Investigating Aspects of Rural Poverty and Housing Precariousness. Life Paths and Resilience Narratives in a Greek Agricultural Area (Karditsa, Thessaly Region)

Rural living has been widely promoted in current debates as a socially adequate and sustainable solution to the multifaceted (urban) crisis, since rural areas are seen as a locus of resilience rooted in an idealized rurality emphasizing family, frugal life, and a sense of close-knit community creating a safety net in times of economic turmoil. In Greece, as in many other Southern European countries, family and the extended network of relatives and next of kin have long provided for their own needs in terms of an informal network of welfare support and solidarity that substituted the insufficiency or failures of the social state.

Statistical indicators of material deprivation may miss or mask latent aspects of rural poverty and housing precariousness. In Greece, shortage of affordable housing, high rates of young people staying in the parental home for long periods, insecure employment, and rising cost of living in addition to the absence of housing and family policies highlight significant inadequacies in ensuring decent social and housing conditions, which are now also aggravated for people living in rural areas.

Drawing evidence from field research in the rural area of Karditsa (Thessaly Region, Central Greece), our presentation aims to depict different forms and lived experience of poverty and housing precariousness as well as coping/adaptation strategies at both farming household and local community level. Using qualitative methods, a particular emphasis is placed on the life journeys of the subjects who participated in the research seeking to offer an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon and to provide policy proposals that could contribute to the discussion on how to meet the needs of the residents of these rural areas.