Aygi and two alternative media websites. The ultimate aim of the paper will be to contribute to discussions on how the new transnational economic and political opportunities and threats affect the repertoire of contention and claims in Southern Eurozone regions as a result of the global financial crisis.
