“the Influence of Institutional Framework on Local Community Schemes in the Period of Economic Crisis 2011-2013: The Example of the Municipality of Athens”

The aim of the paper is first to present the institutional framework concerning the role of participative action in Greece. The institutional foundation for cooperatives and unions is primarily set by Article 12 of the Greek Constitution, while specific laws provide the role of Social Cooperatives in Greece.  After a short analysis of the legal framework the paper will examine the main sectors of activities of NGO’s and other bodies (organizations) that belong to the civil society, especially those acting in Athens.

More specifically this paper examines the schemes of the municipality of Athens to promote specific policies and volunteerism in order to contribute to the solution of problems that vulnerable social groups, who live in the city of Athens in the period of economic crisis 2011-2013, face. An emphasis is given both to Law 4071/2012, which concerns the possibility of local authorities to set up social supermarkets, and the possibility of collaboration between local authorities and NGO’s. Structural impediments to such policy developments are also elaborated.

Overall, the present paper will attempt to answer the main critical questions of how the top-down and bottom-up models can co-exist in the implementation of public policies at a local level, and of how ways of cooperation concerning everyday problems can emerge from the economic crisis.