As austerity politics, crisis management, and economic re-adjustment show, contemporary capitalism operates through a severe reduction of the “social” on all levels. But does the privatization of the public space, the social security sector, or education mark a point of no return in relation to the very concept of the social? Examples such as the Philippine Women’s Network DIWATA (Determined Independent Women in Action for Total Advancement) or the platform Dock for Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) demonstrate that the terms “social” and “economy” do not have to be incompatible. On the contrary: alternative economies, cooperatives, and mutual solidarity structures have proven to be powerful tools in the engineering of social movements in recent years. These emerging economies and practices of deinstitutionalization restore the importance of the social in the economic fabric that our societies are imbedded in, and enhance the projection of alternative self-determined modes of production and experiences of the collective. Evidently, there is no better way to understand how contemporary capitalism operates and how intertwined the ramifications of production and social reproduction currently are than by inventing your own economy and securing your own autonomy.
7–7:15 pm
Global Capitalism and the Ithagenia Condition
Introduction by Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz
7:15–8 pm
Spaces of Social Economy, Solidarity, and Deinstitutionalization in Athens: Part one
Talk
With Deborah Carlos-Valencia (DIWATA) and Lina Mourgi (SSE)
8:15–9:45 pm
Spaces of Social Economy, Solidarity, and Deinstitutionalization in Athens: Part two
Discussion
With Gigi Argyropoulou and Stavros Stavrides, moderated by Margarita Tsomou
Konstantinos Doumpenidis, Untitled, 2015
Dr. Gigi Argyropoulou is a researcher, theorist, director, and curator working in the fields of performance and cultural practice. She has initiated and organized festivals, conferences, performances, interventions, and actions. She holds an MA from Dartington College of Arts and a PhD from the University of Roehampton. Argyropoulou has published widely and is the co-editor (with Hypatia Vourloumis) of the special issue of Performance Research “On Institutions” (2015). As a political activist she is a founding member of the Mavili Collective and has been an active part of other formations in recent years. She lives and works in Athens.
Deborah Carlos-Valencia is a founding member of Babaylan–The Philippine Women’s Network in Europe. She initiated DIWATA–Philippine Women’s Network in Greece which has started a microcredit cooperative managed by the migrant women themselves. Carlos-Valencia has conducted various training courses and seminars for Philippine migrant women in Europe on the topics of cooperative leadership formation, assertiveness, and financial literacy. She lives and works in Athens.
Lina Mourgi is a member of the Dock for Social Solidarity Economy (SSE), a growing network and center for communication, education, and awareness around social solidarity economies. In 2017 she co-founded the Dock–Social Solidarity Economy Cooperative Zone, an autonomous cooperative infrastructure providing support for SSE. Mourgi lives and works in Athens.
Dr. Stavros Stavrides, architect and activist, is associate professor at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, where he teaches graduate courses on housing design (including social housing), as well as a postgraduate course on the meaning of metropolitan experience. He has published numerous articles as well as several books, among them Common Space (2016), Suspended Spaces of Alterity (2010), The Texture of Things (with Evi Cotsou, 1996), and The Symbolic Relation to Space (1990). His book From the City-Screen to the City-Stage (2002) won the Greek National Book Award. His current research focuses on forms of emancipating spatial practices and spaces of commoning. Stavrides lives and works in Athens.
