Urban Food Activism in Athens: Recovering More Autonomous Forms of Social Reproduction

Abstract

Within the new neoliberal wave in Europe while progressive food activists adopted a more cooperative relationship with their local states demanding ‘sustainable healthy inclusive and democratic food system’ (see Milan Urban Food Plan), in the city of Athens a trend of food activists engaged in non-state-centric politics challenging the resulting crisis of social reproduction and the rise of far-right activism. Thus, in this paper, we explore the activists’ efforts in the city of Athens towards autonomous and anti-fascist politics in organising social reproduction: the food geography (urban gardens, farmers markets, collective kitchens, etc.); the politics of caregiving and food provisioning; as well as the tensions emerged between activists’ ‘politics of autonomy’ and their more institutional ‘social and solidarity economies’.