The Gentrification of Activism, Autonomous Collective Politics and the Right to the City in Exarchia, Athens

ended

GAPRIA aims to examine the gentrification of activism, which entails the ways radical activist neighbourhoods become gentrified leading to the eviction of emancipatory visions about city life. Although gentrification and eviction studies have thoroughly documented the social and material costs of gentrification policies on the urban poor, they have failed to document their political costs relating to the eviction of communities of activists that produce more emancipatory visions about city life. GAPRIA will fill this gap by examining such questions in the urban neighbourhood of Exarchia in Athens, Greece that has a long history of anti-authoritarian and direct democratic struggles. GAPRIA will examine the gentrification of activism along 4 levels of enquiry: (1) The conceptual level, whereby activists produce emancipatory ideas about city life. (2) The discursive level whereby GAPRIA will aim to substantiate the emerging concept of ‘evictability’ by exploring, through policy and media analysis how certain subjects are produced as evictable. (3) The level of praxis, whereby through ethnographic fieldwork with activists and residents, resistance to gentrification will be documented. (4) The comparative level, whereby the gentrification of activism will be explored in an inter-disciplinary manner through the organization of an International Conference engaging scholars from Anthropology, Urban Studies, Politics and Human Geography. GAPRIA will deliver a monograph, a Special Issue and a peer-reviewed journal article. Actions for networking and knowledge transfer include a website, a policy brief, a community event, a short film, the organization of an International Conference and a proposal for a European Research Council Starting Grant. Results will contribute directly to transnational debates on the costs of urban regeneration policies, their interconnection with recent attacks on autonomous activism and the worldwide rise of the Far Right.