Papers by Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
This paper investigates the challenges households face in Greece in the context of the current en... more This paper investigates the challenges households face in Greece in the context of the current energy crisis. “Energy transition” policies, climate adaptation and mitigation goals, geopolitical tensions and COVID-19 pandemic have raised new stakes for the energy sector. Although the ‘big picture’ of the energy crisis is of high importance, it is significant to reflect on the consequences of the rise of energy prices on households. The aim of this paper is to address the impacts of the energy crisis and the crisis management policies on households in Greece. Our intention is to analyze the problems households face with regards to coping with their energy needs at home, investigate how the rise of energy prices has affected living standards and evaluate existing policies. We claim that focusing on households’ experiences and practices could contribute to a deeper understanding of energy poverty; a social problem which is expected to expand in the context of “energy transition.” Unders...
Syngrou Avenue, the emblematic road that connected Athens with the coastline, opened to the publi... more Syngrou Avenue, the emblematic road that connected Athens with the coastline, opened to the public in November 1904. Its plan was a product of a long negotiation between Greek and foreign engineers, public authorities and private landowners; its construction was interrelated with the introduction of modern ideas about infrastructure and urban planning; and its ground became a field of socio-technical experimentation and a contested space between different land uses and users. Based on the analysis of the paradigm of Syngrou and drawing mainly on archival material and recent theoretical approaches regarding infrastructure planning and construction this dissertation follows the shifts, the tensions and the conflicts that were connected with the production of modern space in Greece at the turn of the 19th century and during the Interwar period. Syngrou Avenue and road infrastructure are examined through the prism of three methodological axes: (i) the study of space and infrastructure t...
Energy Poverty and Vulnerability, 2017
Η λεωφόρος Συγγρού, η εμβληματική λεωφόρος που συνέδεε απευθείας «άνευ παρεκκλίσεων και καμπυλώσε... more Η λεωφόρος Συγγρού, η εμβληματική λεωφόρος που συνέδεε απευθείας «άνευ παρεκκλίσεων και καμπυλώσεων» την Αθήνα με τη θάλασσα δόθηκε σε δημόσια χρήση το Νοέμβριο του 1904. Ο σχεδιασμός του άξονα ήταν αποτέλεσμα μακράς διαπραγμάτευσης μεταξύ Ελλήνων και ξένων τεχνικών, φορέων της διοίκησης και ιδιοκτητών, η κατασκευή του συναρτήθηκε με την εισαγωγή νεωτερικών απόψεων για την πόλη και τις υποδομές, ενώ το έδαφός του αποτέλεσε επί δεκαετίες πεδίο τεχνολογικού πειραματισμού και διαφιλονικούμενο τόπο μεταξύ διαφορετικών χρήσεων και χρηστών. Μέσα από τη μελέτη του παραδείγματος της λεωφόρου Συγγρού και τη συμβολή αρχειακού υλικού και πρόσφατων θεωρητικών προσεγγίσεων η διατριβή παρακολουθεί τις μετατοπίσεις, τις εντάσεις και συγκρούσεις που σχετίζονται με την παραγωγή του μοντέρνου χώρου στην Ελλάδα τον 19ο αιώνα και την περίοδο του Μεσοπολέμου. Η μελέτη της λεωφόρου Συγγρού και των οδικών υποδομών της ελληνικής πόλης επιχειρείται στη βάση τριών μεθοδολογικών αξόνων. Οι άξονες αυτοί σχετίζ...
Architektúra & urbanizmus, 2020
Investigations of changes in housing during the last decades. Observations and indications mainly... more Investigations of changes in housing during the last decades. Observations and indications mainly for urban areas. Athens: Centre of Planning and Economic Research. 17 MANTOUVALOU, Maria, 1996. Urban land rent, land prices and processes of urban development II. Problematizing the analysis of space in Greece. The Greek Review of Social Research. (89-90), pp. 53-80. 18 Presidential Decision "Approval of the regulation of building insulation" (Official Government Gazette 362Dʼ/1979).
Energie und soziale Ungleichheit, 2016
A crucial aspect of the socio-spatial transformation of Athens and a significant factor in the ri... more A crucial aspect of the socio-spatial transformation of Athens and a significant factor in the rise of new urban challenges and conflicts since the outbreak of the Greek debt crisis in 2010 is the domestic use of energy. Austerity measures implemented as part of the adjustment mechanism monitored by the creditors of the Greek state, namely the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank, have led to a shrinking of the welfare state, a rapid rise in unemployment, reductions in the levels of disposable income and increased poverty (ELSTAT 2015). Existing forms of poverty have deepened and new forms of deprivation have emerged,1 changing everyday life in the city. As a result, the levels of access diff erent social groups have to goods and services has changed rapidly, the living standards of significant parts of the population have deteriorated, and locational decisions, social networks, and everyday practices have been redefined.
Chatzikonstantinou E., Vatavali F. (2020), Housing Production and Energy Use in Greece. Insights ... more Chatzikonstantinou E., Vatavali F. (2020), Housing Production and Energy Use in Greece. Insights from History and New Social Challenges, Journal of architectural and urban planning theory, LIV 3-4: 154-165., 2020
Φ.Βαταβάλη, Ε.Χατζηκωνσταντίνου (2019), Κατοικία και πρόσβαση στην ενέργεια:
νέα φαινόμενα και απ... more Φ.Βαταβάλη, Ε.Χατζηκωνσταντίνου (2019), Κατοικία και πρόσβαση στην ενέργεια:
νέα φαινόμενα και απαντήσεις σε ένα μεταβαλλόμενο τοπίο, στο: Ν.Κουραχάνης (επιμ.), Κατοικία και κοινωνία. Προβλήματα, πολιτικές, κινήματα, Διόνικος.
Chatzikonstantinou E., Vatavali F. (2017), Rethinking energy deprivation in Athens: a spatial approach, in: N.Simcock, H.Thomson, S.Petrova, S.Bouzarovski (eds), Energy poverty and vulnerability: a global perspective, Routledge, p.96-118., 2017
The Greek debt crisis has had a serious impact on the geography of the Greek cities. Austerity po... more The Greek debt crisis has had a serious impact on the geography of the Greek cities. Austerity policies imposed as a remedy to the debt crisis included a shrinking of the welfare state, personnel and income cuts and significant tax increases that led to the increase of the unemployment rate and of poverty, as well as to a decline in living standards. In this context, and together with the international rise in fuel prices and the signifi cant rise of taxes on heating oil, a distinctive form of poverty which is connected with inadequate access to energy at home has become a large-scale problem in Greek cities. As more and more households cannot cover the cost for heating, cooling, lighting or cooking, the use of energy has emerged as a highly contested terrain, especially in apartment buildings with central heating systems.
In this regard, the aim of this chapter is two-fold. First, we intend to investigate how the particularities of urban space are producing and reproducing energy vulnerability and energy poverty in Athens. Second, our approach attempts to highlight the significance of energy deprivation as an analytical tool for the study of urban space and the transformation of cities; something that is of the utmost importance for exploring the repercussions of the economic crisis and related austerity policies in Athens, but also in other cities around the world where austerity reforms have been implemented. Our intention is to discuss energy deprivation as a spatial phenomenon: a phenomenon that occurs in space and at the same time defines its own spatial frame. Also we intend to go beyond the household scale and investigate, not only the interdependences of housing quality, heating systems, social policies and everyday practices, but also the urban development processes as they have been formed in the long-term and redefined during the crisis.
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The geographical distribution of energy poverty in Athens has been an under-researched topic unti... more The geographical distribution of energy poverty in Athens has been an under-researched topic until today, due to the fact that only recently energy poverty became a significant social problem, to the lack of relevant quantitative data and the difficulties in accessing data at the neighborhood or apartment building level, among other reasons. With this article we intend to create a first macroscopic image of the socio-spatial dimensions of energy poverty, by focusing on the Municipality of Athens. In doing so, we gathered and elaborated primary data about the characteristics and the uses of the buildings, family incomes, energy consumption, as well as about the implemented policies against energy poverty, in order to create a series of thematic maps. The parallel analysis of these thematic maps gives us the chance to draw general and specific conclusions regarding socio-spatial aspects of energy deprivation in Athens during the crisis.
http://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/energy-poverty/
Since the outbreak of the Greek debt crisis access to heating has become a major problem not only... more Since the outbreak of the Greek debt crisis access to heating has become a major problem not only for the long-term poor but also for large segments of the middle and upper class. The inability of many households to cover their energy costs, due to the steep reduction in incomes and increases in energy prices, has emerged as a pressing issue in everyday life and in many cases has caused tensions between the inhabitants of residential buildings with central heating systems. In this article we investigate aspects of the socio-spatial transformations of Athens in the context of the crisis by focusing on domestic energy deprivation. We claim that, aside from technical and economic factors, energy deprivation depends on social practices in specific spatial settings and is intertwined with socio-spatial inequalities. We focus on apartment buildings and analyze the relationships between people, policies, technical networks, physical structures, and actions, be they individual or institutional. Three cases of apartment buildings located in different neighborhoods of the City of Athens are presented in order to understand the diversity of individual and collective practices in response to energy deprivation and investigate the reflections of inhabitants to implemented policies. The paper is based on research conducted in the City of Athens in 2014 and 2015, mainly through interviews with households.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-658-11723-8_7
Nuts & Bolts of Construction History, 2012
It is generally accepted that roads and mobility infrastructures have a major effect on economic ... more It is generally accepted that roads and mobility infrastructures have a major effect on economic and spatial development, and, in many cases, this effect is considered to be a positive and, furthermore, a causal one. This implicit assumption has also a great impact on the cultural and aesthetic perception of road infrastructures.
Η Διεκδίκηση της Υπαίθρου. Φύση και Κοινωνικές Πρακτικές στη Σύγχρονη Ελλάδα, 2009
Action Research by Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou
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Papers by Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou
νέα φαινόμενα και απαντήσεις σε ένα μεταβαλλόμενο τοπίο, στο: Ν.Κουραχάνης (επιμ.), Κατοικία και κοινωνία. Προβλήματα, πολιτικές, κινήματα, Διόνικος.
In this regard, the aim of this chapter is two-fold. First, we intend to investigate how the particularities of urban space are producing and reproducing energy vulnerability and energy poverty in Athens. Second, our approach attempts to highlight the significance of energy deprivation as an analytical tool for the study of urban space and the transformation of cities; something that is of the utmost importance for exploring the repercussions of the economic crisis and related austerity policies in Athens, but also in other cities around the world where austerity reforms have been implemented. Our intention is to discuss energy deprivation as a spatial phenomenon: a phenomenon that occurs in space and at the same time defines its own spatial frame. Also we intend to go beyond the household scale and investigate, not only the interdependences of housing quality, heating systems, social policies and everyday practices, but also the urban development processes as they have been formed in the long-term and redefined during the crisis.
Link: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351865296
http://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/energy-poverty/
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Action Research by Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou
νέα φαινόμενα και απαντήσεις σε ένα μεταβαλλόμενο τοπίο, στο: Ν.Κουραχάνης (επιμ.), Κατοικία και κοινωνία. Προβλήματα, πολιτικές, κινήματα, Διόνικος.
In this regard, the aim of this chapter is two-fold. First, we intend to investigate how the particularities of urban space are producing and reproducing energy vulnerability and energy poverty in Athens. Second, our approach attempts to highlight the significance of energy deprivation as an analytical tool for the study of urban space and the transformation of cities; something that is of the utmost importance for exploring the repercussions of the economic crisis and related austerity policies in Athens, but also in other cities around the world where austerity reforms have been implemented. Our intention is to discuss energy deprivation as a spatial phenomenon: a phenomenon that occurs in space and at the same time defines its own spatial frame. Also we intend to go beyond the household scale and investigate, not only the interdependences of housing quality, heating systems, social policies and everyday practices, but also the urban development processes as they have been formed in the long-term and redefined during the crisis.
Link: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351865296
http://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/en/article/energy-poverty/
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http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-658-11723-8_7
One-year research project (2015) funded by Latsis Foundation. Research group: Fereniki Vatavali (coordinator), Evangelia Chatzikonstantinou.
Uneven development, everywhere war and radical praxis
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The 8th ICCG will be hosted from the 19th to the 23d of April 2019, in Athens, Greece, one of many loci of the ongoing and multiplying crises of the neoliberal 21st century, including the “debt crisis,” the “neo-fascist crisis”, the “refugee crisis,” and a place that could be regarded as a kind of “laboratory” for observing how uneven development and everywhere war articulate different actors, scales and operations.
Call for papers
The 8th ICCG in Athens seeks to elaborate on the structural relations, materialities and cultures of uneven development and everywhere war, which bring about the condition of permanent crisis we find ourselves in the world over. Building on the previous ICCG 2015 conference, we regard “permanent crisis” as a regime that needs to be radically challenged in both political and theoretical terms, in our everyday lives as well as in the host of global, national and local institutions that reproduce it. We, therefore, want to invoke again the notion of praxis as the realisation of collective thinking and acting that is required in order to remake, to change the world.
Since 2010, Greece has been in the maelstrom of a multi-faceted and far-reaching socio-economic and political crisis linked to EU/Eurozone reforms and to processes of global capitalist restructuring. In spite of talk about entering a post-crisis era, many aspects of the crisis and austerity regime are still unfolding and certainly, the societal effects are entrenched and widespread. At the same time, Greece is geo-politically located in an area experiencing major power-shifts and population upheavals connected to the wars and global antagonisms in Syria and the Middle East. It has become one more, non-local, site of operations implicated in the perpetuation, but also resistance, of war violence.
Greece has also witnessed intense and extensive social mobilisations and resistances, and attendant political changes. Massive demonstrations and strikes were followed by the emergence of novel solidarity initiatives addressing social reproduction issues. More recently, refugee solidarity and humanitarian interventions introduced a distinct inter- and transnational dimension to local mobilisations. But, right-wing populism and far-right parties are also, as elsewhere in Europe, on the rise. Mobilisations have changed in terms of scale and content. Facing the question of permanent crisis the claim for radical practice remains open.
Πώς, όμως, τα προβλήματα που αντιμετωπίζουν τα νοικοκυριά σε σχέση με την πρόσβαση στην ενέργεια συνδέονται με τα χαρακτηριστικά του αστικού χώρου; Πώς βιώνονται σε διαφορετικές περιοχές και από διαφορετικές κοινωνικές ομάδες; Ποιες πρακτικές υιοθετούνται για την κάλυψη των ενεργειακών αναγκών και την εξοικονόμηση ενέργειας και πώς σχετίζονται με τις προωθούμενες πολιτικές; Και, τελικά, πώς τα ζητήματα της ενέργειας μεταλλάσσουν τους όρους κατοίκησης στην πολυκατοικία, καθώς και το ρόλο της ως συντελεστή ανάπτυξης της ελληνικής πόλης;
Το βιβλίο αυτό φωτίζει διαφορετικές πτυχές της ενεργειακής φτώχειας στην Αθήνα και ανιχνεύει νέες συγκρούσεις και δυναμικές που εκδηλώνονται στον αστικό χώρο. Μέσα από θεωρητικές προσεγγίσεις, χαρτογραφικές επεξεργασίες και εμπειρίες από επιλεγμένες πολυκατοικίες, αναδεικνύει τις γεωγραφικές διαστάσεις της ενεργειακής φτώχειας στην Αθήνα, επιδιώκοντας να συμβάλει στην ευρύτερη συζήτηση για τους χωρικούς μετασχηματισμούς της πρωτεύουσας τα χρόνια της κρίσης.
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