Public space during the Covid-19 pandemic: expanding policing/emerging politicization in Athens, Greece

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic governance was widely characterized by an interpretation of the virus as an invisible enemy which states were at war with. This interpretation was accompanied by the implementation of unprecedented lockdown policies. The combination of –at least– these two points contributed towards questions around the potential complementary purposes and impacts of this type of governance. Moving in this same direction, this article focuses on the public space in Athens, Greece in order to produce insights from a case study. This aims to highlight if, how, and at what point in the pandemic –in terms of its governance– did these policies serve as an opportunity or an excuse to reinforce the dominant socio-spatial order, thus, boosting its pre-pandemic efforts to control the public space and suppress the latter’s political role. In order to answer –at least to a certain extent– this research question, we carried out active participation and interviews as well as analyzing grassroots and mainstream media.