Ecologies of Care during Extreme Weather: Collective Actions and Bottom-up Mechanisms in Stagiates, Greece

This paper takes place in an ongoing PhD research in Political Science and Sociology focusing on water as a commons' practices and claims through an intersection between social movement studies and political ecology. The data that will be used derive from ethnographic fieldwork and document analysis in Stagiates, Greece, where there have been commoning processes related to water connected to social movements. What is more, in 2023, extreme weather conditions took place in the region of Thessaly in Greece. Stagiates community has a long and historical relationship with 'water as a commons' related practices and claims enacted through collective actions towards solidarity and innovative mechanisms to face the environmental and political crisis. Through a relational scope, this paper aims to trace the innovative mechanisms that were created to face extreme weather conditions and provide care to the areas and communities in need. Besides, through collective actions, the relations with the place and the local communities have been re-signified through the transferred water where was needed. Therefore, the argument of the paper is two-folded; first, it argues that climate change should not be considered as a disconnected phenomenon from the historical and social trajectories of the place and secondly, that the role of local communities is crucial for innovative mechanisms dealing with environmental and political uncertainties.