Athens

Book excerpt: This book looks at the current trends in Athens, the capital city of Greece, and focuses on the processes of globalization it has been undergoing during the last two decades. In this time the city has transformed from a low-key, petty bourgeois cohesive and rather isolated city in south-eastern Europe to an internationally visible metropolis, increasingly unequal and polarized. The book mainly deals with changes in the social structure and the ways that different groups are linked to the city’s built environment. The main issues discussed in the book include the economic identity and the position of Athens in the regional and global urban networks; the reproduction of class and ethnic boundaries and the uneven distribution of different social groups in urban space; the exploration of political processes related to the class vote, including the gender and demographic profile of the city’s electorate; the making of the built environment, the main trends in real estate and the ways they affect the housing market. Athens is not abundantly discussed in the urban studies literature, even though social and spatial changes have been remarkable. As such, this book provides a concise overview of the main socioeconomic and spatial changes in Athens during the last two decades and their significance beyond the case of Athens. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of the built environment, urban studies and urban sociology.