Responding to the crisis : food co-operatives and the solidarity economy in Greece

摘要

This article discusses a case of popular social response to imposed austerity and recession in Greece. It focuses on the antimiddlemanmovement in an Athens suburb. It also addresses the broader picture of the current Greek crisis, explaining howparticipants in this grassroots response extend their activity beyond food distribution, beginning to imagine modes of economicconduct and interaction different from those currently dominant in Greece. I explore their efforts to turn the food market theyhave established in Athens into a formal co-operative which links consumers in their neighbourhood directly to selected farmersthrough bonds of solidarity, and to work with others to create a network of similar co-operatives which will span the wholecountry. I argue that their endeavours strongly resemble the co-operativism and practical socialism advocated by importantsocial theorists such as Mauss and Polanyi, and suggest that it may be important for the young activists in Athens to learn moreabout their ideas.