Fossilized futures : topologies and topographies of crisis experience in Central Greece
Abstract
Drawing on ethnography from western Thessaly, this paper reassesses notions of time and temporality in light of the Greek economic crisis. People experience the past as a folded assemblage of often linearly distant and sometimes contradictory moments that currently help them make sense of a period of extensive social change. It is the responsibility of anthropologists to embrace the paradoxes of (poly)temporality and address the topological (and topographical) experience of time and history. In an era of severe uncertainty, in central Greece temporality is often discussed through material objects such as photovoltaic panels and fossils as people articulate their situation vis-à-vis the past, present, and future. Multiple moments of the past are weaved together to explain contemporary crisis experience, provoking fear of returning to times of hardship or hope that the turmoil can be overcome.
Citation
Knight , D M 2017 , ' Fossilized futures : topologies and topographies of crisis experience in Central Greece ' , Social Analysis , vol. 61 , no. 1 , pp. 26-40 . https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2017.610102
Publication
Social Analysis
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0155-977XType
Journal item
Rights
© 2016 Berghahn Books. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2017.610102
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.