(Re)building remnants of volunteer cultures in a post-Olympic metropolis: Analyzing forces, structures, and opportunities in Greece’s civil society landscape

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecently, Greece has undergone substantive civil society and volunteer transformation. Although changes have been precipitated by various forces, including the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, the country’s third-sector organizations have been (re)generated through the creation of a productive urban commons. Notwithstanding a vibrant landscape of activity and opportunities, the environment continues to challenge sector entities. Utilizing interviews with 19 sector professionals, our research question focuses on examining current perceptions on the sector’s development, contemporary status and challenges, and future potential. Accordingly, the paper aims to 1) account for some of the political, socio-economic, and ideological shifts in the evolution and priorities of Greece’s Third sector; 2) explore industry experiences in the pursuit of individual and collective civil society agendas; and 3) establish some directions of, and challenges to, organizational continuity and change. Our findings suggest that collaborative efforts illustrate the sector’s progressive capacities, yet these are measured against enduring sustainability concerns.KEYWORDS: Greececivil society developmenturban commonsvolunteeringorganizational continuity Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Corporate misanthropy entails an entrenched economic and political desire by corporate or State entities to maintain prevailing hegemonies that protect establishment interests, principles, and goals above all else (e.g. stated altruistic, or humanitarian, commitments). The term also comprises the deliberate (mis)use and abuse of philanthropy (and its corollary, corporate social responsibility) to obfuscate, deflect, ameliorate the deleterious consequences of corporate undertakings (e.g. Fair, Citation2021; Lechterman, Citation2021; Maniates, Citation2019). Relatedly tied to civil society are, also, tangible alignments here with the various discourses around organizational “washing” (e.g. “greenwashing,” “sportswashing,” “genderwashing”), in which commercial, State, and philanthropic stakeholders engage in various acts to masque misanthropic behaviors and actions (see, for example, Boykoff (Citation2022), Fox-Kirk et al. (Citation2020), and Miller and Maxwell (Citation2017)).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Olympic Studies Centre-International Olympic Committee.