A Conversation About Radicalism in Contemporary Greece
B ecause of its economic issues, Greece has been often in the news during the past several years. But the news often offers only superficial accounts of what is happening in Greek society. In the summer of 2015, on a warm day in Athens, I joined Dr. Vassiliki Georgiadou (VG), (political science, Panteion University); Dr. Lamprini Rori (LR), a Marie Curie fellow (Bournemouth University); and Dr. Despina Papadimitriou (DP), (history, Panteion University) in a faculty office in Panteion University to talk about radicalism in contemporary Greek society and how various kinds of radicalism are related to economic, social, and political upheaval. As research collaborators and coauthors, their recent research, particularly that of Dr. Georgiadou, has focused on the right-wing group Chryssa Avgi, or Golden Dawn, and in the following conversation they discuss not only this group but also their broader assessment of the connections between political and economic unrest, and they offer some surprising observations about radicalism of the left and the right “on the ground” in contemporary Greece. ARTHUR VERSLUIS