Abstract
Specific policy changes concerning the poor and the homeless in Greece date from 2011, when the Greek government and the EU had to finalise the bailout package and to secure the transfer of emergency aid for Greece. Two main processes delineated the arena for policy experimentations for local and civil society actors: residualisation of key social policy areas and devolution of central state powers. This chapter identifies a complex interplay between a ‘humanitarian crisis ’ discourse (formulated by key NGOs and adopted by the left-wing party of SYRIZA) and an ‘extreme poverty’ discourse (advanced by EU agencies and adopted by conservative governments). While these discourses clashed, they actually converge to produce a weak compromise over short-sighted and short-lived provisions for the poor that are locally administered.
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Arapoglou, V.P., Gounis, K. (2017). Welfare State Rescaling and Austerity Since 2011. In: Contested Landscapes of Poverty and Homelessness In Southern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62452-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62452-5_5
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