Description
Book SynopsisThis engagingly written and deeply ethnographic work examines the economic and political factors that led to the Greek debt crisis, including financial pressures from international lenders, unregulated spending by the Greek government, predatory bank loans, and rising unemployment.
Trade ReviewIn a masterful blend of ethnographic detail and challenging theory, Kozaitis charts the lasting impact of financial austerity on middle-class residents of the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Reaching beyond the stereotypes of the so-called 'Greek Crisis,' Kozaitis takes readers on a colorful and at times emotional tour of the local consequences of a global disaster. She reminds us that although Greece might now be out of the international media spotlight, the consequences of a decade of structural readjustment continue unabated in every aspect of everyday life. This book is a valuable contribution to ethnographies of austerity and crisis, studies of solidarity and resistance, and represents a key contribution to twenty-first century European ethnography. * Daniel M. Knight, University of St. Andrews *
Kozaitis explores the effects of enforced economic austerity on ordinary lives in a Greek city. Indebted is an eloquent testament to the residents' extraordinary resilience, self-awareness, and capacity for deep solidarity in the face of a cruel and unexpectedly rapid erosion in the quality of their lives. * Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University *
Indebted is ethnography at its finest. It takes us deep into the lives of people in Thessaloniki (Salonica) as they grapple with the shock of a broken economy and the fall from a comfortable, middle-class life, to previously unimaginable austerity. * H. Russell Bernard, University of Florida *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prologue: Global Drama, Greek Tragedy Chapter 1. Crisis of Debt and Dignity Chapter 2. The City and Its People Chapter 3. Assault without Warning Chapter 4. Days of Reckoning Chapter 5. Solidarity to the Rescue Chapter 6. The Leisurely in Spite of Themselves Chapter 7. Theory of Crisis as Liminality Epilogue: Resilience and Praxis Transliteration and Glossary Bibliography Index
