Maria Kousis

University of Crete, Sociology, Emerita Professor

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Maria Kousis (PhD, The University of Michigan, 1984) is Emerita Professor of Sociology at the University of Crete and former Director (9/2014-11/2021) of the University of Crete Research Center for the Humanities, the Social and Education Sciences. She was coordinator or partner in European Commission research projects including “Grassroots Environmental Action”, TEA, PAGANINI and MEDVOICES. Publications consist of 11 edited volumes, books and special issues as well as 68 articles or book chapters, including the two-volume Special Issue of American Behavioral Scientist on Mediterranean Political Processes in Historical-Comparative Perspective (Tilly, C., R. Franzosi and M. Kousis, eds. 2008) and the special section Alternative Forms of Resilience Confronting Crisis in Southern Europe: A Social Movement Perspective, in PArtecipazione e COnflitto (guest editor, 2017). Her research centers on Social Change, Contentious Politics, Environmental Politics, Bioethics, Social Movements in times of Crises and Southern Europe. Her current research focuses on the socio-economic and political dimensions of crises, especially in the context of the GGCRISI (Greek-German Ministries Cooperation), LIVEWHAT (FP7), TransSOL (H2020) and EURYKA (H2020) projects.
Address: Department of Sociology
University of Crete
Rethymno 74100
Greece

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Economic and Political Contention in Comparative Perspective

Routledge eBooks, Dec 3, 2015

ABSTRACT The volume brings together current research of a dozen outstanding European and American... more ABSTRACT The volume brings together current research of a dozen outstanding European and American specialists in economic and political processes. Although their geographic foci include North America, Europe, and East Asia, these brief, pithy essays all take up two widely recognized but much contested questions in contentious politics: 1) how threats and opportunities faced by potential participants in joint political action affect the likelihood, character, and consequences of that action; 2) how economic change and variation either a) constitute significant political threats and opportunities or b) shape responses to political threats and opportunities. In recent years, phenomenologically oriented students of social movements and other forms of contentious politics have repeatedly challenged the idea of political opportunity structure on the ground that actors always reinterpret their environments, hence that collective action bears no systematic, reliable relation to its political and economic surroundings as an external observer might describe them. The challenge has had a valuable effect; it has reduced the prevalence of a lazy, pernicious practice: first describing an episode of contention, then searching around for threats and opportunities in its setting that might have stimulated or shaped the episode, without actually tracing the putative effects of those threats and opportunities, or even how those effects worked. Despite considerable differences in theoretical and methodological orientations, the authors in this volume have all moved beyond earlier debates to look seriously, systematically, and innovatively at threat and opportunity, with particular attention to the influence of economic change and variation on contentious politics.

The Duality of Claims and Events: The Greek Campaign Against the Troika's Memoranda and Austerity, 2010-2012

Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 2014

Protest campaigns consist of connected public events to which participants assign shared meanings... more Protest campaigns consist of connected public events to which participants assign shared meanings. Data from thirty-one large protest events that occurred in Greece between January 2010 and December 2012—protests challenging neoliberal austerity policies and the "Troika's" bailout package—enable us to illustrate a network-analytic approach to identify those connections. We treat claims as the linkages that assign a common meaning to different episodes of collective action, weaving them into a coherent national campaign. We also examine the ways that events provide a connection between different claims, merging them in distinctive political agendas. Agendas evolve over time, and while some thematic continuity is essential to the existence of a campaign, this does not imply total stability in protestors' agendas. Data from Greek and transnational newspapers, electronic websites, and other media sources reveal both the continuity and shifts over the three main phases ...

Introduction: Challenging Mobilities, Greece and the EU in Times of Crises

IMISCOE research series, 2022

Notable migration related transitions took place during the past decade in Greece, a country that... more Notable migration related transitions took place during the past decade in Greece, a country that became the epicentre of the Eurozone crisis following the 2008 global financial crisis as well as the European Union's (EU) main-gate during the so-called refugee crisis of 2015-2016. The present volume offers a novel, multidisciplinary perspective on the challenges and complexities of crisis-related mobilities, as well as an open-ended view of crises that takes into account the opportunities (Carastathis et al., 2018, p. 33), but also the constraints they pose for migration processes and the involved groups (Kousis et al., 2020). Responding to the need for delving into less researched country-cases that aim to enhance our understanding of the broader dynamics related to international migration politics (Thiollet, 2019), the volume centres on the single case of Greece, both a sending and a receiving country at the South European periphery (King, 2018). Through a multidisciplinary perspective, the contributions in this volume, offer fresh insights on how crises interact with migration processes at the individual,

format_quoteThe economic crisis intensified emigration from Greece, driving better-educated youth abroad, seeking opportunities amid austerity measures.format_quote

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Challenging Mobilities in and to the EU during times of crises: the case of Greece

The present volume offers a cross-disciplinary view of challenging mobility issues for migrants a... more The present volume offers a cross-disciplinary view of challenging mobility issues for migrants and refugees in Europe focusing on Greece for the last decade, when the economic and refugee crises coincided. Contributors from the fields of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, geography and linguistics offer new analyses and data on a diverse range of topics concerning the new Greek emigrants as well as refugees and mobilities in Greece. First, mobility issues regarding the new emigration wave from Greece center on decision making, benefits from emigrants and education-related issues. Secondly, host receptivity towards refugees in Greece focuses on attitudes as well as social distance and national stereotypes. Third, solidarity and claims-making analyses unravel aspects of a new patriotism of solidarity in the country, as well as migrants’ protests and cosmopolitanism issues. Fourth, integration challenges center on the evolution of integration policy for Greece as well as the challenges posed in the metropolitan case of Athens. Finally, analyses of transformations in the governance of refugee and migrant mobilities lead to theoretical and political reflections on how the country experienced crises. The volume aims to become a unique resource for students and scholars, but also for policy-makers and social scientists working on migration-related issues within and beyond Europe.

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‘From Protesting Against Troika Memoranda to Pro-EU Governing During the Crisis Period in Greece and Portugal’

Conclusions: Modes and Determinants of Youth Political Participation in Greece from a Multiple Methods Perspective

Springer eBooks, 2022

Youth Political Participation in Greece: A Comparative, Multiple Methods Perspective

Springer eBooks, 2022

Political Claims and the So Called ‘Refugee Crisis’ in the Greek Public Sphere, 2015–16

IMISCOE research series, 2022

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Measuring Organizational Practices of Solidarity Across Sectors and Countries

This case study demonstrates the use of an innovative method involving semi-automated and automat... more This case study demonstrates the use of an innovative method involving semi-automated and automated approaches for data extraction, followed by sampling strategies and manual coding schemes to further characterize organizational fields. The Action Organization Analysis (AOA) method aims at capturing the complexity and dynamism of organizational fields of social movements and civic engagement. Adapting to the new media environment of the last two decades, AOA locates extensive “population” sources of organizational websites, builds random samples, and creates an aggregate database through a refined coding instrument. It allows for the analysis of the material that the Action Organizations themselves offer in their organizational websites, for example, their organizational structures, collective identities, frames, partners, and constituency groups, as well as their action repertoires and aims. Current application of the AOA case study, presented in this methodological series has a major objective to map and analyze the field of transnational solidarity practices from a double comparative perspective, including contextual variations between countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK) and cross-sectoral differences between three fields (disability, unemployment, and immigration). The rationale for this comparative approach was to grasp the field of European civic solidarity in its variety of organizational expressions.

Attributing Responsibility in the Debate on the Eurozone Crisis: Nationally confined or Europeanized?

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Political Claims Analysis

The proposed project aims to study the relations between inequalities and young people's ways... more The proposed project aims to study the relations between inequalities and young people's ways of doing politics as well as to advance scenarios for future democratic models and political systems in Europe that are more inclusive for young people. It has three main objectives: (1) To provide systematic evidence on the ways in which inequalities are lived by young people and (re)acted upon, exploring the coping mechanisms which are embedded in young people's ways of doing politics; these coping mechanisms are manifested in multiple forms, i.e. as either political (dis)engagement and contestation online and offline or as (trans-)national democratic innovation and experimentation; (2) To advance knowledge on the conditions and causes underpinning young people's ways of doing politics; this involves an examination of their norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors regarding democracy, power, politics, policymaking, social and political participation (online and offline) and the...

Alternative forms of resilience: a typology of approaches for the study of citizen collective responses in hard economic times

Partecipazione e Conflitto, 2017

A variety of theoretical and conceptual perspectives have been applied to studying collective cit... more A variety of theoretical and conceptual perspectives have been applied to studying collective citizen initiatives arising in response to hard economic times, such as solidarity-based exchanges and networks, cooperative structures, barter clubs, credit unions, ethical banks, time banks, alternative social currency, citizens' self-help groups, neighbourhood assemblies and social enterprises. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, scholarly attention on novel, alternative, resilient structures has increased, especially in regions that have been most affected. A comprehensive literature review is therefore needed on these initiatives which usually aim to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, health and education at the community level, or build and envision autonomous communities. This paper has four aims. First, it proposes a new, all-encompassing conceptual framework, alternative forms of resilience, to embrace all issues and groups related to such initiatives, during the ne...

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Debating Responsibility on the Eurozone Crisis in Traditional Media Newspaper Reporting in Greece and Germany Under a Social Media Lens

Social Media and European Politics, 2017

The crisis in the Eurozone has not only shaken the societies of the affected crisis countries, bu... more The crisis in the Eurozone has not only shaken the societies of the affected crisis countries, but it has also shaken the public discourse. The questions of who is to blame or to praise and who should act have gained new importance and urgency. They are discussed not only in social but also in traditional media. However, here they undergo an editorial filter. The chapter uses data of a large newspaper content analysis in Germany and Greece to describe major patterns in the attribution of responsibility (i.e. blame, praise, request and attribution of general competence) concerning the Eurozone crisis. The description applies a frame of social media characteristics to the reporting of newspapers by highlighting features which are assumed to be specific to social media debates.

Action Organizations responding to the retrenchment of Social Policies

This panel focuses on collective responses organized to address social, economic and political co... more This panel focuses on collective responses organized to address social, economic and political concerns and hardships due to the retrenchment of social policies in European countries, during the periods of the global financial crisis and the refugee crisis of 2015. Its four papers offer fresh systematic, empirical data and findings on Alternative Action Organizations and Transnational Solidarity Organizations, based on research carried out in the context of the EU-funded projects LIVEWHAT (www.livewhat.unige.ch/) and TransSOL, (www.transsol.eu/).

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Alternative forms of resilience and the 2007 crisis in Europe

Introduction: Comparative European Perspectives on Transnational Solidarity Organisations

Sociological Research Online, 2021

Solidarity with the deprived is a mission that many civic organisations share throughout Europe. ... more Solidarity with the deprived is a mission that many civic organisations share throughout Europe. The various crises, to which the European Union has been exposed to, have fueled and constrained this collective action at the same time. This article offers an introduction into this special issue. It highlights that the objective is to provide sound empirical findings about the magnitude and structure of the organisational field and to offer theoretical insights into the forces and constraints impacting on it. In addition, it presents the unique and new datasets on which the analyses are based on and stresses their comparative approach, given research carried out across fields (migration/refugees, unemployment, and disabilities) and countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK). Finally, the introduction to the special issue argues that the organisational fields are exposed to transformations that point to a more transnational scope of activities ...

Waves of transnational solidarity organisations in times of crises: actions, obstacles and opportunities in Europe

Citizens’ Solidarity in Europe, 2020

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Protest, Elections, and Austerity Politics in Greece

Living Under Austerity, 2018

Introduction: Citizen Organisations, Transnational Solidarity and Collective Learning in Europe

Transnational Solidarity in Times of Crises, 2020

This edited volume is devoted to the analysis of practices of transnational solidarity in respons... more This edited volume is devoted to the analysis of practices of transnational solidarity in response to the various crises affecting Europe, especially the economic and refugee crises. Its aim is to present new insights into existing informal groups, at the grassroots, geared at furthering transnational solidarity in three thematic areas (disability, unemployment and immigration) and builds on extensive fieldwork in eight European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the UK). The introductory chapter provides an overview of the topic and the related research, discusses conceptual and methodological issues, and presents the structure of the book. It argues that the transnational solidarity work of citizen groups and organisations is strongly shaped by the socio-economic and political context in which they operate, by the action repertoires they promote, the networks of cooperation they are involved in and the experiences and lessons learned by eng...

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Does Organisation Matter? Solidarity Approaches among Organisations and Sectors in Europe

Sociological Research Online, 2020

European citizens continue to engage in solidarity activities in support of vulnerable groups wit... more European citizens continue to engage in solidarity activities in support of vulnerable groups within and beyond their own countries. Many of these organised practices of transnational solidarity provide research with important insights into the features and conditions of organisational forms of support. This article makes use of a unique dataset of transnational solidarity organisations in eight European countries during a period of economic recession and immigration crisis, and aims to empirically describe the different forms and types of solidarity prevalent within three different organisational sectors. It strives to identify the organisational features explaining the elective affinities between organisational forms and solidarity approaches. The empirical analysis validates that organisational traits and types matter when favouring vertical and/or horizontal forms of support towards vulnerable groups. Findings corroborate the relevance of professionalisation, aims, and values, i...

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