IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v11y2022i11p1899-d953573.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socio-Spatial Inequalities, and Local Struggles for the Right to the City and to Nature—Cases of Urban Green Parks in Athens

Author

Listed:
  • Giannis Sotiriou

    (Urban Geography and Planning Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece)

  • Chryssanthi (Christy) Petropoulou

    (Urban Geography and Planning Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Greece)

Abstract

In this paper we hypothesize that the practices that prevailed during the pandemic period in relation to the right to parks were related to traditional urban discriminatory policies that need to be changed. We also argue that, in some cases, the residents themselves treated the parks as common living spaces by protecting them from neoliberal grabbing policies that deprive residents of greenery and infringe on the right to the city and to nature. With this in mind, we proceeded with research on the city of Athens. We investigated two urban green parks, the first was “Lofos Philopappou”, which is one of the most important parks in the city, as it is one of the largest green spaces in the city center and includes some of the most important ancient monuments. The second park was “Antonis Tritsis”, which is the largest park in Athens Metropolitan Area and one of the few high green spaces in the western suburbs. In the framework of this study, we investigated the attitudes and the actions of visitors and groups regarding these parks, the urban social movements, and local struggles and initiatives that are active in the public green parks, together with participation through the commons. We also investigated management policies and attempts to privatize them. The research methods that were used were participant observation in the studied parks, semi-structured interviews with people or groups that used the public urban green parks on a regular basis, noting the narratives they produced, and questionnaires given to visitors who actively used the urban parks. In conclusion, policies implemented within public parks were found to prevent the integration of public green spaces in the daily lives of residents and the active participation of residents in decisions concerning the green extensions of their neighborhoods. In this way, a part of society is deprived of the ability to maintain continuous contact with nature and green parks.

Suggested Citation

  • Giannis Sotiriou & Chryssanthi (Christy) Petropoulou, 2022. "Socio-Spatial Inequalities, and Local Struggles for the Right to the City and to Nature—Cases of Urban Green Parks in Athens," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:11:p:1899-:d:953573
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/11/1899/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/11/1899/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evangelia Athanassiou, 2017. "The hybrid landscape of public space in Thessaloniki in the context of crisis," Landscape Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(7), pages 782-794, October.
    2. Sarah Dooling, 2009. "Ecological Gentrification: A Research Agenda Exploring Justice in the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 621-639, September.
    3. Elia Apostolopoulou & Danai Liodaki, 2021. "The right to public space during the COVID-19 pandemic," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5-6), pages 764-784, November.
    4. Christy (Chryssanthi) Petropoulou, 2014. "Crisis, Right to the City movements and the question of spontaneity: Athens and Mexico City," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4-5), pages 563-572, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. A. Haven Kiers & Billy Krimmel & Caroline Larsen-Bircher & Kate Hayes & Ash Zemenick & Julia Michaels, 2022. "Different Jargon, Same Goals: Collaborations between Landscape Architects and Ecologists to Maximize Biodiversity in Urban Lawn Conversions," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Jessica Parish, 2023. "Fiduciary Activism From Below: Green Gentrification, Pension Finance, and the Possibility of Just Urban Futures," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 414-425.
    3. Zoé A Hamstead, 2024. "Thermal insecurity: Violence of heat and cold in the urban climate refuge," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(3), pages 531-548, February.
    4. Anthony McLean & Harriet Bulkeley & Mike Crang, 2016. "Negotiating the urban smart grid: Socio-technical experimentation in the city of Austin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(15), pages 3246-3263, November.
    5. Charalampos Tsavdaroglou & Chrisa Giannopoulou & Chryssanthi Petropoulou & Ilias Pistikos, 2019. "Acts for Refugees’ Right to the City and Commoning Practices of Care-tizenship in Athens, Mytilene and Thessaloniki," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 119-130.
    6. Chihsin Chiu, 2020. "Theorizing Public Participation and Local Governance in Urban Resilience: Reflections on the “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology” Thesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Sonja Wilhelm Stanis & Emily Piontek & Shuangyu Xu & Andrew Mallinak & Charles Nilon & Damon M. Hall, 2024. "Residents’ Perceptions of Urban Greenspace in a Shrinking City: Ecosystem Services and Environmental Justice," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, September.
    8. Charalampos Tsavdaroglou & Chrisa Giannopoulou & Chryssanthi Petropoulou & Ilias Pistikos, 2019. "Acts for Refugees’ Right to the City and Commoning Practices of Care-tizenship in Athens, Mytilene and Thessaloniki," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 119-130.
    9. Paul Joseph Draus & Juliette Roddy & Anthony McDuffie, 2014. "‘We don’t have no neighbourhood’: Advanced marginality and urban agriculture in Detroit," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(12), pages 2523-2538, September.
    10. Charlotte Glennie, 2020. "Growing Together: Community Coalescence and the Social Dimensions of Urban Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-25, November.
    11. Mabon, Leslie & Shih, Wan-Yu, 2018. "What might ‘just green enough’ urban development mean in the context of climate change adaptation? The case of urban greenspace planning in Taipei Metropolis, Taiwan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 224-238.
    12. Matina Kapsali, 2024. "‘Adopt your city’: Post-political geographies and politics of urban philanthropy during austerity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(12), pages 2290-2308, September.
    13. Alessandro Rigolon & Timothy Collins, 2023. "The green gentrification cycle," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 770-785, March.
    14. Danielle Zoe Rivera, 2021. "Design in Planning: Reintegration through Shifting Values," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 93-104.
    15. Athina Arampatzi, 2017. "The spatiality of counter-austerity politics in Athens, Greece: Emergent ‘urban solidarity spaces’," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(9), pages 2155-2171, July.
    16. Bo Wang & Shoukui He & Weiwen Ma, 2022. "Does Park Size Affect Green Gentrification? Insights from Chongqing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-14, August.
    17. Hamil Pearsall & Isabelle Anguelovski, 2016. "Contesting and Resisting Environmental Gentrification: Responses to New Paradoxes and Challenges for Urban Environmental Justice," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(3), pages 121-127, August.
    18. Davies, Clive & Lafortezza, Raffaele, 2017. "Urban green infrastructure in Europe: Is greenspace planning and policy compliant?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 93-101.
    19. Yoonku Kwon & Shinha Joo & Soyoung Han & Chan Park, 2017. "Mapping the Distribution Pattern of Gentrification near Urban Parks in the Case of Gyeongui Line Forest Park, Seoul, Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.
    20. Mahir Yazar & Dina Hestad & Diana Mangalagiu & Ali Kerem Saysel & Yuge Ma & Thomas F. Thornton, 2020. "From urban sustainability transformations to green gentrification: urban renewal in Gaziosmanpaşa, Istanbul," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 637-653, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:11:p:1899-:d:953573. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.