Menu
Theodoros Karyotis

Theodoros Karyotis

I am a sociologist, researcher, translator and activist based in Thessaloniki, Greece. Coming from a lifelong commitment to grassroots movements and commons-based self-organisation, I see political empowerment as a precondition for social change. My grappling with the question of how the dominant institutions retain political legitimacy despite generalised precarisation and intensifying exploitation has led me to put subjectivation at the centre of my inquiry. 

Project

My research in the context of the Property and Democratic Citizenship project examines the historical evolution of the Greek property regime, that is, the legislation, market mechanisms and moral discourses that regulate the use and transfer of property. I examine the role of homeownership as a source of welfare and social cohesion, but also of identity and meaning. I detail the breakdown of the homeownership model in the context of recurrent crises, and I outline the ongoing housing emergency. Through discourse analysis and ethnographic research with landlords, tenants, dispossessed homeowners, squatters and migrants, I trail ongoing conflicts around property, I document attempts at rejection, renegotiation or defence of existing property relations, and I interrogate the persistence of property-centred subjectivations. Finally, I explore the possibility of new configurations of property and citizenship around the commons. 

Back
Previous person Next person
Scroll to top