Few events in recent European history have attracted greater media interest and scholarly attention than the crisis that engulfed Greece over the past decade. But how well understood is Greece’s implosion and what is left to discover?
It has often been argued that the crisis was not simply an economic one; its roots and implications can be located deep in the political, cultural and social fabric of Greece as well as in the wider architecture of the Eurozone and the prevailing paradigm of global financial capitalism. Given its protracted nature and multi-disciplinary manifestations, the understanding of the Greek crisis has become a formidable scholarly endeavour, both from an empirical and theoretical/normative perceptive. This lecture offered a tour d'horizon of the existing literature, seeking to identify gaps in our current knowledge and highlight fertile ground for the development of new research agendas that place Greece beyond an exceptionalist frame and onto debates of wider comparative and theoretical value.
Dimitris Papadimitriou is Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester and Director of the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. He has previously held visiting posts at Princeton University, the London School of Economics and Yale University. He has written extensively on the European Union’s political economy and on Greek politics and public policy. His last book, Prime Ministers in Greece: The Paradox of Power (with Kevin Featherstone) was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.
George Pagoulatos is Professor of European Politics and Economy at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He is Vice President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), and a member of the Governing Board of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre (EPC). He was Senior Advisor and Director of Strategy at the Prime Minister’s Office in 2011-12. Member of the High Council of the European University Institute in Florence (2010-13), and President of ECSA-Greece (2013-14), he is a regular columnist in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini since 2007. His research focuses on the EMU and the EU, Greece and Southern Europe, political economy of finance, political economy of reform. Pagoulatos holds degrees from the University of Athens (LLB) and the University of Oxford (MSc and DPhil), where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has authored several books and numerous articles in leading academic journals. He possesses extensive experience advising government and the private sector.
Kevin Featherstone is the Hellenic Observatory Director, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics at the London School of Economics.
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