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PROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Haris Malamidis

Social Movements and Solidarity


Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Social Movements
and Solidarity Structures
in Crisis-Ridden Greece
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Protest and Social Movements

Recent years have seen an explosion of protest movements around the world,
and academic theories are racing to catch up with them. This series aims to
further our understanding of the origins, dealings, decisions, and outcomes
of social movements by fostering dialogue among many traditions of thought,
across European nations and across continents. All theoretical perspectives are
welcome. Books in the series typically combine theory with empirical research,
dealing with various types of mobilization, from neighborhood groups to
revolutions. We especially welcome work that synthesizes or compares different
approaches to social movements, such as cultural and structural traditions,
micro- and macro-social, economic and ideal, or qualitative and quantitative.
Books in the series will be published in English. One goal is to encourage non-
native speakers to introduce their work to Anglophone audiences. Another is to
maximize accessibility: all books will be available in open access within a year
after printed publication.

Series Editors
Jan Willem Duyvendak is professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
James M. Jasper teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Social Movements
and Solidarity Structures
in Crisis-Ridden Greece

Haris Malamidis
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Amsterdam University Press

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Cover illustration: Designed by Obscura Creative Cooperative Lab, Crete, Greece

Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden


Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

isbn 978 94 6372 243 8


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doi 10.5117/9789463722438
nur 696

Creative Commons License CC BY NC ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0)

Haris Malamidis / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2021

Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise).

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

Part I Boundary Enlargement and Anti-Austerity


Mobilizations

1 Theorizing the Process of Boundary Enlargement 29


1.1 Why Boundary Enlargement? 31
1.2 Dismantling the process of boundary enlargement 42
1.2.1 Social Movement Scenes 43
1.2.2 Organizational Structure, Resources and Identity 47
1.2.3 Sub-mechanisms, Combinations and Interconnections 52
1.3 Limitations 55
1.4 Conclusion 58

2 The Greek Wave of Anti-Austerity Mobilizations in Context 65


2.1 Three decades of mobilizations 66
2.2 From December 2008, onwards 70
2.3 The Period of Austerity 73
2.3.1 Crisis and Austerity 73
2.3.2 Anti-austerity mobilizations 75
2.3.3 The square movement and its decentralization 78
2.4 Alternative Repertoires of Action 80
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

2.4.1 The social movement scene of Food 80


2.4.2 The social movement scene of Health 84
2.4.3 The social movement scene of Labour 90
2.4.4 Institutional and Hybrid Space 94
2.5 Conclusion 97

Part II Social Movements in Food, Health and Labour

3 The Social Movement Scene of Food 107


3.1 Organizational Structure 108
3.1.1 Markets without Middlemen 108

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
3.1.2 Collective and Social Kitchens 115
3.1.3 Collection and Distribution of Food Parcels 122
3.2 Resources 125
3.2.1 Markets without Middlemen 125
3.2.2 Collective and Social Kitchens 128
3.2.3 Collection and Distribution of Food Parcels 131
3.3 Identity 134
3.3.1 Markets without Middlemen 134
3.3.2 Collective and Social Kitchens 141
3.3.3 Collection and Distribution of Food Parcels 146
3.4 Conclusion 148

4 The Social Movement Scene of Health 161


4.1 Organizational Structure 162
4.1.1 Aff inity Groups Modeling and the Coordination of
Autonomy162
4.1.2 Internal Structure 165
4.1.3 Core and Peripheral Networks 167
4.2 Resources 171
4.2.1 Fixed Costs 172
4.2.2 Medical and Office Equipment 174
4.2.3 Drugs and Medication 176
4.3 Identity 181
4.3.1 Social Appropriation through Organization and Re-
sources182
4.3.2 Translation and Bricolage 187
4.4 Conclusion 190
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

5 The Social Movement Scene of Labour 199


5.1 Organizational Structure 200
5.1.1 Assemblies and Participation 200
5.1.2 Procedures of Entry and Exit 205
5.1.3 Networked Cooperativism 210
5.2 Resources 214
5.2.1 Initial Capital 214
5.2.2 Compensation, Demand and Supply 217
5.2.3 Investing within 222

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
5.3 Identity 225
5.3.1 Contentious Origins of Self-management 226
5.3.2 Aggressive and Defensive Self-management 233
5.4 Conclusion 239

Part III Different Applications of Boundary


Enlargement

6 Different Scenes, Different Trajectories but the Same Process:


A Within-Case Comparison 249
6.1 Comparing the Scenes 250
6.1.1 Comparing the Organization of the Scenes 250
6.1.2 Comparing the Resources of the Scenes 254
6.1.3 Comparing the Identity of the Scenes 255
6.2 Comparing the Trajectories 258
6.2.1 Trajectories in Organizational Structure 258
6.2.2 Trajectories in Resources 262
6.2.3 Trajectories in Identity 265

7 Boundary Enlargement in Different Contexts 271


7.1 The Spanish anti-austerity mobilizations 272
7.1.1 The case of PAH 275
7.1.2 The cases of Marea Verde and Marea Blanca 280
7.1.3 Municipalism and the Feminization of Politics 284
7.2 The 2001 Argentinean Crisis 288
7.2.1 Neighbourhood Assemblies 292
7.2.2 Piqueteros Unemployed Workers Movement 295
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

7.2.3 Recuperated Factories and Enterprises 298


7.2.4 Affective Politics 303

8 Epilogue 311
8.1 Expanding the notion of boundary enlargement 314
8.2 Future Research 325

Bibliography 331

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Annex 351

Index 359

List of Figures and Tables

Figures
Figure 2.1 Repertoires and actors in the social movement scene of
Food81
Figure 2.2 Repertoires and actors in the social movement scene of
Health89
Figure 2.3 Repertoires and actors in the social movement scene of
Labour94

Tables
Table 2.1 System of Health Accounts of year 2014 (ELSTAT, 2016a:1) 85
Table 3.1 Mechanisms and sub-mechanisms in the social
movement scene of Food 149
Table 4.1 Mechanisms and sub-mechanisms in the social
movement scene of Health 191
Table 5.1 Political and Social Homogeneity 231
Table 5.2 Mechanisms and sub-mechanisms in the social
movement scene of Labour 240
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Acknowledgements

When reading a new book, I always start with the acknowledgements section.
The point here is to realize that the author’s name only partially reflects
the effort of the exercise, since a number of visible and unknown “heroes”
helped in constructing, reflecting and questioning the path that the study
has come through. The same also applies to this research.
First and foremost, I wish to thank Donatella della Porta and Lorenzo Bosi.
Donatella’s encouragement gave me the opportunity to enroll in the PhD
programme at Scuola Normale Superiore and produce this piece of work,
while her overall guidance structured my way of thinking. Lorenzo’s detailed
comments, inspiring discussions, and emotional support paved the way for
the completion of this research. It was the smoothest and the most motivating
relationship I could imagine and, therefore, I could not be more grateful. I
wish also to thank Maria Kousis, Eduardo Romanos and Lorenzo Zamponi
for their fruitful comments and encouragement to undertake the task to
turn this research into a book, as well as James Jasper for welcoming it in the
series of Protest and Social Movements he edits with Jan Willem Duyvendak.
I would like to thank the faculty members, administration staff, visi-
tors and students of Scuola Normale Superiore and the Centre on Social
Movement Studies for providing me with the resources and granting me a
privileged position from which I carried out my research. Special thanks go
to Silvia, Giulia, Serenella, Michela, Christian and Alessandra for creating a
welcoming environment as well as to Lorenzo Mosca, Andrea Felicetti, Pietro
Castelli and Cesar Guzman for commenting early drafts of the research
design. For the same reason, I would like to acknowledge the Contentious
Politics Lab in Athens and the Labouratory of Social Analysis and Applied
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Research in Crete. Special thanks also go to Tracey Rosen and Evag-
gelos Evaggelinidis for their comments, as well as to Antonio Willox, Hara
Kadere, Foteini Dimirouli, Niamh Keady-Tabbal and Lina Altiparmaki for
their help in editing.
This inquiry would not have been accomplished without the full engage-
ment of my interviewees. Words cannot express my gratitude for devoting
their time and trust to narrate their experiences for this research project. I
hope this book will manage to highlight their courage and worries during the
harsh times of austerity and correspond to the seriousness of their efforts.
Moreover, I wish to thank my friends in Florence: Andrea and Elias,
Argyris, Taygeti, Anna, as well as Silvia, Anna, Daniela, Giorgos, Filip, and all
the Sardo community for their hospitality and encouragement; as well as my

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
10  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

friends in Greece: Haris and Nena, Vasilis and Kostas, Panagiotis and Kostis,
Andriana, Konstantinos, Margarita, Dimitra, Michalis, Eva, Lia, Antonis
and Tamagos, Anestis, Haris, Kostas and Leonidas. My sincere thanks to
the Prefigurativa collective and the Recreation thread, and particularly to
Regina and my personal book sponsor, Mike. And of course, Hara, whose
enthusiastic support was a necessary companion along this trip. Most of
them were not familiar with the object of my research but all of them shared
my fears and encouraged me to complete it.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents, my brother Miltos as well as
Nikos, Lefteris and Rene. Inspiring and getting inspired by people from
different ages, lifestyles and educational backgrounds, who share the same
desire for knowledge, was the most retributive part in the course of this
research.
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduction

Abstract
Τhis chapter introduces the overall topic of the book. It starts by relating the
recent developments of the social movement community in Greece, to the
discussions on movements’ structural and cultural boundaries. It provides
the aims of the manuscript and situates it within current academic and
public debates. The chapter proceeds by presenting the research design and
provides information about the methods of data generation. In particular,
document analysis, qualitative semi-structured interviews and participant
observation employed in more than 50 social movement organizations in
Greece’s two major cities, Athens and Thessaloniki. Finally, it illustrates
the politics and research ethics that accompanied the course of this study
and offers the book’s outline, in order to orientate the reader.

Keywords: Anti-austerity movements; Alternative repertoire of actions;


Boundary enlargement; Qualitative methods

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the breakdown of the


financial system in the USA, the economic crisis quickly spread to the
other side of the Pacific, predominantly affecting the national economies
of the South. Found at the epicentre, Greece has experienced an explosion
of movements against austerity which challenged the legitimacy of neolib-
eral representative democracy. Nevertheless, rampant austerity measures
provoked the rise of service-oriented repertoires, with numerous social
solidarity structures providing welfare services to the suffering population
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

(Kousis et al., 2018; Papadaki and Kalogeraki, 2017), which came to the
forefront once the dynamic of the protests started to decline.
This period of transition provides the setting for the focal point of this
book. By positioning the recent economic crisis and the subsequent austerity
measures within the realm of contentious politics, this manuscript suggests
that between 2008 and 2016 the social movement community in Greece,
consisting of formal and informal social movement organizations (SMOs),

Malamidis, Haris, Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece. Amsterdam,
Amsterdam University Press 2021
doi: 10.5117/9789463722438/intro

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
12  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

grassroots networks and individual activists (Staggenborg, 2013), has gone


through a transformative process which enabled the shift of social movement
organizations’ interests towards the exercise of service-oriented repertoires
of action. These service-oriented repertoires should not be confused with
what critical scholars frame as the neoliberal institutionalization and profes-
sionalization of voluntarism (Rozakou, 2008, p. 114). Rather, it acquires the
meaning of what anthropologists describe as gift-giving, with the provision
of medical services, clothing, food, agricultural products and jobs to the
victims of austerity (Papataxiarchis, 2016, p. 207).1
During the period of austerity, the cognitive and structural boundaries
of SMOs seem to change form and become more flexible, leading to the
inclusion of new and the transformation of old repertoires. Boundaries that
used to distinguish SMOs with clear aims in mobilizing people from other
organizations advocating and lobbying for collective purposes, as well as from
those organizations with supportive roles that framed the movements’ overall
culture, get blurred. Crisis-ridden Greece witnessed this change of boundaries
by incorporating service-oriented repertoires. However, this does not assume
a path-dependent course. In line with post-modern accounts pointing to the
fluidity of well-defined structures, organizational boundaries may change
by engaging with activities other than service-oriented practices. In order to
describe this process, we introduce the term boundary enlargement. By bound-
ary enlargement, we refer to a process where previously defined boundaries
are extended, enabling social movement organizations to move beyond their
delimited cognitive and structural perimeter and adopt practices and repertoires
that up to that point have been issued by distant and often antagonistic actors.
The connection between different organizations of the Greek social
movement community and the employment of protest repertoires under
similar claims between 2010 and 2012, forced some scholars to speak in
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

favor of an anti-austerity campaign (Diani and Kousis, 2014). Nevertheless,


protests took place well beyond 2012, and the anti-austerity collective actions
also included forms that are not compatible with the usual street politics.
The emergence of these new forms of action also affected the focus of the
academic community, giving birth to a number of definitions regarding the
service-oriented repertoires. Bosi and Zamponi (2015) speak for the repetition

1 We often refer to the recipients of these services as beneficiaries, in order to differentiate


them from activists. Although we are aware that this term is problematic, since it grants the
individual a passive role and establishes a power relation between the providers and recipients of
these services, here the term is used only with descriptive purposes, without bearing analytical
insight.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduc tion 13

of old “direct social actions”, which opt for social change without turning
their claims towards the state. From a different perspective, the combination
of economic and social characteristics forced Kousis and Paschou to present
the framework of “alternative forms of resilience”, the actions of which aim
to create a strong social resilience in times of crises (Kousis and Paschou,
2014, 2017). In the same vein, Forno and Graziano (2014) refer to “sustainable
community movements” by focusing on actions which mobilize citizens
through their economic power; while the incorporation of the third sector,
including church and municipal organizations exhorted Loukakis (2018) to
frame them as “alternative action organizations”.
The provision of informal welfare services by social movement actors is
not something new. Neither are the various expressions of solidarity. The
self-help fund organized by the workers of the self-managed factory of Vio.Me
in Thessaloniki presents great similarities with practices of the traditional
labour movement. Additionally, the emergence of numerous collective
kitchens organized by individuals and grassroots collectives has many
points in common with the tradition of the Italian autonomous movement.
Moreover, the first social clinic in Greece was established in Chania, Crete in
1990, long before the eruption of the crisis. Taking into consideration other
forms of social provision, the literature on welfare state policies emphasizes
a trend of outsourcing basic social services towards non-state actors already
from the beginning of the 1990s (Stasinopoulou, 2002). Nevertheless, as we
analyse below, a number of factors complicate the picture.
In particular, the actions in the context of crisis-ridden Greece present
a wide variety in terms of the provided services, the actors who employ
them, as well as those who use them, since they do not refer only to activists
but to larger parts of the population. Traditional SMOs turned their atten-
tion to the provision of services, and new organizations were established
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

specifically for this purpose. These organizations seem to employ traditional


repertoires of social movements, but at the same time deny having clear
political identities. Moreover, they engage participants from a wide range of
the political spectrum, while increased intensity alongside the deepening
of austerity raises doubts as to whether they can be considered self-help
groups. Along these lines, the importance of these repertoires stems from
the significance they have acquired in the agenda of SMOs.
This research refers to alternative2 repertoires of action in order to define
the group of solidarity structures and the repertoires preoccupied with the

2 Although the term “alternative” implies something different to the mainstream capital-
ist system, it is often criticized for reducing any radical features. In this respect, it feels that

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
14  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

unofficial provision of services, which used to be provided by the welfare


state and the market. More precisely, we refer to the cases of social clinics,
collective and social kitchens, markets without middlemen, time banks,
bazaars and barter clubs, educational courses of language and art, self-
managed workers’ collectives and other similar forms. The range of these
actions is so wide that it tends to cover a great part of the social, economic
and cultural life, as well as the basic livelihood needs of a human being. These
actions are implemented either by new organizations founded specifically
for this reason, or by traditional SMOs which have incorporated these
service-oriented actions in their repertoires. According to Hadjimichalis
‘these solidarity actions vary considerably depending on the social group and
the community they target, the needs they aim to cover, the relationships
among volunteers and the relationship with institutions’ (2017, p. 161).
Coming across the rich empirical reality that gave birth to several different
theoretical understandings, this study explores the transformative character
of the recent economic crisis and the subsequent austerity measures concern-
ing social movements and their relationship to the state. In particular, our
attention is drawn to the scenes of food, health and labour and the respective
efforts accomplished by social movement actors, through the application
of qualitative research on approximately 50 organizations. These three
scenes have been widely studied by social movement scholars, each one
contributing valuable insight that helped the construction of the social
movement stream of research in social sciences, as well as its extension to
other fields. Research on health-related movements usually touches upon
institutional theories and practices, and also deals with cognitive issues by
challenging certain identities and belief systems (see for instance Banaszak-
Holl et al., 2010). Inquiries on the food scene have been mostly connected
with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as well as urban studies and
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

political geography, while the labour scene dominated the social movement
interest for more than a century. Nevertheless, the attention of this research
on these three scenes is not due to their rich tradition in social movement
studies; rather, our decision is grounded in three reasons. First, food, health
and labour scenes were severely damaged by the recent economic crisis and
the subsequent austerity measures, thus dramatically changing the everyday
reality of the Greek population. Second, these three scenes host active and

“alternative” practices are being coopted by the dominant system, used within and not aside or
against of it, and, at the end, they serve its reproduction. However, the use of the term “alternative”
here aims only to distinguish the new forms of action from the traditional protest-oriented
repertoires of social movements, without implying other analytical connotations.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduc tion 15

intense activity by a wide variety of social movement actors concerning


the Greek context. Third, the two aforementioned conditions indicate that
the scenes of food, health and labour are adequate cases to analyse the
development of the boundary enlargement process. Therefore, instead of
approaching each of these scenes separately and analysing the evolution
of the respective movements as single-issue movements, we perceive food,
health and labour as complementary social movement scenes, which have
attracted the interest of wider parts of the social movement community in
Greece. This way allows us to discover how the different social mechanisms
in each scene lead to the similar process of boundary enlargement.
Although scholars tend to distinguish organizations focusing on protest
actions from those organizations with service-oriented practices, our ap-
proach treats these repertoires as two sides of the same coin. Our suggestion
is based on the fact that the crisis and austerity accelerated the outburst of a
process through which previously fixed boundaries of SMOs are transformed,
enlarged and acquire new shapes. Although similar turbulent conditions in
other settings may lead to different changes in the respective boundaries of
SMOs, the most representative case of this change of boundaries within the
Greek context is the incorporation of service-oriented repertoires. Therefore,
we refer to anti-austerity mobilizations in order to describe the street actions
that took place from 2008 onwards, while through alternative repertoires
of action we point to those practices employed by social movement actors
that were hitherto provided by the welfare state and the market. Similar to
Hadjimichalis (2013) approach, we argue that these alternative repertoires
are cases of continuities of the traditional protest activities, in the sense
that they have been developed within and not aside the broader struggle
against austerity.
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Aim and Contribution

Political, economic and social crises are often conceived as the end of a
period and the beginning of another, bearing transformative effects that
foster further social evolution. Crisis-ridden Greece, among the salient cases
where austerity brought fear and loathing, experienced tremendous changes
in its political, economic and social environment (Serdedakis and Tompazos,
2018). Additional changes took place with regards to the country’s social
movement community. The development (and more precisely the decline)
of the anti-austerity mobilizations initiated the advent of the alternative
repertoires, concentrated on the provision of welfare that had previously

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
16  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

been provided by the state and the market. This study argues that the
eruption of the crisis and the imposition of a state of austerity facilitated
important changes in the boundaries of the social movement community in
Greece. SMOs incorporated a series of alternative repertoires of action with
important effects on their relationship with the state and other institutional
actors. The aim of this study is to unravel the mechanisms that constitute
the process of boundary enlargement between 2008 and 2016.
First, the alternative repertoires of action have provoked changes within
the boundaries of the social movement community. In particular, the in-
corporation and provision of service-oriented practices along with protest
politics seems to inaugurate a new era for social movement actors, as they
are confronted with new dilemmas and challenges. From conceptual debates
regarding the definition and (potential) innovative approaches of these
activities and their engagement in the charity-solidarity debate, to issues
regarding self-management, costs and efficiency, these alternative repertoires
pose questions to social movements whose elaboration with the provision
of welfare services was previously attached only at a theoretical level.
Second, the association of social movements and their organizations with
institutional actors add another important element to the inquiry’s object of
study. Either with official affiliations or with unofficial connections follow-
ing similar means, the discrete line that used to distinguish movements from
institutional actors becomes blurred. The degree of movements’ engagement
with the state, their organizational and operational interconnection, the
substitution by or outsourcing of welfare provision to unofficial actors, as
well as relatively similar aspects are some of the topics that need further
clarification.
The aforementioned issues are closely related to the hardships provoked
due to austerity. In this regard, this exercise adds important empirical
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

insight into the literature related to the transformative role of crises and to
bottom-up welfare practices. In particular, it manages to bridge the severe
changes brought to the livelihood of Greek citizens with the macro-structural
adjustments of the national and international environment. Hence, it dem-
onstrates how these are reflected in the heart of social movements, namely
the meso-level of SMOs.
In our attempt to explore the mechanisms that shape the crisis’ trans-
formative nature, we focus on social movement theories, and specifically
to the framework of Contentious Politics3 as this was first introduced by

3 Contentious politics describe those political actions where actors form groups and networks,
which mobilize without the support of and outside institutional boundaries. At the same time,

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduc tion 17

Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly (McAdam et al., 2001). The
theoretical framework used in this study favors a dynamic model and aspires
to further contribute to the social movement literature that bridges the gap
between the structural and cultural approaches. What is crucial here is the
aspect of resources. Despite the loss of its popularity in the current social
movement analyses, this study brings it back by arguing that during times
when there is a scarcity of wealth, resources become important components
for the development of social movements. Most importantly, taking into
consideration the fluid and liquid accusations of late modernity and post-
modernity, this research introduces the process of boundary enlargement
in its attempt to explain how structures and identities are interlinked and
mixed. By approaching the shift towards the provision of services as one
example of this process, this inquiry explains the similarities and differences
among the trajectories of SMOs and engages in a dialogue with scholarship
on the subject. Although social movement studies constitute the basic lens for
explaining the process of boundary enlargement, our analysis also touches
upon the frameworks of social and solidarity economy and the commons,
and underlines features related to alternative economies often discussed
in organization and marketing literature (Campana et al., 2017).
Overall, this book facilitates the better understanding on how collec-
tive action changes in times of crisis, as well as the dynamics of social
movements in periods of latency and silence. It shows how during protest
cycles not only do new actors rise, but also those who already exist are
transformed internally. In this respect, although it deals with a relatively
recent phenomenon, it still does not lose its historical perspective.

Research Design
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Starting by observing the changes that occurred in the Greek social move-
ment community within the period 2008-2016, our interest in explaining the
process which took place led us to the framework of Contentious Politics.
The framework of Contentious Politics aims to explain the emergence of
collective action in different episodes of contention through the identifica-
tion of common mechanisms and processes. In this respect, the updated
version of Contentious Politics (Tilly and Tarrow, 2015) urges researchers to

it describes a specific theoretical framework for the analysis of social movements and collective
action. Following Kotronaki (2015, p. 2), we use capital letters (Contentious Politics) when
referring to this framework.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
18  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

first understand what they want to explain, then to identify the relevant
sites, conditions, streams and episodes of contention, and finally, to specify
which are the mechanisms and processes that appear. At this stage, the
initial empirical-driven study was combined with the application of theory.
Nevertheless, the emphasis on the dynamic and relational character of
contention lacked a definition regarding the changes and transformation of
boundaries – the process of boundary enlargement. This has set in motion
a continuous interaction between the field and the theory, combining the
inductive approach with deductive elements.
Although the initial scope was not the application of theory to a case,
the outcome of this exercise is the combination of inductive and deductive
approaches with the potential to explain a relatively new reality of the crisis-
ridden universe of collective action. At the same time, it aimed to contribute
to the development of the Contentious Politics framework. The framework
of Contentious Politics strongly favors comparative research as a means to
enhance the broader knowledge and to theoretically stabilize the framework
which argues that similar mechanisms exist in different contexts. Our study
does not follow this tradition. Instead, our aim to reveal the new reality and
the process of boundary enlargement forced us to adopt a case-study research
design, although this was achieved by applying a within-case comparison.
Among a considerable number of scenes employing these alternative reper-
toires, the large consequences of austerity policies on the living conditions
of the population forced us to direct our attention to actions focused on
addressing basic needs. As indicated by the systematic research of relevant
inquiries4, the issues of food, health and labour reflect adequate fields of study
and, therefore, serve as the units of analysis of this research. In particular,
we focus on the cases of markets without middlemen, social and collective
kitchens and collection and distribution of food parcels in the food scene, social
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

clinics in the health scene, and workers’ collectives dealing with labour issues.
We are aware that by selecting specific social movement scenes, we
inevitably exclude others. Thus, the housing scene could also fit under the
umbrella of basic needs, while this selection does not allow us to take into
consideration cultural or educational scenes. Nevertheless, the nature of our
field helps us to overcome this issue, since the variety of actions employed by
the Greek SMOs and grassroots collectives enables us to extract information
concerning other scenes. In respect to this, SMOs that were established be-
fore the advent of the crisis and have incorporated the alternative repertoires,

4 LIVEWHAT Work Package 6, Integrated Report on alternative forms of resilience in times of


crises (2016), http://www.unige.ch/livewhat/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LIVEWHAT_D6.4.pdf

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduc tion 19

as well as social centres, squats and neighbourhood assemblies that offer


food, health or labour services, are taken into consideration.
During the process of case selection, we first turned our attention to the
social movements and third sector literatures. Greece has been accused of
being among the European countries with the lowest score on social capital
(Huliaras, 2014). Nevertheless, research into the Greek civil society finds a
rather great number of civil society organizations currently active, mostly in
Athens and Thessaloniki (Afouxenidis and Gardiki, 2014, p. 13; Loukidou, 2014).
Although helpful, these inquiries failed to include the full length of grassroots
activities, since they referred mostly to formally registered organizations with
clear non-profit action, leaving aside solidarity networks and neighbourhood
assemblies (Afouxenidis and Gardiki, 2014, p. 4). As the researchers observe,
there is a rising tendency to establish unofficial organizations, such as self-help
groups and grassroots collectives, which do not have any intention of formally
registering in state’s archives. Subsequently, this places obstacles in the path of
identifying them. This tendency seems to reflect a broader preference towards
unofficial structures observed in Southern European movements, more
so than in their North European counterparts (Kousis et al., 2008, p. 1628).
Contemporary research on solidarity structures during the crisis-context
found more than 3500 formal and informal organizations providing social
welfare as a response to austerity (Loukakis, 2018). However, still it is not
clear whether these organizations are clearly linked with the Greek social
movement community. Taking into consideration the aforementioned studies
and our experience from previous research in the field (Malamidis, 2018),
we tried to tackle this issue based on snowball sampling.
Our research focuses on the meso-level of organizations. In particular, we
took into consideration approximately 50 organizations in the two largest
cities in Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki, as well as two organizations in
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Crete. Among the 50 organizations, more than fifteen of them operate in the
social movement scene of food, ten in the social movement scene of health,
around fifteen in the social movement scene of labour, and the rest of the
organizations studied have a rather active role in employing traditional forms
of protest repertoires. Our field research took place between May 2016 and
January 2017, with an additional round of field research in September 2017.5
Field research came to an end when we were confronted with the saturation

5 Although later improvements in the organizations under study have caused internal conflicts
and resulted either in their institutionaliation by their incorporation in the respective units of
local administrations or their dissolution, we do not take them into consideration since they
exceed the timespan of the field research.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
20  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

effect, a déjà vu feeling of narrative repetition (Bryman, 2012, p. 452). This


study does not apply a representative research design, since our research
focuses on resourced, urban communities with longer social movement
history than rural and less resourced ones. As Kriesi once commented,
‘data on the most important SMOs of a social movement give only a partial
idea of the extent and the character of its organizational development’
since ‘these SMOs constitute only the tip of a movement’s organizational
iceberg’ (Kriesi, 1996, p. 166). Nevertheless, we believe that this sampling
approach allows for a more informed understanding, concerning the shift
from protest to service-oriented activities.
Among other research methods, the case-study research design embraces
qualitative fieldwork for data generation. Almost fifteen years ago, McAdam
suggested that ‘movement researchers will need to supplement the tradi-
tional macro and micro staples of movement analysis – case studies or event
research in the case of the former and survey research in connection with the
latter – with a more serious investment in ethnography and other methods
designed to shed empirical light on the meso-level dynamics that shape and
sustain collective action over time’ (McAdam, 2003, p. 282). Together with
naturalistic experiments and quantitative variable-based analysis, McAdam
et al. (2009) included the known as ‘ethnographic fieldwork’ among the
preferred methods for the study of mechanisms and processes.
In our research, data generation was mostly based on qualitative semi-
structured interviews, document analysis and participant observation. In
particular, we conducted 63 interviews with members of new and traditional
SMOs and solidarity structures, as well as with key informants from hybrid,
non-governmental and institutional organizations linked with the provision
of social solidarity.6 The interviews were assisted by the use of an interview
guide, while all of them had been conducted, recorded and transcribed
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

by the researcher7 in Greek, with an average duration of 1.15 hours. In this


respect, any potential confusion the reader might have or mistakes in the
quotations used is attributed to the researcher’s misuse of information.
Moreover, we employed document analysis on the organizations’ founding
declarations, political positions, denouncements, affiliations with other

6 In the cases of the MKIE and Nea Philadelphia social clinics, the interviewees clarif ied
that our conversation was informal as it did not follow the procedure of getting approval from
the respective collectives. Additionally, the official position of Adye clinic to generally reject
interviews, forced one of our interviewees to clarify that the interview states only her opinion,
and does not provide any information or representation of the clinic.
7 With the exception of one interview which has been transcribed by a third person due to
time limits.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduc tion 21

organizations, books and collective volumes published by participants in


certain movements; as well as audiovisual material (radio and tv shows,
documentaries, etc.) produced by the organizations. Finally, we considered
as primary sources the notes taken during our participation in a number
of fairs, events, conferences, festivals, demonstrations and coordinating
assemblies in Athens and Thessaloniki, where many of the studied organiza-
tions participated in.

Structure of the Book

Although it does not take an exhaustive approach to perceive the multitude


of mechanisms that took place during this transformative period, this
study concentrates on the crisis as the catalyst for the process of boundary
enlargement. In order to explore the contentious dynamics of the crisis and
austerity measures on social movements and their relationship with the
state, the book is structured as follows:
Chapter 1 demonstrates the book’s theoretical underpinnings. Our elabo-
ration of the framework of contentious politics demonstrates its advantages
of analysing complex realities and its ambition for a dynamic approach.
Nevertheless, the absence of an explanatory concept with regard to the
changes over distinctive boundaries enables us to introduce the process of
boundary enlargement and apply its utility to other potential theorizations.
Additionally, we provide detailed reasons for our decision to examine the
meso-organizational level and the conceptual use of social movement
scenes. We also provide justifications for our attention to the factors of
organizational structure, resources and identity. Finally, we acknowledge
some important limitations our framework bears.
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Chapter 2 presents the background context of this inquiry. By under-


standing the social movements as cases of continuities in time, we attempt
to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the develop-
ment of the social movement community in Greece, by briefly sketching
out some important aspects of previous mobilizations since the 1980s. Our
trip to the past continues with the December 2008 riots, a landmark for
the mobilizations to come. Of course, the advent of the economic crisis
and the subsequent measures of austerity inaugurate a new social reality.
The same can be said for the advent of the square movement and the
following process of the movement’s decentralization. Most importantly,
as our research is mostly focused on alternative repertoires, we then
focus on the social movement scenes of food, health and labour, and we

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
22  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

meticulously point out the actors who constitute them as well as their
respective practices. Although this chapter may not present anything of
particular interest for someone familiar with the Greek reality, it is more
than necessary for someone with minimum knowledge of the background
context.
Chapter 3 analyses the social movement scene of food with regards to
the three repertoires of markets without middlemen, social and collective
kitchens and the collection and distribution of food parcels. Along with
the repertoires, plurality also applies to the organizers. These range from
grassroots initiatives and neighbourhood assemblies to traditional social
centres. In this regard, this chapter seeks to explore the mechanisms that
form the boundary enlargement process in the social movement scene of
food. In order to do so, it analyses the rise of the markets without middlemen
and their transition to becoming consumer cooperatives. Additionally, it ad-
dresses the development of collective and social kitchens and the collection
and distribution of food parcels as well as their subsequent coordination
that assisted the formation of solidarity networks at first for the domestic
population, and then, for what became known as the refugee “crisis”. Without
undermining the distinctiveness of the respective actors and repertoires, we
analyse each of the three repertoires regarding the factors of organizational
structure, resources and identity.
Chapter 4 delves into the analysis of the social movement scene of
health, by focusing on the advent of social clinics and the provision of
primary healthcare services. The exclusion of almost one third of the Greek
population from the health system, due to austerity measures, triggered
the expansion of social clinics across the country and granted them a
contentious role. By paying attention to the clinics’ organizational structure
and decision-making systems, resources and identity, we explore the basic
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

mechanisms and sub-mechanisms that shaped the increasing number


of the clinics, their coordination and the construction of an unoff icial
solidarity network of drugs distribution. At the same time, the analysis
of the formation of the boundary enlargement process touches upon the
clinics’ relations with the state and their association with municipal
authorities.
Chapter 5 analyses the social movement scene of labour and pays at-
tention to the rise of self-managed cooperatives and workers’ collectives.
Except for the position of trade unions, KKE, Kommounistiko Komma
Elladas (Communist Party of Greece) and specific extra-parliamentary
left-wing organizations, labour issues were marginal in the agenda of
movements in Greece, when compared to broader post-material claims

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Introduc tion 23

prior to the economic crisis. The cultivation of the principles of self-


organization on labour issues within political collectives acted as a catalyst
for the transition towards the establishment of autonomous self-managed
cooperatives and, to a lesser extent, the incorporation of self-managed
structures into libertarian social centres. However, in terms of its reach,
the social movement scene of labour moved beyond the limits of its regular
supporters’ core, since numerous self-managed cooperatives were formed
by people found either at the periphery or outside of the social movement
community. In this respect, the vast increase in unemployment and the
normalization of precarious conditions in the labour market, combined
with the formulation of a facilitating legislative framework, were additional
reasons for the tremendous increase in social cooperatives. By paying
attention to the components of organizational structure, resources and
identity, this chapter explores the formation of the boundary enlargement
process in the social movement scene of labour.
Chapter 6 introduces a comparative dimension. Following a within-case
comparative approach, this chapter initially marks the most significant
similarities and differences between the three social movement scenes. In
order to better grasp the development of mechanisms in the three scenes,
the second comparison deals with the different trajectories observed with
regard to the factors of organizational structure, resources and identity.
Chapter 7 introduces two cases in which similar alternative repertoires
developed and where the process of boundary enlargement seems to find
application. The first case deals with the 2011 struggles against austerity in
Spain. This case moves within the limits of the anti-austerity mobilizations,
but it also reveals issues, such as the feminization of politics, which have
been barely touched in the Greek context. A bit more ambitious, the second
case deals with the Latin American context by bringing into the spotlight
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

the 2001 crisis-ridden Argentina. The case of Argentina shows how the
process of boundary enlargement may be adjusted in different settings,
rather than just the usual suspects of western countries. It also highlights
the usage of the boundary enlargement process in facilitating the better
explanation of historical trajectories.
Chapter 8 provides the conclusion. After summarizing what has been
discussed in the book, this chapter expands the use of boundary enlargement
in conceptual terms. It does so by engaging this research in broader academic
debates, by discussing the relationship of boundary enlargement with the
social solidarity economy, commons and the neoliberal political economy,
and indicates suggestions for further research.

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Part I
Boundary Enlargement
and Anti-Austerity Mobilizations
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Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
1 Theorizing the Process of Boundary
Enlargement

Abstract
This chapter demonstrates the theoretical underpinnings of the book. By
discussing the framework of contentious politics, the chapter shows its
advantages for analyzing complex realities and its ambition for a dynamic
approach. The absence of an explanatory concept with regards to the
changes over the movements’ distinctive boundaries, nevertheless, allows
us to introduce the process of boundary enlargement; a dynamic process
which shows how the extension of boundaries allows social movement
organizations to move beyond their delimited cognitive and structural
perimeter, and adopt new practices and repertoires. Furthermore, the
chapter underlines the importance of the meso-organizational level and
the use of social movement scenes, and provides justifications for the book’s
focus on the factors of organizational structure, resources and identity.

Keywords: Contentious politics framework; Boundary enlargement pro-


cess; Social movement organizations; Organizational structure; Resources;
Collective identity

This research argues that the recent economic crisis has enabled the facilita-
tion of a boundary enlargement process, which has affected social movement
organizations (SMOs) both internally, in terms of their internal operation,
but also externally, regarding their relationship with institutional actors.
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

In order to demonstrate this, we base our explanatory framework on the


literature of social movements, with particular focus on the Contentious
Politics approach.
The study of processes and mechanisms in social movement studies dates
back to 2001, when McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly introduced the Dynamics of
Contention. Since the 1980s, frame scholars criticized the static model of re-
source mobilization by suggesting a dynamic understanding of mobilization,

Malamidis, Haris, Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece. Amsterdam,
Amsterdam University Press 2021
doi: 10.5117/9789463722438/ch01

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30  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

arguing that the ‘decision to participate over time [is] thus subject to frequent
reassessment and negotiation’ (Snow et al., 1986, p. 467). Despite subsequent
efforts to transform the static models of resource mobilization theory and
the political process approach into more dynamic accounts (Tarrow, 1998),
Dynamics of Contention was the first work to introduce a comprehensive
theoretical framework.
Dynamics of Contention aimed to combine structural, relational and
cultural approaches to politics. In order to achieve this, the authors suggest
two steps. First, to approach social movements as one aspect of contentious
politics, equal to strike waves, riots, civil wars, revolutions as well as national-
ist mobilizations and processes of democratization. These events differ in
many respects and therefore, they are often studied separately. Contentious
Politics came to denounce that all of them ‘have common causal properties
instead of each constituting an entirely separate causal domain’ (McAdam
et al., 2009, p. 289). Moving forward, the second step claims that despite
their differences, these forms of contention undergo the same mechanisms
and processes that enable collective action to take place (McAdam et al.,
2001, p. 4). According to this perspective, scholars should ‘treat the causal
properties as consisting of recurrent mechanisms and processes which in
different combinations and sequences produce contrasting forms of collec-
tive claim making, from nonviolent to violent, from routine to extraordinary,
from conservative to transformative’ (McAdam et al., 2009, p. 289).
Adopting a relational perspective, McAdam et al (2001) argued that
contentious episodes and events are processes which emerge from the
combination of different sub-processes. Within the variety of contentious
actions, the authors defined these sub-processes as mechanisms, namely ‘a
delimited class of events that alter relations among specified sets of elements
in identical or closely similar ways over a variety of situations’ (McAdam et
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

al., 2001, p. 24). Mechanisms compound into processes, meaning ‘regular


combinations and sequences of mechanisms that produce similar (generally
more complex and contingent) transformations of those elements. Distinct
processes involve different sequences and combinations of mechanisms that
interactively produce some outcome’ (Ibid). The framework of Contentious
Politics identifies combinations and sequences of mechanisms, which have
different starting points, produce different outcomes and are developed
within different contentious events like revolutions, wars, democratization
processes and crises.
The process of boundary enlargement, like other social processes, does
not exist in a vacuum. As demonstrated throughout the research, the process
of boundary enlargement differs between actors; every actor had a different

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starting point and followed a unique path which will most probably result
in different outcomes. Nonetheless, it was the need created by austerity that
has enabled its full development and exposure. In order to provide a more
comprehensive understanding of the process of boundary enlargement, we
further specify its theoretical underpinnings.

1.1 Why Boundary Enlargement?

In 1996, Melucci argued that social movements are ‘actions that imply
conflict, solidarity and a breaching of the system limits’ (Melucci, 1996,
p. 30). The overcoming of systems’ limits refers to the systems that ‘ensures
the production of a society’s resources’, the organizational system that ‘makes
decisions about the distribution of these resources’, the political system
that ‘governs the exchange and deployment of the latter’, and ‘the system of
reproduction in everyday life’ (Ibid, p. 27). Within this approach, boundaries
represent the limits of these systems and define the space in which move-
ments negotiate with these four systems of power. In the volume of 2013 on
The Future of Social Movement Research (Stekelenburg et al., 2013), leading
scholars attempted to frame the current state-of-the-art in social movement
studies. Among other issues, the contributors raised attention to the fluidity
of identities as well as to actual and symbolic boundaries as central social
factors shaping the development of collective action. Despite having almost
20 years separating them, both accounts underline the importance of limits
and boundaries in collective action. Prompted by these, our research elevates
the study of boundaries to the central issue at stake.
On the subject of the dynamic character of identities, Diani notes that
boundaries rarely distinguish movements from their environments. On
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the contrary, ‘we have boundaries that are often permeable, more or less
dense areas of mutual recognition, and possibly chains of reaction’ (Diani,
2013, p. 154). The definition of boundaries ‘mirror processes of identity
building, establishing connections across time and space, for example,
within different phases of personal biographies, between generations, or
between events occurring simultaneously in different locations’ (Diani
and Mische, 2015, p. 312). This approach adopts a relational perspective on
boundaries, which enables their enlargement in practical and cognitive
terms. Literature on social movements strongly suggests that the definition
of boundaries be a crucial factor for the development of collective identity
(Taylor, 2013). This deals mostly with groups and associations and their
effort to create, sustain or reinforce their particular identities (Diani and

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Mische, 2015, p. 312). The definition of boundaries has implications not only
for groups’ identities, but also for their internal organization and operation.
Here, boundaries play an important role in addressing conflicts as well as
loyalties (Diani, 2015, p. 15). Shifting the focus from single organizations,
groups or associations, to networks, boundaries may prevent or enhance
the diffusion and exchange of practices and knowledge (Diani and Mische,
2015, p. 312). These may include the ‘circulation of symbols, the expression
of emotions, or the sharing of militancy and friendship’ (Ibid). The role that
boundaries undertake in enhancing the interaction between individuals,
groups and networks, may also apply to broader schemata, such as social
movements or even social f ields. According to Diani, the def inition of
boundaries is rather essential for the connection of activists and social
movements. The lack of formal membership criteria makes it difficult for
activists to identify with certain movements, especially when the formers’
lifestyles, values, beliefs and actions are not strong enough as determinants
(Diani, 2013, pp. 152-153). Rather, the author notes that ‘individuals may be
associated with a movement to the extent that they recognize each other,
and are recognized by other actors, as a part of that particular movement’
(Diani and Mische, 2015, p. 312). In this sense, the definition of boundaries
deals with the ‘criteria that assign social actors to different groups and
categories’ (Ibid). Although Diani supports that there is balance in the
definition of boundaries between organizational and movement level, at
the same time the definition of boundaries refers to social action in broad
terms, and affects our understanding of political systems, processes and
dynamics (Diani, 2015, p. 16).
Social movement literature pays particular attention to the boundary
definition. Due to this, the Contentious Politics approach has often stressed
issues related to boundaries. The boundary definition discussed earlier
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transforms into a mechanism under the label boundary formation. This


indicates the establishment of a rough separation of two political actors
(Alimi et al., 2015, p. 287). Framed as a mechanism that can ‘expand the range
or extend the life of contentious episodes’ boundary activation is a term used
by Tilly and Tarrow for the ‘creation of a new boundary or the crystallization
of an existing one between challenging groups and their targets’ (Tilly and
Tarrow, 2015, p. 36). Boundary activation is also explained as the ‘increase
in the salience of “us-them” distinction separating two political actors’
(Alimi et al., 2015, p. 287). Respectively, boundary control is a term used
in order to describe the process of protecting the established boundary
from outsiders (Ibid). Recent research work on boundaries introduced the
concept of boundary-spanning (Wang et al., 2018). Boundary-spanning

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refers to the establishment of movement alliances as well as points out how


movements conceive their goals and resources. The concept tries to bridge
different insight to inter-movement and inter-organizational interactions,
in order to study the transformative effects of boundary-spanning both in
relation to social movements and with regard to social change at large. These
terms are inter-related, as they all attempt to describe a process that affects
specific boundaries. Tilly and Tarrow argue that boundaries are formed
after complex possesses which ‘commonly take shape outside contentious
politics’ (2015, p. 106). Once boundaries have been formed, ‘political actors
regularly use them as part of contentious politics’ (Ibid), setting in motion
the mechanisms of boundary activation and de-activation. As the two
authors suggest elsewhere, although boundaries are transformed and new
boundaries emerge, contentious politics neither create nor activate new
boundaries; rather, they activate or de-activate the existing ones (Tilly and
Tarrow, 2006, p. 61).
Contentious Politics scholars approach movements and their organiza-
tions as dynamic entities which change over time. Boundary formation is
a term used in Contentious Politics to describe the process of establishing
a new boundary. Similarly, identity shift, which denotes the ‘formation of
new identities within challenging groups’ (Tilly and Tarrow, 2015, p. 37),
constitutes a recurrent mechanism in many contentious episodes and often
helps the explanatory framework of boundary transformation. However,
there seems to be a profound absence of a term able to define the stretching
of the practical and conceptual boundaries for SMOs. For this reason, we
introduce the term “boundary enlargement”. As mentioned earlier, by bound-
ary enlargement, we refer to a process where previously defined boundaries
are extended, enabling social movement organizations to move beyond
their delimited cognitive and structural perimeter and adopt practices and
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repertoires that, up to that point, had been applied by distant and often
antagonistic actors.
Among other processes, social movement studies, preoccupied with both
movement outcomes and movement transformation, have often treated the
processes of institutionalization and radicalization as the two extremes in
terms of SMOs’ development. The notion of institutionalization refers to ‘the
process of inclusion in the terrain of formal politics of some of its ideas (i.e.,
movement concerns come to be recognized as legitimate within mainstream
politics and/or among the general public), personnel (i.e., activists gain
positions within political parties, committees, and/or the civil service), or
whole movement strands (i.e., sections of the movement establish political
parties)’ (Bosi, 2016, pp. 338-339). Respectively, the process of radicalization

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is defined as the ‘process through which a social movement organization


(SMO) shifts from predominantly nonviolent tactics of contention to tactics
that include violent means, as well as the subsequent process of contention
maintaining and possibly intensifying the newly introduced violence’ (Alimi
et al., 2015, p. 11). The reason why we provide these definitions lies in our
effort to demonstrate that both indicate a paradigmatic shift that led SMOs
either to the institutional side of practicing politics or to an outlawed one.1 On
the contrary, the process of boundary enlargement indicates that, although
SMOs undergo a transformative trajectory that primarily affects their
repertoires, but simultaneously influences their identities, organizational
structure, resources as well as other aspects of their operation, they still
remain active on the terrain of social movements.
The overlap between the rise of social movement research and the
proliferation of organizational studies in topics that are not strictly
business-oriented, has concentrated the interest of researchers in exchanging
frameworks and views regarding the study of SMOs (Davis et al., 2005).
Prompted by this effort, what seems particularly attractive is the trans-
formative process of servicitization. This term has been coined within the
field of business studies, to describe the gradual tendency of businesses to
transform their area of interest from “goods or services” to “goods, services,
support, knowledge and self-service” during the 1980s (Vandermerwe and
Rada, 1988). Although serviticization is a process that partially reflects
the incorporation of services that used to be, until now, provided by the
welfare state and the market in SMOs’ activities, its usage would not reflect
the overall process that took place during the period of austerity, and thus
it would be misleading for three reasons. Firstly, serviticization indicates
that service-provision is the sole goal of these organizations. As such, this
approach would lose sight of the element of social transformation, which
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is a key goal for the majority of the organizations studied. Secondly, the
term implies that the provision of services is the only means by which
businesses may respond to the transformation of the market. This would
be a second misconception, since it would exclude other aspects of SMOs’
repertoires that are not orientated to the provision of services. Additionally,
it would imply that this orientation was solely imposed indirectly by welfare

1 It is worth noting here, that according to some scholars the movements’ institutionalization
does not necessarily diminish their antagonistic character (Dee, 2018). Although this might be
true, it is rarely the case. Additionally, in those contexts, institutionalization refers to the partial
adoption of formal characteristics and does not correspond to the movements’ engagement with
mainstream politics and political parties, as is the case with Bosi’s (2016) definition.

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retrenchment, thus leaving out firstly the agency of SMOs to decide upon
their own practices; secondly, the critical stance of some SMOs towards
service-provision; and thirdly, the approach of pre-figurative politics that
led some of these organizations to turn to actions that would reflect the
envisioned society. Lastly, serviticization underlines a strategic behaviour
of a specific set of actors, namely businesses, while boundary enlargement
indicates that the SMOs’ boundary expansion takes place in a field of con-
ceptual and cognitive understanding that may touch upon the boundaries
of other actors, such as movements’ relationships with the state.
Before we proceed further, it is important to provide some clarifications
regarding the definition of boundary enlargement. While reviewing the
relevant literature on boundaries, we came across topics related to identities.
Many authors (Diani, 2015; Staggenborg, 2013; Tilly and Tarrow, 2015) have
stressed that boundary definition is quite essential for the definition of
identities. Although this is true, boundaries are also important for resources
and organizational aspects as discussed throughout this study. Neverthe-
less, the transformative procedure, where stable, solid and well-defined
boundaries tend to change shape, features heavily in late and post-modern
accounts.
Marshall Berman (1983) in the 1980s provided an account on how mo-
dernity could be pictured as the way forward for further developing an
inclusive understanding of the modern world. Some 30 years later, Zygmunt
Bauman (2007) described how structured modernity becomes fluid within
neoliberalism. Although the former account embraced the goods of an era
that “development” meant to be something good, the latter one describes
emphatically how the current social structures and norms becοme liquid and
should not be expected to return in their previous stable condition. On the
same vein, Melucci (2002) underlines that former integrated subjectivities
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transform and mark a fluid sense of identity. Late and post-modern accounts
argue about the complexity of the contemporary world and the dissolution of
values, structures, norms and institutions that used to be taken for granted.
Like every social process, the aforementioned changes are rather lengthy
and are being developed through incremental steps over the time. Although
our empirical analysis shows that the enlargement of boundaries started to
take place prior to 2010, the recent economic crisis and the harsh austerity
policies have affected great parts of the economic, political and social
environment in Greece and accelerated this transformation.
Moving onwards, we argue that the tendency observed in the Greek
social movement community towards the provision of informal welfare
services does not reflect only the enlargement of boundaries in conceptual

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terms, as boundaries are usually analysed in relation to social identities; it


is also associated with the practical aspects of social movement repertoires,
organizational structure and resources. This enlargement tends to open
the relatively close structures and defined operations of SMOs, while also
revealing new insight to the movements’ understanding of social change
and their association with institutional actors. One may ask at this point
whether there is a sequence of changes, or if these changes occur simultane-
ously. Although we cannot assume a qualitative primacy of one factor over
another, we can, nevertheless, claim that there is a chronological sequence.
As we suggest in our empirical analysis, changes in repertoires triggered
respective developments in SMOs’ focus, with the latter’s organizational
structures and resources somehow adapting to the environment, in order to
better serve the operation of the “new” alternative repertoires. Researchers
suggest that shifts in a movement’s tactical boundaries can signal respective
changes in its cultural identities (Wang et al., 2018, p. 182). In this respect, the
enlargement of boundaries with regards to identities is a much slower process
and the outcomes of this change are not easy to grasp comprehensively. This
shift towards the alternative repertoires of action was welcomed by many
activists and criticized by others. This “conflict” highlights the pre-figurative
dimension of the new, “in-the-making” identity but also emphasizes that its
antagonistic and contentious character is not based solely on a claim-based
orientation.
However, the application of this process is also limited, as it primarily
reflects changes in social movement repertoires of action, and second, it
is contextualized in the environment of rampant austerity. This does not
mean that similar changes in other settings cannot be studied through the
lens of boundary enlargement. Rather, we raise attention that this process,
which so far mirrors the ultimate stage of consecutive shocks and changes
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in the Greek reality, in other contexts might represent an intermediary


stage. Similar to the punctuated equilibrium theory in public policymaking,
which explains that sharp changes complement the gradual institutional
adjustments (True et al., 2007), Fligstein and McAdam (2012) argue that
balance is always achieved after periods of change. From a post-modern
approach, we neglect that the future post-crisis setting will find the social
movement community identical to the pre-crisis one, but we cannot be sure
whether a new process will be a successor to the boundary enlargement. In
addition to this, the fluid nature of boundaries favours their transformations,
which are now directed towards enlargement, but in other cases and under
different circumstances, it might lead to boundary compression, reduction
or contraction.

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Τhe incorporation of service-oriented repertoires by the social movement


community in Greece has not always been appreciated. Critics point to the
vulnerable nature of these repertoires that can easily lead to movements’
cooptation, while others emphasize the shift of activists’ attention away from
their subversive mission. Although these views are thoroughly analyzed and
debated in the following empirical chapters, they raise awareness regarding
the term “enable”, used to define the boundary enlargement process. Studies
on collective action usually focus on mobilization, and thus concentrate
their attention on protest events. As such, they quite often obtain a critical
stance towards other forms of action, since these reduce resources from the
movements’ central goal. Though by no means do we underestimate the value of
protest and public claim-making with regards to broader social transformation,
at the same time, we do not reduce the movements’ role to the street level. In
particular, we perceive movements and their organizations as bearers of social
change, which enhance politicization, create and transmit progressive symbols,
values and beliefs also in the context of everyday life during periods of silence.
This issue reveals a broader problem on social movement studies, since
definitions of social movements have been predominantly based on the
explanatory context of each research. Diani (2015) understands movements
as a form of coordination with intense resource and boundary exchanges;
Della Porta and Diani (2006) underline the network structure of movements;
Tarrow (1998) and Tilly (2004) focus on the movements’ ability to sustain
campaigns against specific claimants; while McCarthy and Zald (1977,
pp. 1217-1218) accentuate the participants’ shared beliefs and opinions.
This research acknowledges that the aforementioned definitions are not
opposed to, but rather complement one another. Thus, in order to define the
characteristics that constitute a social movement, we follow an inclusionary
approach as expressed by Snow. More precisely, social movements are
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change-oriented in the sense that they seek or oppose change; […] chal-
lengers to or defenders of existing institutional structures or systems of
authority; […] collective rather than individual enterprises; […] act outside
of existing institutional or organizational arrangements; […] operate with
some degree of organization; […] and typically display some degree of
temporal continuity (Snow, 2013, p. 1201).

1.1.1 Enlarging the boundaries at the meso-level

The process of boundary enlargement in this inquiry treats the shift of SMOs
towards service-oriented repertoires of action as its central aspect. However,

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the provision of social services as part of social movements’ repertoires


is in no way new. Similar efforts, such as the organization of mutual-aid
funds, can be traced throughout the history of the labour movement. In his
systematic categorization of organizations that constitute a social movement,
Kriesi highlighted that together with SMOs, supportive organizations,
parties and interest groups, the movement’s formal associations are the
fourth type of organization that complements the picture. Kriesi defined
those as ‘self-help organizations, voluntary associations, or clubs created by
movements themselves in order to cater to some daily needs of its members’,
which ‘contribute to the mobilization of a movement’s constituency, but they
do so in an exclusively constituency – or client-oriented way’ (Kriesi, 1996,
pp. 152-153). These organizations may create commitment or consensus to
mobilization, but contrary to the SMOs, ‘they do not directly contribute to the
“action mobilization” or the “activation of commitment” for a “political goal”’
(Ibid). As the author elaborates, ‘if the constituents and the beneficiaries of
the organizations are identical, we may speak of self-help groups or clubs; if
this is not the case, we deal with voluntary associations engaged in altruism’
(Ibid: 365-footnote in the original).
The incorporation of interest groups in the organizations that constitute a
social movement is rather debatable since it stretches the definition of social
movements. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), political parties, inter-
est groups and other official forms of political action might be sympathetic
to a movement, while SMOs might also use official or institutional means to
defend their agenda (Diani, 1992, pp. 13-15). Nonetheless, the incorporation
of the former organizations in the definition of the latter runs the risk of
creating a vague, catch-all term which provides little analytical explanation.
What interests us in Kriesi’s account, nevertheless, is that the author’s
categorization establishes distinctive lines between SMOs, whose main
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goal is to mobilize people and movement associations which do not share


the same intention
Rucht’s categorization of the organizations affiliated to social move-
ments is connected to Kriesi’s analysis. Rucht distinguishes six types of
collectivities: basic action groups with local focus consisting of around 20
members, such as citizen initiatives; movement organizations and umbrella
organizations, whose members and area of interest may vary from dozens to
thousands and local to national respectively, but they are subject to formal
rules, memberships, leadership; campaign networks and enduring networks,
with the former pointing to ad hoc collaborations around a single issue with
limited time and the latter referring to permanent collaborations which
raise various issues and connect usually on an ideological basis; material

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and immaterial service structures, such as educational centres, bookstores,


training clubs, fora or indymedia; social retails, such as self-organized cafes;
and supportive social milieus, like specific jargons, lifestyles and consumer
choices (Rucht, 2013, pp. 171-173). According to Rucht, ‘the first four are
ultimately geared toward action mobilization, whereas the last two provide
a ground for consensus mobilization’ (2013, p. 173).
These accounts touch upon two very important issues. The first one
concerns the definition of SMOs and the second deals with the issue of
actual mobilization. Starting from the former, both Kriesi and Rucht seem to
conceive SMOs as the respective equivalent of what organizational studies
consider formal organizations in social movements, which imply rigid
boundaries that can distinguish one organization from another. Formal
organizations have specific decision-making models, membership, they
follow a hierarchical structure, impose specific rules, and have the right to
monitor as well as to implement positive or negative sanctions (Ahrne and
Brunsson, 2011). On the same basis, Diani (2015, p. xvii) argues that ‘many
organizations are embedded in structural patterns that somehow reflect
social movement mechanisms without matching at all the stereotypical
traits of “social movement organizations”’. Nevertheless, by introducing the
concept of ‘hybrid organization’, an organizational type which consists of
only specific features out of the ones that characterize the formal organiza-
tions, organization studies note the dynamic character that organizations
have (Ahrne and Brunsson, 2011). Taking into account the informal character
that social movements have, Kriesi and Rucht’s approaches tend towards
structuralism and rarely correspond to the horizontal and self-organized
collectivities found in the field. The process of boundary enlargement,
however, serves to demonstrate how these fixed boundaries dissolve into, on
the one hand, traditional SMOs providing social services, and, on the other
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hand, Kriesi’s movement associations or Rucht’s social retails contributing


to action mobilization.
The second issue deals with the literature of mobilization and participa-
tion in collective action. Grievances, discontent, material benefits, solidarity,
purposive and selective incentives as well as structural factors, like history
of prior activism or biographical availability, constitute few of the fruits of
social movement research, which managed to reveal the reasons behind
someone’s decision to engage with collective action (Staggenborg, 2011,
pp. 32-33). Walgrave (2013) notes that literature on mobilization can be
roughly divided in two streams: the structural and the cultural. The former
focuses its attention on SMOs’ efforts to reach out to their sympathizers
and broader audiences by arguing that the individuals’ structural position

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is a strong proxy for participating in a movement; while the latter supports


that the individuals’ participation is dependent on their agreement with the
movements’ goals (Walgrave, 2013, p. 206). According to Walgrave, debates
exist also within the culturalist stream, where some scholars argue that
individuals participate in SMOs once the latter manage to reach consensus
mobilization (Klandermans and Oegema, 1987, pp. 519-520) or align their
frames with the needs of potential participants (Snow et al., 1986); while
others claim the individuals’ agency ‘as active attributors of meaning
constructing their own ideas and searching for opportunities to put these
ideas into practice’ (Walgrave, 2013, p. 206).
Drawing mostly from frame theories (Snow et al., 1986), Jasper and Poulsen
(1995) also pay attention to specific instances and features that lead towards
mobilization and the recruitment of activists. With regards to the animal
rights and anti-nuclear movements, they argue that the recruitment of
movements’ sympathizers takes place ‘through proximity, affective bonds’
(Jasper and Poulsen, 1995, p. 508), but when it comes to the recruitment
of strangers, cultural meanings and moral shocks seem more important.
Moral shocks can be the outcome of SMOs’ strategies. However, these can
also be triggered during suddenly imposed grievances or in the individuals’
everyday experiences and develop ‘a sense of outrage in people that they
become inclined toward political action’ (Ibid, p. 498). Although it is still
debatable whether networks are the pre-condition for or the outcome of the
development of social movements and activists’ recruitment (Diani, 2015),
Jasper and Poulsen claim that ‘cultural meanings and moral shocks may
be especially important as a substitute when social networks are missing’
(Jasper and Poulsen, 1995, p. 509).
Perceived as a suddenly (but continuously) imposed grievance, the eco-
nomic crisis has managed to mobilize a number of people without previous
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experience in collective action. However, this was not limited at the street
level; it also continued with the recruitment of many non-activists in the
employment of the relatively silent alternative repertoires. Our research
shows that the experience of a moral shock was quite decisive for many
individuals to join social clinics or food-related initiatives, and it also
encouraged others to establish cooperatives.
Although we proceed to provide additional information in the following
parts of the book, it is important to make some clarifications regarding these
two aspects and the three respective social movement scenes. The food
social movement scene consists of grassroots organizations, whose origins
depart from social movements, and employ an anti-austerity stance. Thus,
according to Kriesi’s categorization they could be framed as movement

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associations (Kriesi, 1996, p. 153). Following a similar path, social clinics do


not constitute political organizations in the strict sense of having one goal
and mobilizing people towards it. Rather, they employ their services and
offer indirect support to the struggle against austerity in the healthcare
sector. Therefore, the clinics could also be framed as movement associations
(Ibid). Finally, the vast majority of cooperatives are closely linked to the
anti-austerity mobilizations and enhance commitment to self-management,
but they do not directly contribute to the mobilization of their constituents.
Thus, the actors operating in the social movement scene of labour fit the
definition of supportive organizations (Ibid, p. 152).
Although at first glance this categorization appears to correspond with
Social Movement Industries (SMIs) (McCarthy and Zald, 1977), it does so only
partially.2 On a number of occasions, the coercion against markets without
middlemen by state authorities during the first years of their operation
resulted in the mobilization of participants. Additionally, the plethora of
organizations and traditional SMOs, which employ collective and social
kitchens and initiatives for the collection and distribution of food parcels
as additional aspects of their repertoires, are factors which prevent us from
labelling these organizations as movement associations. Similarly, in the
social movement scene of health, SMIs seem to occasionally participate in
mobilization. Many clinics have launched initiatives which aim to inform
their beneficiaries about their role, goals and operation, and distinguish
themselves from institutional healthcare providers. As a matter of fact, the
clinics have both participated in and organized protests against austerity
and other political issues, successfully mobilizing their beneficiaries on a
number of occasions. The establishment of clinics as an additional form
in the repertoire of traditional SMOs, like the workers’ club of Nea Smirni,
are factors that contribute to this argument. Lastly, the examples of the
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occupied factory of Vio.Me which directly mobilizes its constituents, the


K-1363 initiative against Thessaloniki’s water privatization which led to the
activists’ collaboration with municipal authorities, as well as the incorpora-
tion of cooperative structures in the repertoires of traditional SMOs, blurs
the picture in the social movement scene of labour.

2 Social movement industries (SMIs) refer to ‘all SMOs that have as their goal the attainment
of the broadest preferences of a social movement”, while by social movement sector (SMS) we
refer to “all SMIs in a society, no matter to which SM they are attached’ (McCarthy and Zald,
1977, p. 1219). Although we do not adopt the definition of SMOs as it was introduced by McCarthy
and Zald, we acknowledge the aforementioned typology in order to schematically represent the
organizations which employ the service-oriented repertoires of action.
3 K-136 stands for Movement 136.

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The aforementioned contradictions serve to demonstrate that the


boundaries among the SMOs, supportive organizations and movement
associations, as these had been def ined by social movement scholars
(Kriesi, 1996), do not apply anymore. Of course, we do not opt to disregard
them completely. Rather, we want to underline that the current economic
crisis has facilitated a process of boundary enlargement, through which
these fixed boundaries became interconnected. We should note here that
the degree and intensity of interconnectedness varies between different
actors and social movement scenes. For example, it might be the case
that the cooperative means employed by SMOs pre-f igure the ideal of
self-management, but a social cooperative still remains an enterprise.
Additionally, the markets without middlemen, which have been organized
by neighbourhood assemblies, might proclaim people’s empowerment
but often lack a specific ideological or political orientation. Therefore, we
do not argue for the complete dissolution of the respective boundaries of
each organization. Instead, we point out their enlargement. In other words,
the enlargement of boundaries reveals a process where tasks previously
attributed to specific organizations are being challenged, re-defined, mixed
and applied by both new and traditional SMOs. Now that we have delimited
the theoretical approach of this research, we turn our attention to the
construction process of boundary enlargement.

1.2 Dismantling the process of boundary enlargement

So far, we argued that the process of enlargement crosses the boundaries


of SMOs, supportive organizations and movement association. The ques-
tion that directly arises is how the process of boundary enlargement takes
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

place. Tilly and Tarrow claim that ‘distinct processes involve different
sequences and combinations of mechanisms that interactively produce
some outcome’ (2015, p. 29). On the contrary, Alimi et al. (2015) take a slightly
divergent approach by perceiving processes as defined by the attainment of
a specific outcome. In other words, although both accounts come from the
Contentious Politics approach and engage in dialogue together, they have
different starting points. More precisely, Tilly and Tarrow argue that the
identification of specific mechanisms leads to specific processes, while Alimi
et al. support that it is the process that directs the researcher in identifying
specific mechanisms. If X stands for a mechanism and Y for the process,
the former account supports that the combination of specific Xs lead to Y,
while the latter argues that it is the Y that defines which Xs took place. In

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Theorizing the Process of Boundary Enl argement 43

addition to this differentiation, Alimi et al. argue that a process should not
be treated as an exhaustive account of mechanisms which provide causal
inferences, since other mechanisms might also take place. This updated
account also introduces the idea of sub-mechanisms as constitutive elements
of mechanisms, which are defined as such according to the specific context
(Ibid, p. 30).
This research adopts the epistemological account proposed by Alimi
et al. (2015). More precisely, it does so by conceiving the enlargement of
SMOs’ boundaries as a process that took place during the period of crisis,
and, therefore, it goes backwards in order to identify the mechanisms and
sub-mechanisms that enable it to take place. In order to do this, this research
focuses on the social movement scenes of food, health and labour.

1.2.1 Social Movement Scenes

As mentioned earlier, we intend to better explain the development of bound-


ary enlargement process, through the activities of SMOs with regards to the
scenes of food, health and labour. In the introductory part we provided the
criteria used for the selection of the specific cases under study, while the
next chapter on the background context presents the empirical evidence
grounding this decision. Nevertheless, the decision to look at social move-
ment scenes also includes some theoretical associations that need further
clarification.
Our decision to refer to the scenes of social movement activity, such as
food, health, and labour was based on the interaction of our empirical mate-
rial with related studies on social movements. Recent academic scholarship
in the area of social movements introduced important concepts that might
help the conceptual construction of this research. Jasper and Duyvendak’s
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

Players and Arenas (2015) invites us to study the interactions among different
actors preoccupied with a specific thematic. Thus, in our case, food, health
and labour may constitute different arenas, with Jasper and Duyvendak’s
dynamic framework giving us the potential to study how the different actors
in each arena interplay with each other. In this respect, the arena of food
may consist of the institutional actors, such as the municipal authorities
organizing soup kitchens and food donations, the national government
imposing amendments on laws related to the application of open markets,
a number of institutional social services as well as a few left-wing parties
involved in the provision of food-related services; the business sector with
the local groceries shops donating groceries to individuals in need, large
food retailers co-organizing with institutional actors food donations, and

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
44  Social Movements and Solidarit y Struc tures in Crisis-Ridden Greece

brokers’ associations raising pressure to the government in order to secure


the former’s role in the food retail industry; a set of NGOs involved in the
provision of soup kitchens; and finally, the grassroots actors organizing
bottom-up markets without middlemen, collective and social kitchens, and
distribution of food parcels. A similar variety of actors can be observed in
the health and labour arenas.
Although inspiring, the aforementioned analytical framework moves
beyond the scope of this research. Our study takes into consideration the
different actors that operate in the three respective arenas and explores their
relationship with the grassroots collectives, but the focus of this research is
the exploration of the enlargement of the movements’ boundaries and not
the development of the arenas per se. As we stated earlier, the sectors of
food, health and labour play a rather instrumental role in this study; they
are cases which serve to demonstrate how social movements in Greece, and
SMOs in particular, experienced a transformative process which enabled
them to engage with activities that were not in their direct area of concern.
Therefore, we are less interested in analyzing the different actors that were
at play, and much more in focusing in depth on social movements.
Another work that could be used as a point of reference for this study is
Fligstein and McAdam’s Theory of Fields (2012). The structure of our research
has many points in common with what Fligstein and McAdam described
as strategic action fields, and the reader will probably understand that our
reference to the social movement scenes of food, health and labour might
provide similar application with what field theory suggests. In Fligstein and
McAdam’s field theory, social movements would mirror one actor trying to
challenge the social order of the field, as this is imposed by the incumbent
actors, like the state and market promoting social welfare; and the internal
governance units, like the organizations of the third sector trying to secure
Copyright © 2020. Amsterdam University Press. All rights reserved.

the status quo. In these terms, the process of boundary enlargement would
be framed as an “invasion” (Fligstein and McAdam, 2012, pp. 99-100) due to
the changes in the respective fields caused by austerity, showing an action
of appropriating already populated social spaces.
Although tempting, we do not fully incorporate this approach for three
important reasons. First, the focus of our research is not on the specific
fields of food, health, and labour; rather, these are chosen in order to better
explain the overall “invasion” of social movement actors in a wide variety
of fields. Our reference to the social movement scenes aims to demonstrate
the plurality of grassroots actors and approaches engaged in this “invasion”,
as well as their contradictions, that cannot be synthesized in one, single
and solid actor. Second, our research is interested in exploring the changes

Social Movements and Solidarity Structures in Crisis-Ridden Greece, Amsterdam University Press, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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BOOK XVII.

PHYSIOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.


Vegetable Morphology.

Morphology in Linnæus.

I HAVE stated that Linnæus had some views on this subject. Dr.
Hooker conceives these views to be more complete and correct
than is generally allowed, though unhappily clothed in metaphorical
language and mixed with speculative matter. By his permission I
insert some remarks which I have received from him.

The fundamental passage on this subject is in the Systema


Naturæ; in the Introduction to which work the following passage
occurs:—

“Prolepsis (Anticipation) exhibits the mystery of the


metamorphosis of plants, by which the herb, which is the larva or
imperfect condition, is changed into the declared fructification: for the
plant is capable of producing either a leafy herb or a fructification. . .
...

“When a tree produces a flower, nature anticipates the produce of


five years where these come out all at once; forming of the bud-
leaves of the next year bracts; of those of the following year, the
calyx; of the following, the corolla; of the next, the stamina; of the
subsequent, the pistils, filled with the granulated marrow of the seed,
the terminus of the life of a vegetable.”

Dr. Hooker says, “I derive my idea of his having a better


knowledge of the subject than most Botanists admit, not only from
the Prolepsis, but from his paper called Reformatio Botanices
(Amœn. Acad. vol. vi.); a remarkable work, in respect of his candor
in speaking of his predecessors’ labors, and the sagacity he shows
in indicating researches to be undertaken or completed. Amongst the
latter is V. ‘Prolepsis plantarum, ulterius extendenda per earum
metamorphoses.’ The last word occurs rarely in his Prolepsis; but
when it does it seems to me that he uses it as indicating a normal
change and not an accidental one. 637

“In the Prolepsis the speculative matter, which Linnæus himself


carefully distinguishes as such, must be separated from the rest, and
this may I think be done in most of the sections. He starts with
explaining clearly and well the origin and position of buds, and their
constant presence, whether developed or not, in the axil of the leaf:
adding abundance of acute observations and experiments to prove
his statements. The leaf he declares to be the first effort of the plant
in spring: he proceeds to show, successively, that bracts, calyx,
corolla, stamens, and pistil are each of them metamorphosed leaves,
in every case giving many examples, both from monsters and from
characters presented by those organs in their normal condition.

“The (to me) obscure and critical part of the Prolepsis was that
relating to the change of the style of Carduus into two leaves. Mr.
Brown has explained this. He says it was a puzzle to him, till he went
to Upsala and consulted Fries and Wahlenberg, who informed him
that such monstrous Cardui grew in the neighborhood, and procured
him some. Considering how minute and masked the organs of
Compositæ are, it shows no little skill in Linnæus, and a very clear
view of the whole matter, to have traced the metamorphosis of all
their floral organs into leaves, except their stamens, of which he
says, ‘Sexti anni folia e staminibus me non in compositis vidisse
fateor, sed illorum loco folia pistillacea, quæ in compositis aut plenis
sunt frequentissima.’ I must say that nothing could well be clearer to
my mind than the full and accurate appreciation which Linnæus
shows of the whole series of phenomena, and their rationale. He
over and over again asserts that these organs are leaves, every one
of them,—I do not understand him to say that the prolepsis is an
accidental change of leaves into bracts, of bracts into calyx, and so
forth. Even were the language more obscure, much might be inferred
from the wide range and accuracy of the observations he details so
scientifically. It is inconceivable that a man should have traced the
sequence of the phenomena under so many varied aspects, and
shown such skill, knowledge, ingenuity, and accuracy in his methods
of observing and describing, and yet missed the rationale of the
whole. Eliminate the speculative parts and there is not a single error
of observation or judgment; whilst his history of the developement of
buds, leaves, and floral organs, and of various other obscure matters
of equal interest and importance, are of a very high order of merit,
are, in fact, for the time profound.

“There is nothing in all this that detracts from the merit of Goethe’s
638 re-discovery. With Goethe it was, I think, a deductive process,—
with Linnæus an inductive. Analyse Linnæus’s observations and
method, and I think it will prove a good example of inductive
reasoning.

“P. 473. Perhaps Professor Auguste St Hilaire of Montpellier


should share with De Candolle the honor of contributing largely to
establish the metamorphic doctrine;—their labors were
cotemporaneous.

“P. 474. Linnæus pointed out that the pappus was calyx: ‘Et
pappum gigni ex quarti anni foliis, in jam nominatis Carduis.’—Prol.
Plant. 338.” (J. D. H.)
CHAPTER VII.

Animal Morphology.

T HE subject of Animal Morphology has recently been expanded


into a form strikingly comprehensive and systematic by Mr.
Owen; and supplied by him with a copious and carefully-chosen
language; which in his hands facilitates vastly the comparison and
appreciation of the previous labors of physiologists, and opens the
way to new truths and philosophical generalizations. Though the
steps which have been made had been prepared by previous
anatomists, I will borrow my view of them mainly from him; with the
less scruple, inasmuch as he has brought into full view the labors of
his predecessors.

I have stated in the History that the skeletons of all vertebrate


animals are conceived to be reducible to a single Type, and the skull
reducible to a series of vertebræ. But inasmuch as this reduction
includes not only a detailed correspondence of the bones of man
with those of beasts, but also with those of birds, fishes, and reptiles,
it may easily be conceived that the similarities and connexions are of
a various and often remote kind. The views of such relations, held by
previous Comparative Anatomists, have led to the designations of
the bones of animals which have been employed in anatomical
descriptions; and these designations having been framed and
adopted by anatomists looking at the subject from different sides,
and having different views of analogies and relations, have been
very various and unstable; besides being often of cumbrous length
and inconvenient form.
The corresponding parts in different animals are called
homologues, 639 a term first applied to anatomy by the philosophers
of Germany; and this term Mr. Owen adopts, to the exclusion of
terms more loosely denoting identity or similarity. And the Homology
of the various bones of vertebrates having been in a great degree
determined by the labors of previous anatomists, Mr. Owen has
proposed names for each of the bones: the condition of such names
being, that the homologues in all vertebrates shall be called by the
same name, and that these names shall be founded upon the terms
and phrases in which the great anatomists of the 16th, 17th, and
18th centuries expressed the results of their researches respecting
the human skeleton. These names, thus selected, so far as
concerned the bones of the Head of Fishes, one of the most difficult
cases of this Special Homology, he published in a Table, 44 in which
they were compared, in parallel columns, with the names or phrases
used for the like purpose by Cuvier, Agassiz, Geoffroy, Hallman,
Sœmmering, Meckel, and Wagner. As an example of the
considerations by which this selection of names was determined, I
may quote what he says with regard to one of these bones of the
skull.
44 Lectures on Vertebrates. 1846, p. 158. And On the Archetype
and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton. 1848, p. 172.

“With regard to the ‘squamosal’ (squamosum. Lat. pars squamosa


ossis temporis.—Sœmmering), it might be asked why the term
‘temporal’ might not be retained for this bone. I reply, because that
term has long been, and is now universally, understood in human
anatomy to signify a peculiarly anthropotomical coalesced congeries
of bones, which includes the ‘squamosal’ together with the ‘petrosal,’
the ‘tympanic,’ the ‘mastoid,’ and the ‘stylohyal.’ It seems preferable,
therefore, to restrict the signification of the term ‘temporal’ to the
whole (in Man) of which the ‘squamosal’ is a part. To this part Cuvier
has unfortunately applied the term ‘temporal’ in one class, and ‘jugal’
in another; and he has also transferred the term ‘temporal’ to a third
equally distinct bone in fishes; while to increase the confusion M.
Agassiz has shifted the name to a fourth different bone in the skull of
fishes. Whatever, therefore, may be the value assigned to the
arguments which will be presently set forth, as to the special
homologies of the ‘pars squamosa ossis temporis,’ I have felt
compelled to express the conclusion by a definite term, and in the
present instance, have selected that which recalls the best accepted
anthropomorphical designation of the part; although ‘squamosal’
must be understood and applied in an arbitrary sense; and not as
descriptive of a scale-like 640 form; which in reference to the bone so
called, is rather its exceptional than normal figure in the vertebrate
series.”

The principles which Mr. Owen here adopts in the selection of


names for the parts of the skeleton are wise and temperate. They
agree with the aphorisms concerning the language of science which
I published in the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences; and Mr.
Owen does me the great honor of quoting with approval some of
those Aphorisms. I may perhaps take the liberty of remarking that
the system of terms which he has constructed, may, according to our
principles, be called rather a Terminology than a Nomenclature: that
is, they are analogous more nearly to the terms by which botanists
describe the parts and organs of plants, than to the names by which
they denote genera and species. As we have seen in the History,
plants as well as animals are subject to morphological laws; and the
names which are given to organs in consequence of those laws are
a part of the Terminology of the science. Nor is this distinction
between Terminology and Nomenclature without its use; for the rules
of prudence and propriety in the selection of words in the two cases
are different. The Nomenclature of genera and species may be
arbitrary and casual, as is the case to a great extent in Botany and in
Zoology, especially of fossil remains; names being given, for
instance, simply as marks of honor to individuals. But in a
Terminology, such a mode of derivation is not admissible: some
significant analogy or idea must be adopted, at least as the origin of
the name, though not necessarily true in all its applications, as we
have seen in the case of the “squamosal” just quoted. This
difference in the rules respecting two classes of scientific words is
stated in the Aphorisms xiii. and xiv. concerning the Language of
Science.

Such a Terminology of the bones of the skeletons of all vertebrates


as Mr. Owen has thus propounded, cannot be otherwise than an
immense acquisition to science, and a means of ascending from
what we know already to wider truths and new morphological
doctrines.

With regard to one of these doctrines, the resolution of the human


head into vertebræ, Mr. Owen now regards it as a great truth, and
replies to the objections of Cuvier and M. Agassiz, in detail. 45 He
gives a Table in which the Bones of the Head are resolved into four
vertebræ, which he terms the Occipital, Parietal, Frontal, and Nasal
Vertebra, respectively. These four vertebræ agree in general with
what Oken called the Ear-vertebra, the Jaw-vertebra, the Eye-
vertebra, and 641 the Nose-vertebra, in his work On the Signification
of the Bones of the Skull, published in 1807: and in various degrees,
with similar views promulgated by Spix (1815), Bojanus (1818),
Geoffroy (1824), Carus (1828). And I believe that these views, bold
and fanciful as they at first appeared, have now been accepted by
most of the principal physiologists of our time.
45 Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton. 1848,
p. 141.

But another aspect of this generalization has been propounded


among physiologists; and has, like the others, been extended,
systematized, and provided with a convenient language by Mr.
Owen. Since animal skeletons are thus made up of vertebræ and
their parts are to be understood as developements of the parts of
vertebræ, Geoffroy (1822), Carus (1828), Müller (1834), Cuvier
(1836), had employed certain terms while speaking of such
developements; Mr. Owen in the Geological Transactions in 1838,
while discussing the osteology of certain fossil Saurians, used terms
of this kind, which are more systematic than those of his
predecessors, and to which he has given currency by the quantity of
valuable knowledge and thought which he has embodied in them.

According to his Terminology, 46 a vertebra, in its typical


completeness, consists of a central part or centrum; at the back of
this, two plates (the neural apophyses) and a third outward
projecting piece (the neural spine), which three, with the centrum,
form a canal for the spinal marrow; at the front of the centrum two
other plates (the hæmal apophyses) and a projecting piece, forming
a canal for a vascular trunk. Further lateral elements (pleuro-
apophyses) and other projections, are in a certain sense dependent
on these principal bones; besides which the vertebra may support
diverging appendages. These parts of the vertebra are fixed
together, so that a vertebra is by some anatomists described as a
single bone; but the parts now mentioned are usually developed
from distinct and independent centres, and are therefore called by
Mr. Owen “autogenous” elements.
46 Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton. 1848,
p. 81.

The General Homology of the vertebral skeleton is the reference


of all the parts of a skeleton to their true types in a series of
vertebræ: and thus, as special homology refers all the parts of
skeletons to a given type of skeleton, say that of Man, general
homology refers all the parts of every skeleton, say that of Man, to
the parts of a series of Vertebræ. And thus as Oken propounded his
views of the Head as a resolution of the Problem of the Signification
of the Bones of the Head, 642 so have we in like manner, for the
purposes of General Homology, to solve the Problem of the
Signification of Limbs. The whole of the animal being a string of
vertebræ, what are arms and legs, hands and paws, claws and
fingers, wings and fins, and the like? This inquiry Mr. Owen has
pursued as a necessary part of his inquiries. In giving a public
lecture upon the subject in 1849, 47 he conceived that the phrase
which I have just employed would not be clearly apprehended by an
English Audience, and entitled his Discourse “On the Nature of
Limbs:” and in this discourse he explained the modifications by
which the various kinds of limbs are derived from their rudiments in
an archetypal skeleton, that is, a mere series of vertebræ without
head, arms, legs, wings, or fins.
47On the Nature of Limbs, a discourse delivered at a Meeting of
the Royal Institution, 1849.

Final Causes
It has been mentioned in the History that in the discussions which
took place concerning the Unity of Plan of animal structure, this
principle was in some measure put in opposition to the principle of
Final Causes: Morphology was opposed to Teleology. It is natural to
ask whether the recent study of Morphology has affected this
antithesis.

If there be advocates of Final Causes in Physiology who would


push their doctrines so far as to assert that every feature and every
relation in the structure of animals have a purpose discoverable by
man, such reasoners are liable to be perpetually thwarted and
embarrassed by the progress of anatomical knowledge; for this
progress often shows that an arrangement which had been
explained and admired with reference to some purpose, exists also
in cases where the purpose disappears; and again, that what had
been noted as a special teleological arrangement is the result of a
general morphological law. Thus to take an example given by Mr.
Owen: that the ossification of the head originates in several centres,
and thus in its early stages admits of compression, has been pointed
out as a provision to facilitate the birth of viviparous animals; but our
view of this provision is disturbed, when we find that the same mode
of the formation of the bony framework takes place in animals which
are born from an egg. And the number of points from which
ossification begins, depends in a wider sense on the general
homology of the animal frame, according to which each part is
composed of a certain number of autogenous vertebral elements. In
this 643 way, the admission of a new view as to Unity of Plan will
almost necessarily displace or modify some of the old views
respecting Final Causes.
But though the view of Final Causes is displaced, it is not
obliterated; and especially if the advocate of Purpose is also ready to
admit visible correspondences which have not a discoverable object,
as well as contrivances which have. And in truth, how is it possible
for the student of anatomy to shut his eyes to either of these two
evident aspects of nature? The arm and hand of man are made for
taking and holding, the wing of the sparrow is made for flying; and
each is adapted to its end with subtle and manifest contrivance.
There is plainly Design. But the arm of man and the wing of the
sparrow correspond to each other in the most exact manner, bone
for bone. Where is the Use or the Purpose of this correspondence? If
it be said that there may be a purpose though we do not see it, that
is granted. But Final Causes for us are contrivances of which we see
the end; and nothing is added to the evidence of Design by the
perception of a unity of plan which in no way tends to promote the
design.

It may be said that the design appears in the modification of the


plan in special ways for special purposes;—that the vertebral plan of
an animal being given, the fore limbs are modified in Man and in
Sparrow, as the nature and life of each require. And this is truly said;
and is indeed the truth which we are endeavoring to bring into view:
—that there are in such speculations, two elements; one given, the
other to be worked out from our examination of the case; the datum
and the problem; the homology and the teleology.

Mr. Owen, who has done so much for the former of these portions
of our knowledge, has also been constantly at the same time
contributing to the other. While he has been aiding our advances
towards the Unity of Nature, he has been ever alive to the perception
of an Intelligence which pervades Nature. While his morphological
doctrines have moved the point of view from which he sees Design,
they have never obscured his view of it, but, on the contrary, have
led him to present it to his readers in new and striking aspects. Thus
he has pointed out the final purposes in the different centres of
ossification of the long bones of the limbs of mammals, and shown
how and why they differ in this respect from reptiles (Archetype, p.
104). And in this way he has been able to point out the insufficiency
of the rule laid down both by Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Cuvier, for
ascertaining the true number of bones in each species. 644

Final Causes, or Evidences of Design, appear, as we have said,


not merely as contrivances for evident purposes, but as
modifications of a given general Plan for special given ends. If the
general Plan be discovered after the contrivance has been noticed,
the discovery may at first seem to obscure our perception of
Purpose; but it will soon be found that it merely transfers us to a
higher point of view. The adaptation of the Means to the End
remains, though the Means are parts of a more general scheme than
we were aware of. No generalization of the Means can or ought
permanently to shake our conviction of the End; because we must
needs suppose that the Intelligence which contemplates the End is
an intelligence which can see at a glance along a vista of Means,
however long and complex. And on the other hand, no special
contrivance, however clear be its arrangement, can be unconnected
with the general correspondences and harmonies by which all parts
of nature are pervaded and bound together. And thus no luminous
teleological point can be extinguished by homology; nor, on the other
hand, can it be detached from the general expanse of homological
light.
The reference to Final Causes is sometimes spoken of as
unphilosophical, in consequence of Francis Bacon’s comparison of
Final Causes in Physics to Vestal Virgins devoted to God, and
barren. I have repeatedly shown that, in Physiology, almost all the
great discoveries which have been made, have been made by the
assumption of a purpose in animal structures. With reference to
Bacon’s simile, I have elsewhere said that if he had had occasion to
develope its bearings, full of latent meaning as his similes so often
are, he would probably have said that to those Final Causes
barrenness was no reproach, seeing they ought to be not the
Mothers but the Daughters of our Natural Sciences; and that they
were barren, not by imperfection of their nature, but in order that they
might be kept pure and undefiled, and so fit ministers in the temple
of God. I might add that in Physiology, if they are not Mothers, they
are admirable Nurses; skilful and sagacious in perceiving the signs
of pregnancy, and helpful in bringing the Infant Truth into the light of
day.

There is another aspect of the doctrine of the Archetypal Unity of


Composition of Animals, by which it points to an Intelligence from
which the frame of nature proceeds; namely this:—that the
Archetype of the Animal Structure being of the nature of an Idea,
implies a mind in which this Idea existed; and that thus Homology
itself points the way to the Divine Mind. But while we acknowledge
the full 645 value of this view of theological bearing of physiology, we
may venture to say that it is a view quite different from that which is
described by speaking of “Final Causes,” and one much more
difficult to present in a lucid manner to ordinary minds.
BOOK XVIII.

GEOLOGY.
W ITH regard to Geology, as a Palætiological Science, I do not
know that any new light of an important kind has been thrown
upon the general doctrines of the science. Surveys and
examinations of special phenomena and special districts have been
carried on with activity and intelligence; and the animals of which the
remains people the strata, have been reconstructed by the skill and
knowledge of zoologists:—of such reconstructions we have, for
instance, a fine assemblage in the publications of the
Palæontological Society. But the great questions of the manner of
the creation and succession of animal and vegetable species upon
the earth remain, I think, at the point at which they were when I
published the last edition of the History.

I may notice the views propounded by some chemists of certain


bearings of Mineralogy upon Geology. As we have, in mineral
masses, organic remains of former organized beings, so have we
crystalline remains of former crystals; namely, what are commonly
called pseudomorphoses—the shape of one crystal in the substance
of another. M. G. Bischoff 48 considers the study of pseudomorphs as
important in geology, and as frequently the only means of tracing
processes which have taken place and are still going on in the
mineral kingdom.
48 Chemical and Physical Geology.

I may notice also Professor Breithaupt’s researches on the order


of succession of different minerals, by observing the mode in which
they occur and the order in which different crystals have been
deposited, promise to be of great use in following out the geological
changes which the crust of the globe has undergone. (Die
Paragenesis der Mineralien. Freiberg. 1849.)

In conjunction with these may be taken M. de Senarmont’s


experiments on the formation of minerals in veins; and besides
Bischoff’s 647 Chemical Geology, Sartorius von Walterhausen’s
Observations on the occurrence of minerals in Amygdaloid.

As a recent example of speculations concerning Botanical


Palætiology, I may give Dr. Hooker’s views of the probable history of
the Flora of the Pacific.

In speculating upon this question, Dr. Hooker is led to the


discussion of geological doctrines concerning the former continuity of
tracts of land which are now separate, the elevation of low lands into
mountain ranges in the course of ages, and the like. We have
already seen, in the speculations of the late lamented Edward
Forbes, (see Book xviii. chap. vi. of this History,) an example of a
hypothesis propounded to account for the existing Flora of England:
a hypothesis, namely, of a former Connexion of the West of the
British Isles with Portugal, of the Alps of Scotland with those of
Scandinavia, and of the plains of East Anglia with those of Holland.
In like manner Dr. Hooker says (p. xxi.) that he was led to speculate
on the possibility of the plants of the Southern Ocean being the
remains of a Flora that had once spread over a larger and more
continuous tract of land than now exists in the ocean; and that the
peculiar Antarctic genera and species may be the vestiges of a Flora
characterized by the predominance of plants which are now
scattered throughout the Southern islands. He conceives this
hypothesis to be greatly supported by the observations and
reasonings of Mr. Darwin, tending to show that such risings and

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