Othon Alexandrakis

Biography

My primary areas of research include emergent and contested identities, citizenship, migration and governance. I have conducted ethnographic fieldwork in and around Athens, Greece, among various populations that live in that city, including undocumented migrants (mostly from West Africa), anti-establishment youth and the Roma (Gypsy) community. My research and teaching have been inspired by the following question: how do unconventional citizens, that is individuals considered to be outside juridical categories of citizenship and/or socio-historical prescriptions of civil collective, contribute to processes of social change? Lately this question has gained special currency. Like Spain, Italy, and several other European states, Greece has entered a period of deepening socioeconomic and political uncertainty, democratic deficit and sudden mass impoverishment. In response, local people of all description are drawing on various sociocultural resources to give cogent form and content and direction to the insecurity with which they are now faced. By querying the modes, effects and finalities of new mobilisations of unconventional political actors in Athens, I aim to contribute to a broader understanding of how modern European states are being remade at this time of neoliberal experimentation and contested statecraft.

Research Interest

Citizenship, Migration, Emergent and Contested Identities, Governance, Cities, Greece and Europe