Economic Shock Therapy in the Eurozone: The Greek case

Lois Woestman writing in May 2012 examines how, over the past two years, Greece has been undergoing economic shock therapy not unlike that undertaken by many countries in the Global South/Arab world. She argues that in the Greek case the EC institutions have been even more austere than the IMF. The impacts are similar to those in other adjusting countries: widening class, gender, non-citizen/citizen gaps; growing poverty and hopelessness – as well as protest. Greeks have been relying on older survival strategies, but also new ‘alternative’ economic activities intertwined with new notions of citizenship. She suggests that Greece – Europe – stands before a choice between the continued mono-focus on austerity, which will bring down the Euro and Europe, or a return to more equally distributed, growth and social solidarity.