This is a CTP of initiative: Shareable‐ShareableAthens (Greece)
This Critical Turning Point (CTP2) consists of the decision of a core member of the Ouishare international network, writer at Shareable, and initiator of Ouishare Athens a to move to Athens from London. In Athens he discovered a new ecosystem of sharing and solidarity initiatives, functioning under its own rules, in the context of the Greek economic crisis. The Critical Turning Point happened at the end of 2011, when the economic crisis in Greece was already an everyday reality. This event constitutes a Critical Turning Point as it is related to the attempt to establish the Ouishare network in Athens, which however, failed. In addition, it reveals the socio-economic conditions that differentiate the sharing and solidarity economy in Athens from what happens in other cities/countries, as the interviewee experiences them.
The interviewee had been living in London since 2008, while he was also travelling to Athens very often to meet friends. At the end of 2011, he decided to leave London. He moved permanently to Athens and specifically at the center of the city, in a neighbourhood with strong social and political character, which is also the central node for the majority of solidarity activities. Around this neighbourhood (at the area of Exarcheia) there are many social centers, squats, locations providing support to refugees, a lot of solidarity economy initiatives.
The reasons why he took this decision included a mix of personal and professional factors. He considered the living standards in Athens much higher: there was better quality of life and more free time. A very descriptive expression, coming from one of his friends who had lived for a while in Athens is “in London people have contacts, in Athens people have friends”, indicating that social capital is an important part for the way Greek society functions. This was a reason for moving to the city, but also something that he experienced very vividly after being an Athenian resident. In addition, one of the representative case studies for the research he had been doing as a PhD student at the UK was in Athens.
Although he had visited the city many times, by moving there he realized many new aspects: “Athens is like New York in the 80s. You see the whole world here: people from Asia, Africa, people who just got off a boat. There are real problems staring you in the face”. He was very motivated and started exploring many of the Greek initiatives. Soon he realized that the sharing economy and solidarity economy were two different “camps” but at first he was interested in both of them.
Before moving to Athens, when he had started visiting Greece, he was writing articles about the positive news from the country, as a response to the negative news that were presented by the media every day. However, by moving there he started to have a different perspective. He was still very enthusiastic about it, however he could realize that his position was slightly different than the one of Greek people, he did not have to face exactly the same challenges as he did not pay taxes there, he did not need to look for a job or earn a salary that is constantly being reduced due to the economic measures and laws.
Gradually, while realizing the severity of the crisis, he was more inclined towards working on projects and ideas that help society on the ground. His projects could help increase (or even just maintain) the standard of living of people, as many other grassroots projects in Athens were trying to do.
Personal relationships played an important role for the decision of the interviewee to move to Athens, and for the later events evoked by this Critical Turning Point such as the decisions to activate or create new networks and initiatives. For example, after he moved to Athens, one of his friends introduced him to most of the underground, solidarity initiatives that would have taken him otherwise some time to discover on his own.
Moreover, the difference between the sharing economy scene between London and Athens played a role. In London there was a very competitive atmosphere, where a lot of innovative ideas had already been attempted or successfully implemented by many people. It was difficult to come up with something different, something that also responded to real needs and helped society. In this context, he began working on a food transport web startup, and later on a local community news media project.
Although these projects had been quite successful, after moving to Athens and exploring the local solidarity scene, his observation was that although there were a lot of groups and initiatives, sometimes it felt like nothing is happening. What was missing was the organization and coordination between the initiatives, as many of them seemed to operate in silos. The way that the whole system was structured and functioning was chaotic. The sharing and solidarity economy groups seemed to be in distinct camps. However, the solidarity economy was very clear in its ideology (implicitly or explicitly against EU funding and the international financial system). On the other hand, the sharing economy initiatives were ambiguous, seemed like an economic bubble, not fitting well to the context. Most of them were tech startups not relevant to the social challenges.
These observations, along with meeting a lot of local active people, and also realizing the critical social situation (for example being a city with many homeless people living in the streets with inadequate sanitation) motivated him to believe that he can support the local scene and also start projects that are fulfilling and successful while being in Athens.
Gradually the interviewee became part of a wide network, collaborating with the solidarity networks, joining pop-up events at anarchist squats and anti-racism festivals with the Options FoodLab project. However, in the solidarity ecosystem it is not possible to earn money from the activities, a fact that is respected and he also supports that, so they have to look for other opportunities when they need financial support for their activities. With other networks/projects such as the Unmonastery they have participated in other events such as the Commons Fest and the Solidarity Festival.
One year before leaving London, in 2010, the interviewee started a PhD and decided to move to Athens (also) as an interesting case study. He was frequently traveling there and writing articles on Shareable for the cool things happening in the city and the country: squats, Steki Metanaston (“Place for Immigrants”) where he was taking Greek lessons with refugees and migrants, community kitchens, “Ovolos” time bank from Patra.
At the same time, he became one of the first “connectors” of Ouishare, a member of the core team being active in the international conferences and meetings of the network. As an Ouishare connector, he presented the Ouishare network in Athens and tried to support a Greek team for setting up the local Ouishare network.
Soon, after moving to Athens he decided to quit the PhD in the UK (for other not related reasons) and started working on another European project that came up, relevant to autonomous community networks and sharing activities. As it was possible for him to continue living in Athens and having a job, he could keep on exploring the sharing and collaborative economy scene and being active in the city.
At that time (2012) it was the worst part of the crisis as he had perceived it. Almost all his friends were taking the decision to move abroad to look for work, while he was setting up everything to settle in Athens.
Later on, and as the refugee crisis was an additional event that made the situation in Athens more critical, he decided to start the “Options FoodLab”: a project that provided space for cooks from different background to share and improve their skills while being able to earn a small amount of money at pop-up events, festivals, etc. At the same time he started being more critical about his older projects. Although they are nice and very interesting ideas, such as an application related to the delivery of food, they did not seem able to address social situations that the “Options FoodLab” could tackle.
Contestation was involved during the time that the decision for moving to Athens in the middle of the crisis was being taken. Most of the friends of the interviewee were looking for opportunities to leave the country and find better living and working conditions abroad. At the same time, the interviewee was abandoning his life in London, selling his property there and investing in a new start in Athens. He was very enthusiastic, although this decision was not carefully planned. It was based on the feeling that “something important is happening in Athens, this is where I have to be”. He did not get demotivated and did not consider changing his decision, but the fact that most of the people he knew left the country soon after he arrived there was a step towards the realization of the actual situation in Athens.
Apart from the aforementioned debating point, contestation as such was not identified in this Critical Turning Point. There were only some points when the interviewee was able to criticize previous personal choices, as well as the way that the sharing economy scene is developing, due to the change of context in which he lives and that has influenced his perspective.
For example, many of the interesting and innovative initiatives (in which he also participates sometimes) seem to be superficial when compared to solidarity networks that provide social support. For example, there are networks that aim in solving the refugee crisis through developing digital applications, or platforms through which people can hire or find a refugee as a roommate: “people think this is empowering and liberating, but actually, although the ideas are good and strong, the implementation through the apps ends up being exploitative”. While these ideas are interesting and look inclusive at first glance, they turn out to be disrespectful as many times they turn out to be lacking the value of equity.
A current point of contestation within the Options FoodLab group regards the possibility of opening a cafe in order to support the refugee groups among others. However, the formal process seems to be really difficult and complicated, and they cannot identify the best “corporation type” in which such a cafe would operate in a viable way. It is impossible to establish a “social enterprise” in Greece at the moment, while you have to pay a lot of taxes even when providing a social service. The group has not found a way to reach a solution and implement their ideas.
The decision of moving to Greece was not anticipated as a Critical Turning Point, as the interviewee did not expect that this decision would make such a big difference in his life and way of thinking. For that reason he had not organized anything in detail, he was just moving instinctively. However, he had the sense that Greece was the place to be at the moment, due to the crisis and also as he had experienced the atmosphere in Athens during his visits there.
Later on he realized that this decision was extremely critical, it changed his life. It was the first time that he was experiencing a situation that he describes as completely “in your face”. In London everything was very well organized, and problems could be hidden. He did not expect that he would experience such a “real” living environment as the one of Athens, although he had already been there many times and was partly aware of the vivid sharing and solidarity economy scene.
The decision of moving was not perceived as a Critical Turning Point from a professional perspective as well. However, when the interviewee was discovering the ecosystem of sharing and solidarity in the city, he developed new ideas and his professional interest increased as well.
After a couple of years, it was clear that moving to Athens was a very Critical Turning Point.
As the interviewee mentions: “After moving to Athens, helping another person earn 100 euros means more to me than helping myself earn 1000 euros”. The interviewee additionally indicates that living a simple life is all you need, you do not always need to look for more. It is only possible to realize this by living in vivid contexts, and among crises, in a context such as the one that Athens provides at the moment.
The experience of multiple crises in the Athenian context made him develop a critique for the sharing economy (in the form of entrepreneurial, innovative, tech ideas), which he considers now to be very vague, not focused on needs of everyday people but of an “elite”. Through the projects that he got involved in in Athens he had the precious opportunity to meet people from all over the world, people who have real problems that increase every day. The interviewee explains/ explains etc..: “Those are real people, they make society go forwards: they have jobs, they do the jobs that nobody else wants to do, they have kids, they deal with everyday problems, and they even get harassed by the police”.
In addition he can now identify a big difference between Shareable and Ouishare, and he understands the reasons why Ouishare was not able to be established in Athens. Shareable is much closer to the activist side (anti-Uber, anti-AirBnB). On the contrary Ouishare gets funding from these companies. Shareable has a lot of integrity and credibility among community activists and has a future in Greece.
Stay informed. Subscribe for project updates by e-mail.
