Narrating the story of a failed national transition: discourses on the Greek crisis, 2010–2014
Published:
Dec 3, 2015
Keywords:
Modernity Underdog culture Transition Crisis
Abstract
This article traces the construction of the dominant, promemorandum discourse that has been propagated by the political establishment and mainstream media in Greece interpreting the current crisis as a crisis of the national identity: Greece failed to reform where necessary due to the domination of the traditional political culture that is to be blamed for the failed transition since 1974 to postwar European modernity. This narrative is examined within broader narratives and discourses that have attempted in different periods to conceptualise and prescribe the transition to modernity followed not only by Greece, but by other societies the world over. This brief study enables us to think of this exceptional "failed transition" as a not so exceptional or failed transition, while at the same time to observe how societies in crisis turn to history so as to make sense of their present.
Article Details
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Kouki, H., & Liakos, A. (2015). Narrating the story of a failed national transition: discourses on the Greek crisis, 2010–2014. Historein, 15(1), 49–61. https://doi.org/10.12681/historein.318
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Athanasiou, Athena. Η Κρίση ως «Κατάσταση Έκτακτης Ανάγκης» [Crisis as a state of emergency: critiques and resistances]. Athens: Savvalas, 2012.
Benford, Robert D., and David A. Snow. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26/1 (2000): 611–639.
Black, Cyril Edwin. The Dynamics of Modernization. New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Campbell, John K. Honour, Family, and Patronage: A Study of Institutions and Moral Values in a Greek Mountain Community. Oxford: Clarendon, 1964.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Crouch, Colin. Coping with Post-Democracy. London: Fabian Society, 2000.
Demertzis, Nicolas. “Greece.” In European Political Cultures: Conflict or Convergence? edited by Roger Eatwell, 107–122. London: Routledge, 1997.
Dertilis, George. Κοινωνικός μετασχηματισμός και στρατιωτική επέμβαση. 1880–1909 [Social transformation and military intervention, 1880–1909]. Athens: Eksantas, 1977.
Diamandouros, P. Nikiforos. “Cultural Dualism and Political Change in Postauthoritarian Greece.” Working Paper 1994/50, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales, Madrid, 1994.
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Liakos, Antonis. “The Canon of European History and the Conceptual Framework of National Historiographies.” In Transnational Challenges to National History Writing, edited by Matthias Middell and Lluís Roura i Aulinas, 315–342. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2015.
Mazower, Mark. Governing the World: The History of an Idea. New York: Penguin, 2012.
Mouzelis, Nicos P. Politics in the Semi-Periphery: Early Parliamentarism and Late Industrialization in the Balkans and Latin America. London: Macmillan, 1986.
Stavrakakis, Yannis. “Religion and Populism: Reflections on the “Politicised” Discourse of the Greek Church.” Discussion paper no 7. Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics, 2002.
Triandafyllidou, Anna, Ruby Gropas and Hara Kouki. “Introduction: Is Greece a Modern European Country?” In The Greek Crisis and European Modernity, edited by Anna Triandafyllidou, Ruby Gropas and Hara Kouki, 1–24. New York: Palgrave, 2013.
Tsoukalas, Konstantinos. “Παράδοση και εκσυγχρονισμός: Μερικά γενικότερα ερωτήματα” [Tradition and modernisation: some general questions]. In Ελληνισμός και ελληνικότητα [Hellenism and Greekness], edited by Dimitris Tsaousis, 37–48. Athens: Hestia, 1983.
Tsoukalas, Konstantinos. Κοινωνική ανάπτυξη και κράτος: Η συγκρότηση του δημοσίου χώρου στην Ελλάδα [Social Development and State: The Construction of Public Space in Greece]. Athens: Themelio, 1981.
Tziovas, Dimitris. “Η Δυτική φαντασίωση του Ελληνικού και η αναζήτηση του υπερεθνικού” [The western fantasy of the Hellenic and the quest for the hyper-national]. In Έθνος–κράτος–εθνικισμός [Nation–state–nationalism], edited by Despo Solomou, 339–361. Athens: Moraitis School, 1995.
Verdery, Katherine. What was Socialism and What Comes Next? London: Routledge, 1996.
